AKI GOTO | Markins Ball Head

I have been using a tripod with a 3-way head since I was a student. I have no particular complaints about the practical aspects of deciding the composition and preventing blurring, and have been using it for many years as if it were a part of my body. On the other hand, when it comes to general ball heads, I have the impression that with heavy lenses such as telephoto lenses, they move a little even after tightening the knob, causing the composition to shift, so I could not find any reason to actively use them.

It must have been around the summer of 2017. An article written by a professional photographer friend of mine praising the Markins ball head started appearing on my Facebook timeline. Although I had thought that the equipment I was used to using up until now would be sufficient, I found myself thinking, ``I'm curious,'' and starting to have expectations for the ball head.

The professional photographers who wrote the article are landscape photographer Toshiki Nakanishi and railway photographer Hirokazu Nagane, who write reviews on the Markins website. I have a personal relationship with both of them, so I sent them a message with some slightly nasty questions that only a friend could ask.

"Are you sure it's Markins?"

A few minutes later, I received a series of serious messages from the two people who usually write jokes to each other. These were serious messages on a thread that no one would ever see, and in them, the reasons why "Markins is really good!" were written in Eloquent (Jozetsu). My decision was made because of the trust I felt in the two of them.

Soon after, the items that arrived at my house were a Q10i-BK medium format ball head, a set of plates (PC-542 + LC-542) for my favorite camera, the CANON 5D MARK IV, and my usual telephoto zoom lens, the EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II USM. It's a PC-14 lens plate that attaches to the USM tripod mount. Its shape is compatible with the 5D MARK IV, which has a cable release attachment point on the front of the camera, and the moment I put it on, I felt a sense of reliability and precision in my hands.

My landscape photography has a certain bird's-eye view of Japanese landscapes, as if I were looking at them from the outside world, having traveled around the world as a student. The landscapes that shine before my eyes are scenes that were born from the flow of a vast amount of time on Earth, and I have a deep respect for that time. And when I take pictures, the most important thing to be conscious of is the flow of time. Of course, when taking pictures, there are many things to pay attention to, such as light and shape, but among them, time takes the highest priority. I think it is easy to see that the expression of the same landscape is very different when photographed at 1/125 seconds and when photographed at 60 seconds. When depicting time with a slow shutter, the tripod and head play a very important role in the expression, as well as the camera and lens.

Whenever I get new equipment, I always go to Jogashima in Miura to test it out. I decided on the subject I wanted to aim at, set the camera on the quick shoe, panned it, and tightened the main knob. Then, the ball head stopped quietly and perfectly. It was definitely faster to operate than the 3-way, and my inner voice said (Wow, that feels good!) There was a comfortable and intuitive flow when taking a photo, as if the subject was quickly in focus and the shutter was released immediately. The only thing I thought was dangerous if I wasn't used to it was the operation of the quick shoe knob. There were several times when I thought I was loosening the main knob, but accidentally loosened the quick shoe knob and almost dropped the camera. Now that I'm used to the operation, it's not a problem, but until then, I may need to be careful.

And this time, I got a dedicated plate set for the 5D MARK IV along with the ball head. At first, I was concerned that leaving it attached to the camera would impair the sense of grip, but this didn't bother me at all as I used it. On the contrary, it protects the camera body, so I left it as it is. The advantage of the dedicated plate set is that the optical axis does not change and the horizontal and vertical directions are maintained even when changing from horizontal to vertical position in the same shooting scene. It speeds up shooting without the trouble of correcting the horizontal and angle. It makes it harder to miss the scene you want to capture by quickly responding to the changes in the natural scenery that change from moment to moment. This sense of speed and the peace of mind that comes with less blurring when shooting in vertical position are big advantages for me. There is a tripod screw hole on the back of the plate, so I would like to point out that the plate can be used as it is even if you use multiple tripods or, in some cases, if you use the 3-way head and quick shoe that you have been using until now. I liked the Markins so much that I purchased the VR-holder VR15J-LS. I often use the EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, so I was hoping for more focus accuracy and stability than ever before with the 400mm focal length, which is prone to shaking.

In a forest brimming with fresh greenery, I removed the VR-Holder's quick shoe with a T-shaped hexagonal wrench and changed the angle by 90 degrees (Fig. 1). The long rail supported the ball at two points, providing excellent stability, and even when I enlarged the image to its maximum on the camera's LCD monitor, the details and fine lines of the subject were clearly depicted. It was a blessing to be able to concentrate on shooting without having to worry about blurring caused by slight breezes and vibrations, something I had been concerned about until now. The photographs are intended to be shown in solo exhibitions and photo books, so even the slightest blurring can be fatal when printing large images. This is why a lack of blurring and a high level of focus precision are essential to creating works. The Markins ball head is not only a great tool, but for me it has already become a creative partner in that it improves the quality and precision of my expression. I plan to continue using it with the expectation that I can take even better photographs.