Tetsuo Kikuchi | Markins Ball Head

In March, when there was still plenty of snow, I dug a snow cave on the distant view ridge of Mt. Goryu and shot the scene of Mt. Kashima-Yari, famous as a beautiful peak in the Northern Alps, dyed in the morning glow. This time, I also tested the new Markins head, and used the simplest combination of the Q3i-RD ball head and the PN-Z7 camera plate for the Z7. I shot snowy mountains with this combination for a while, but when I shot at Mt. Hakuba, the queen of the Northern Alps, in the latter half of Golden Week in May, I also introduced the LN-Z7 subplate and the LN-FZ L-plate to check the convenience of vertical shooting and compatibility with the FTZ mount adapter.

The reason for this is that the plate attached to the FTZ mount adapter that I had been using up until now would interfere with the camera body when attaching or detaching it, meaning that I couldn't remove the FTZ without removing the plate every time. Naturally, this meant that changing lenses took a lot of time.

However, when I tested it this time with several practical combinations, I found that my concerns were not applicable at all, as it was designed specifically for the Z. It also felt extremely stable.

Originally, since I was young, I used a Pentax 67 medium-format film camera as my main camera, so I didn't really care about the weight of my photography equipment, since the camera body and lens were large and heavy, but recently, as I've gotten older, my ability to carry has decreased, and I've been forced to lighten the load I carry.

Especially in the winter mountains, where mountain huts cannot be used, I have a lot of mountaineering equipment, such as cold weather gear such as down jackets and pants, tents, sleeping bags, fuel, and food, in addition to my photography equipment, and it was a headache every time. In such a situation, sometimes, depending on the weather, I would not bring a tent or sleeping bag because I would be shooting all night anyway, and instead dug a snow cave with a shovel to lighten the load, but there was a limit to that when dealing with harsh nature, and I was finally forced to start using my photography equipment.

At the end of last year, I introduced Nikon's latest mirrorless camera, the Z6 & 7, which has made it much lighter than the previous combination of D850 + D4S. In line with this, I also changed the lens from 24-70mm / F2.8 to 24-70mm / F4 for the Z, which contributed to further weight reduction. The next thing I started on was the tripod, and since the material was already carbon, the Markins ball head was the one I chose.

Until then, 3-way type was the basic except for special astronomical photography, so the small and lightweight Markins was very attractive. At the same time, I was a little worried about whether it would stay firmly in place at this size. However, when I actually used it, those worries were wiped away, and the mobility that allows you to freely adjust the angle, the high portability, and above all, the lightness were more than I expected.

I think it will contribute to mountain photography, where you want to reduce weight even a little in the future.