Camera Panoramic Panning Base with Arca Swiss Style Plate, 3/8" Screw Aluminum Alloy Panorama Ball Tripod Head with Bubble Level for Tripod Monopod DSLR Cameras, Load Capacity 22 LBS

I was very surprised at how well made this pan head is, given the low price. It is smooth and solid, and very precise. At the price it can't be beat. I was looking for something for occasional, light use, but this thing is much better than than. Very robust.

I am using this panning base to secure the failing pano locks on cheaply and poorly manufactured tripod gimbals. After spending hundreds of dollars on different model gimbals, they all wear down on their pano locks which makes the entire frame of focus shift vertically when locking down.This panning base helps me avoid the vertical up and down movement while still allowing me to reuse my garbage tripod gimbals. There are reasons why Wimberley's cost the money that they are. This base is neither lightweight nor accurate but fills a specific roll in allowing me to reuse trash gimbals.While the pano gears are not exactly per 1 degree, they are close enough for me to use as a bandaid for my failed tripod gimbals instead of throwing them away (the gimbals).

Intended Use: Recording high school sports with a full sized iPadI believe I purchased the wrong head, but with the light weight of an iPad, this head did not rotate. We had it mounted and loosened, but we had to physically grab the iPad to turn it as it was still very tight. It would unscrew from the tripod instead of turning. As a result our video was very shaky. If I was using heavier equipment (i.e. video camera), it might have worked. Seems really tight though, even with the adjustment all the way out.Solution: purchased a GM24 Fluid Head from Neewer which rotates very smoothly.

I use this on my Seestar S50 telescope. It makes it easy to make compass calibration without losing the level.

It works well in a temperature not lower than 30F. Anytime when you try to use it in a cold environment, this piece of hardware becomes nearly unusable.I’d tried to use it around 20F and it was tough to rotate…Once I took it to the room and let it equalize with the room temperature, the issue goes away.

Ball heads are great for leveling the camera, but not so good for rotating on the level. This rotator takes the rotation function off the ball head. Unfortunately the rotation is a little tight, and there's no handles to help. But there's nothing else on the market that does the same thing.On a pan-tilt head this should be perfect.

The level bubble on my tripod leaked all the juice out of it and this thing filled the bill nicely.

It does the job. Not well but it works. If you need a precision base, this isn't the one for you. If you need one that won't wiggle, this is not the one for you. This isn't the device for mission-critical work, but if you need something that gets the basic job done, inexpensively, then this might be worth considering.