Was using a Manfrotto 486RC1 which was lightweight enough for travel but it was slipping especially during
moon shots. It was getting very frustrating trying to adjust the moon which was a constantly moving object.
As you know the moon orbits around the Earth and though it is about 400k km away, it moves at 1km/s thus a moving subject at a few angles per hour. So here we go, a search for a suitable replacement. There were many choices but I decided to go with Arca-Swiss style, because of another new toy purchase of the Capture Clip system by Peak Design.
I decided to go with something affordable and suited to my current camera gear. When I was in Hong Kong, Man Shing Camera shop folks let me try out many different ballheads from Gizmo to more expensive Manfrotto, but this Swiss made FOBA brand caught my eyes with the suitable price range and weight of the ball head.
Testing at home finally after a month, the FOBA Superball M-1 is an absolute delight. At 405g, it is lighter than my 486RC1 (460g) and the ball has awesome friction.
Here's it absolutely holding up my configuration of full Canon 7D with battery grip and 70-200mm F2.8L lens. This was easily at least 3kg worth of load. To test it, I did not bother to move the plate to the lens which I did previously with my Manfrotto set up. With Live View enabled and 10x zoom, I tried many different angles, and the model in frame is still with no vibrations or slipping detected.
My tripod is an Induro AT013 tripod which only handles about 6kg worth of load making this cheap magnesium alloy a delight for travel at only 1.1kg. So now my setup is about 1.5kg and suitable for my moon shots.
My earlier in the year shot - "tough" Lunar Eclipse capture with a slipping Manfrotto ball head.
