Where Art & Engineering Collide

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) Review

Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Terry Reinert in Hardware, Photography, Reviews

This review has been a long time in the making and I am excited to finally getting it online. It hasn’t really been a secret that I’ve been testing some of FOBA’s newest tripod heads. This is especially true for those that have been on a photo walk with me or ran into me at Photoshop World while I was shooting. It’s just that I’ve been working on this review for almost two months now! Before you start calling me a slacker allow me to explain why I spent such a long time testing out this one tripod head… The reason is because a tripod head, like the tripod itself, has a LOT of money sitting on top of it at any given moment. But unlike the tripod it doesn’t have three legs, a wide base of support, and it gets adjusted constantly… for almost every shot you take! Frankly, spending a few hours with a tripod head or any piece of gear that plays such a critical role in keeping your camera from hitting the deck and then writing a review on it is a joke. With that in mind, I used the FOBA Mini-Superball exclusively for almost two months and even traveled to Nevada and Massachusetts to test it out in different climates! Ok, so I didn’t take those trips specifically for this review but I did use the tripod head while I was in those places as well as Florida. Needless to say, I’ve used it enough that I feel comfortable reviewing it for the masses.

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) showing the quick release mount, friction adjust screw, rotation adjust screw, and tilt locking lever.

FOBA is a Swiss company that makes all sorts of professional camera gear. They manufacture tripod heads, railing systems, shooting tables, backgrounds, and other little products. For the design of their tripod heads they went with a modular concept that I think is pretty cool (even though it makes their product model numbers a little confusing). What “modular concept” means is that you can order a tripod head in many different configurations so that you can select the type of mounting plate, body, and base that you want. The one that appears in these pictures is the BALLA which has the BALSO quick-release mount at the top which fits the BALPA mounting plate and the BALTO panorama rotating plate at the base. If you want to get it without the quick release mount you’d order the BALLO and without that and the panorama base you’d order the BALLI. See what I mean about the model numbers being confusing? The nice thing about all this is that their product lines are versatile and you can get exactly what you’re going to use without any added bulk that you don’t want.

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) showing the panorama rotating base with degree hashmarks, friction adjustment screw, and locking lever.

The first thing that I thought to myself when I took the Mini-Superball out of the box for the first time was that it is constructed with heavy duty materials and that it could take a beating. My guess is that most, if not all, of the components are machined and not molded (which produces a higher quality and more durable product). It weighs about 3 lbs, is 130mm tall, and 76mm in diameter with a load capacity rating of 33 lbs. Throughout my tests I used a Canon 5D with various Canon lens to include the 24-105mm L lens and 100-400mm L lens. If you are familiar with Canon lens then you know the 100-400mm L is a monster. The Mini-Superball handled it without a problem. The large horizontal lever in the photos is the locking lever that holds the ball in whatever position you set it to. With the 100-400mm lens on the camera and the tripod head set to a weird angle for an extended period of time (i.e. a few hours), there was no slippage or drift in the ball. The screw / knob that is on the middle left side of the image above is the friction adjustment screw. When I put the 100-400mm lens on the camera I used this screw to increase the friction of the ball slightly so that the weight added by the larger lens was easier to manage. I didn’t mind the ball being a little loose when I had the smaller 24-105mm lens on the camera but with the larger lens I wanted a lot more support for the weight of it when making adjustments to its orientation.

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) in portrait orientation.

If you want to switch between landscape and portrait orientation, the Mini-Superball has a cut out on one side that you can rotate the ball around to so you can shoot in portrait without having to take the camera off the tripod head to adjust anything. The photo above shows how this is done. It also gives you a better look at the degree hash marks along the panorama base of the tripod head. Personally, I never paid attention to the hash marks even when I was shooting multiple images for a panorama. But then I also don’t claim to shoot panorama’s properly. However, if you need them, they are marked in 5 degree steps from 0 to 360.

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) quick release mount and tightening screw.

There are a few things that I found to be a little annoying about the Mini-Superball and near the end of my testing I found something that could cause some severe problems if gone unnoticed.

The first thing I found annoying is the quick release mount. In order to secure the camera you press on the red clip to lower it, slide the camera into the mount, let go of the red clip, and then tighten the side screw to close it onto the mounting plate. Compare to other quick release mounts that you just clamp on and off, this one is not quick.

The second annoying thing is the large locking lever on the Mini-Superball. What I find annoying about it is how large it is and that its rotation plane is vertical. Why is that annoying? Even though it is a little embarrassing I’ll tell you… it caused me to punch myself in the jaw. I was out shooting in Boston with my friend Hali and got in a hurry to adjust the tripod head to get a shot. With my eye still in the camera I reached down and in the process of cracking it free the vertical rotation brought my knuckles right up into my jaw which resulted in a very loud crack as my teeth slammed together. So loud in fact that Hali, a dentist of all people to bust your teeth in front of, stopped shooting and stared at me in disbelief. Yes, I was in a hurry so it isn’t really the tripod heads fault but the slim line horizontal locking lever on FOBA’s Superball M-2 is much more user friendly!!

The third thing that is annoying is that there is no way to have the mounting plate and my custom R-Strap connected to the camera at the same time. I know that a lot of other tripod head mounts have the same issue so I don’t hold this against the Mini-Superball. But seeing as how other companies are already coming out with solutions to this problem I think it should definitely be addressed in the next mounting plate design they do.

As for the issue that could cause severe problems if gone unnoticed… While Hali and I were walking around Boston she got me into the bad habit of leaving the camera attached to the tripod and carrying the tripod instead of the camera. I started to notice a little shake in the camera and upon closer inspection found that the screws for the quick release mount (you can see them clearly in the above image) were coming loose. And seeing as how I flew to Boston I had to take my screwdriver out of my camera bag so we tried hard to re-purpose a dime into a screwdriver to tighten them. I also noticed that the two screws holding the stop plate on the front of the quick mount (see photo below) and the screw holding the locking lever on were all loose too. As long as you check your gear prior to using it then you’ll catch this sort of thing and won’t risk dumping your camera but I would still recommend putting some Loctite or replacing the screws with the kind that are designed not to come loose easily. I am currently testing the Superball M-2 tripod head that has a similar quick mount plate so I purposefully didn’t touch the screws to see if they work loose over time like the ones on the Mini-Superball did.

FOBA Mini-Superball (BALLA) showing the front of the quick release mount.

Overall I am impressed with the FOBA Mini-Superball. It is built out of quality components, feels solid as a rock, is very versatile, and hasn’t caused me any problems when adjusting the orientation of the camera to get a different angle / composition. With my old tripod I was always struggling with it to get my camera aligned just right to get the composition that I wanted. With the Mini-Superball all of that went away. The only concern I have about this tripod head is the screws coming loose. Besides that, its good to go in my book and I don’t think you could go wrong getting one if you’re in the market for a tripod head.

FOBA’s Website: http://www.foba.ch/eng/kopf/kopf.htm

FOBA’s Tripod Head Brochure: http://www.foba.ch/pdf/FOBA_Stativkoepfe_e.pdf

BROM Imaging (US Retailer) Website: http://www.bronimaging.com/foba.php

Oh, and if you didn’t see the little hint above, I am playing with the FOBA Superball M-2, the Superball M-1, and a few other FOBA accessories right now… so you should be seeing a review on those items here soon too.

Related posts:

1. Custom Camera Strap Setup
2. My Boston Trip
3. The Hot Shoe Diaries Review
4. STS-130 Desktop Wallpaper / Canvas
5. HDR Expose Review

Tags: FOBA, Tripod Head