A tripod head might not be the most exciting thing you can pick up during Amazon Prime’s Big Deal Days, but it might just be one of the most useful things you can pick up. Most photographers spend money on a decent tripod, but neglect to think about upgrading from a standard ballhead.
The Manfrotto X-Pro 3-Way Head has dropped to £72.99 at Amazon UK. Granted, it isn’t for everyone. It’s bulkier than a ballhed and it takes longer to orient the camera, but if you’re an architecture, landscape or macro photographer who requires pinpoint precision when framing your subjects, it might just change your life!
Compositional tweaks are exaggerated at high magnifications and if you’re a landscape photographer, you’ll want to retain as much image fidelity as possible, which means little to no cropping. I struggled with sub-par ballheads for years, perfectly setting up my compositions, only to find ballhead creep slowly ruining them.
Instead of a freely rotating ballhead, three-way heads allow you to isolate and alter three axes: pan, tilt and roll. This means you can be much more precise with your compositions. This Manfrotto example even features friction controls to help prevent creeping joints.
Check out our guides to the best film scanners and to the best slide viewers
