Vanguard Alta BH-100 Ball Head

I wanted a ball head to replace my trigger ball head because of its bulk and weight. I have not made this purchase lightly as much research and one prior purchase/return was involved to get to this ball head. I didn't want a knob but rather a locking lever to control the ball adjustment. The travel distance of the lever and the ability to adjust its starting point are important to ensure it's not a hassle to quickly make adjustments. The build quality is also extremely important to me but I didn't want to buy a $500 head as I believed there must be a better value out there. Before this ball head I purchased a Really Right Stuff BH-25 but it was too small and the lever would run into the plate adjustment screw in some positions. The next step up in the RRS heads was another $100 to $150 above what I already spent. I own a Vanguard AT263 tripod so decided I would look into their offerings and found this head. I guess I just hadn't seen it before and was pleasantly surprised by the build quality, ease of adjustment, the rather short lever travel distance, the ability to change the starting position of the lever, the ability to control panning separately and the fine adjustment the ball tension control provides. It weighs about a pound but will hold up to 27 pounds or something ridiculous like that! When I tighten the lever, about 90 degrees of travel, the ball is VERY secure, I couldn't move it. The clamp is ARCA Swiss and works with my existing plate but the head does come with a good plate with a flip down adjustment tab for easy tightening. Time will tell but this head is the same high quality and great value as my tripod so I don't expect any issues.

Just received this ball head and I was really surprised. I am replacing a Bogen 3047 head that weighs a ton and is a PIA to use. The Vanguard is also a beast, much larger and heavier than I realized but a heck of a lot lighter than the 3047. I attached it to a Bogen Manfrotto 3030a tripod I bought in 1985, took out the adapter from the bottom of the Vanguard, and attached it to the 3/8 screw on the Bogen. It fit like a glove! The Bogen tripod really likes this unit. I attached my Pentax K30 to the head and it fit as solid as a rock. Now for the real test. I tried out the movements on the new Vanguard head. Smooth as butter on an Arizona summer afternoon! I made a few minor adjustments, tightened everything up, and it was rock solid. No movement, no slop, just does its job and does it well with surprising ease. This ball head should last long enough to pass on to my son. I then attached the head to my cheap Targus monopod. Attached easily, but this monopod is not suited to this head. I'll need a better monopod. Wish I had bought this ball head sooner. You may prefer the Vanguard 250 which is smaller and lighter, but either way, you cannot go wrong with either this one, the 300 or the 250. Highly recommended. Amazon has the best price and with Prime, you will get free shipping. Do it.

For its size, it seems to hold very well. I use with a pretty heavy camera and lens and had no issue. That said, I wouldn't use this with a large telephoto lens. Gimbal heads work better for telephoto lenses than ball heads. I also like the lever which is easier to use than a knob. For the price, this ball head rocks!

metter than my 20 year old manfrotton head as this head's ball is oil/grease-free, which i imagine all recent heads are.. locks better than my old head and i love the friction control and the tension knob takes only 1/4 turn to lock compared to multiple turns on my manfrotto. never a fan of the swiss arca platforms as they are so much slower than the manfrotton quick releases, but ill have to live with that. i purchased the larger BH 300. it looks different than what is shown on the amazon site: has no knurled surface, the index marking around the bas are not bright yellow. although it sags a tad when locked its not a big deal; thats what 3-way heads are for. will look for a chance to convert the platform to a manfrotto type. feels heavy and solid though the paint finish is very week and scratches easily. do like the adjustable lock know in a few position options for setting lock.

The Vanguard Alta BH-300 ball head arrived today and I couldn’t be more pleased. Construction is top notch, all controls function perfectly, connected to my Slik tripod with no issues, rubber grip on all 4 control knobs and the ball has a nice smooth feel in rotation. When everything is locked down, you can throw the tripod over your shoulder with no fear of the camera moving or falling off. This thing is SOLID with my heaviest camera setup. See photos. I did a ton of research before purchasing and you will not find a better ball head at this price point. 5 stars all around.

Very nice. I replaced the head on another Vanguard tripod. Took less than ten minutes. This head is very smooth and adjustable. Easy to use.

Ok, so my memory of Vanguard was the discount tripods at the department or electronic stores that you pretty much bought out of necessity rather than longevity. I'm saying this to excuse me not giving them a chance for the past 15 years. This ball head is the best i've bought in years. It is better than my Manfrotto and host of others. The machining on this thing is impeccable. It is robust, but not too heavy. Oh man, the lock and friction on this thing is light years ahead of anything I've tested. Plus I love the rubber grips on the knobs. They don't feel cheap at all. In fact the only cheapish part of this is the bubble, but I'm really just being bias on preference on that. In all seriousness I am now putting Vanguard on my short list over this for reliability, durablity, and flawless usability. Whoever designed this must be a photographer as it feels like an extension of the camera. Blown away Vangaurd, great job!

The head that came with my Professional Camera Tripod,LESHP Portable Aluminum Folding Premium Camera Traveler Tripod with 360 Degree Ball Head and Carrying Bag for SLR Cameras Canon Nikon Sony Sanmsung Olumpus wasn't cutting the mustard, so after looking around a bit and seeing the reviews and price on this, I decided to give it a shot. The result is that now my tripod will hold my camera in position even with my 70-300mm lens fully extended, without having to crank and crank the ball joint lock -- and still possibly drift downward. I'm very satisfied by how it operates, the look and feel, and so forth. My only minor complaint is that one of the rubber pads on the plate you attach to the camera had fallen off, which was likely exacerbated by Amazon packing this in a box a fair bit larger than the product's box, and some of those big bags of air they use for padding had burst, thus I suspect things rattled around during shipment. Anyway, few drops of glue and all was well, so I'm not going to take a star off just for that.

After shopping around I decided to buy the Vanguard Alta BH-250 Ball Head for my manfrotto, so eager to use this as I really did not want to spend too much and I was eager to try out my tripod. I really do not like the adjustment knobs, once you tighten then they are hard to release

I use a Vanguard 283CT tripod. When I purchased the tripod it came with a SBH-100 ball head which was actually quite good for my needs. I didn’t have terribly heavy gear in the way of cameras and lens. I had a Nikon D7000 and my heaviest lens was a Nikon 70-300 which isn’t too heavy in itself so this tripod and ball head worked. It is a light weight ball head though. I got a Nikon D500 camera 2 years and recently I got a Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 and Tamron 150-600 f/5-6.3 VC USD G2 lens. Both of these lenses are a very really step up in weight plus the 150-600 is really quite long so I felt I needed to move up a bit for a ball head. My research led me to the BH-250 which still seamed not too large or heavy but supports 44 lbs so would easily handle my new gear. Now that I have it and tried it that I have found the tripod & ball head combo to be extremely good. It pans smoothly plus the friction control gives me more adjustment then I had on my previous ball head. The action or movement on the ball is smooth but still firm enough for support. There is no sag when my hands leave the camera and lens. I really like that the mount is Arca Swiss as both new lenses have Arca Swiss tripod collars plus most new equipment for tripod use seems to follow this mount. Overall I have no regrets buying this ball head. There are newer and likely fancier or better ball heads out there however you spend considerably more also. I do photography as a hobby so money counts big time. This does what I needed and complemented my Vanguard 283CT tripod. I have found that Vanguard produces really good tripods, monopods and tripod heads. Most would be medium range products however for photographers who are hobbyists this is likely in the market we shop in. I would highly recommend this ball head.

Previous heads all wore out because of use with 4-5lb/s. gear. I got a larger one for my Gitzo nature tripod and the 15Kg head is a dream at the same price as the smaller one Go bigger or go home.

found it to be a little tight when panning. I have the BH 100 that isn't as hard to move while panning, maybe wll loosen with use. Other than that I really do like it. More suited for heavier lenses. I highly recommend it.

This would have been a perfect head replacement for my other Vanguard head. Unfortunately the knob on the bottom left in the pic was not operable and locked in position. Pretty unusual to make a fine tune adjustment for the ball friction and have it not work at all. Its absolutely frozen in position and no way to free it.