Manfrotto MH054M0-Q5 054 Magnesium Ball Head with Q5 Quick Release,Black

Great head, easy to use, holds camera extremely solidly, and is a certifiable tank. Within minutes of using it, it was so intuitive, I was not taking my eye out of the viewfinder to make adjustments. No so great for panning video, but this is not it's intended purpose, I suppose. (I am also not a videographer...)

I bought this Manfrotto MH054M0-Q5 054 Magnesium Ball Head with Q5 Quick Release while on a vacation because I was using my old tripod a lot and it wasn't cutting it. Did a lot of research and based on the reviews here and other places, I decided to go with this and the carbon fiber 055 legs.Love the legs and the ball head itself is top notch, but I'm very disappointed in the quick release which sometimes gets stuck so badly while sliding it on to the head I literally can't get it on. Other times it slides on easily. Oddly, once it's on I never have a problem sliding it off. I can see where some of the paint has worn off on the plate already (after less than a week) so I think it's just poorly machined and simply doesn't fit well. I've ordered a replacement so I'm giving them another chance, and I hope it works better. Since I was on vacation I didn't keep the boxes so I'm hoping it won't be complicated to return the legs (Manfrotto but a different seller than the head) if I end up returning the head.I'm updating this review because I figured out a work around. The way the quick release works is you slide the plate onto the head and it clicks when it's locked and the plate is trapped in the mechanism. At this point the plate can't be removed without pressing the release but it can still slide back and forth until you tighten down the knob. The problem is that when you loosen the knob enough to remove the camera/plate from the head and slide it off, the knob is still not loose enough to put it back on and needs to be loosened further. I don't know if this is by design or a flaw with my particular piece but it's easy enough to do now that I've figured it out and I'm updating my review from 2 stars to 4 stars and cancelling me return.

The Manfrotto MH05MQ-Q5 work perfect with my Nikon D300. I use for the first time and I see the big different on my photos, I use the telescope lens 150-500mm Sigma with Manfrotto 190CXPRO4-4 carbon fiber tripod and not shaking at all, pictures came perfectly.

Good ball head, but the initial quality was suspect. I have a lot of Manfrotto gear, so was disappointed when the base of the ball head cracked within a couple months of when I bought it. The company fixed it for me, but I was without my ball head for a couple months.I had to fly in another one so I could continue my photography while I waited for my main ball head to be repaired. These are not cheap ball heads. Quality shouldn't be an issue but it was for me. It is a good design and works well for what I do. It showed me it's a good idea to have a backup.

I'm going to be honest and say that this was one of the best purchases I've ever made. I'm very cheap. And normally I would opt for a $50 ballhead just because I figured they all functioned the same. However, I invested a lot of money into my dslr slider rig, and I wanted a ballhead that would support the Manfrotto 501 plate. I own the Manfrotto 701 video head, but that doesn't allow me to get creative with my dslr slider, such as doing vertical slides. So I ended up purchasing this ballhead, and I'm glad I did! It's worth every penny. This baby is built like a tank; very solid; and most importantly, it allows me to quickly move my dslr from my video tripod to the ballhead for run & gun situations, since they both use the Q5 Quick Release.

I have had this Magnesium Ball Head now for almost a year now and I've just gotten around to writing a review. I have not regretted this purchase for one moment. I first purchased a tripod that was really sturdy and heavy enough to withstand a wind and the weight of my camera but it would drop a few millimeters after tightening it to where I needed the shot to be. It wasn't a cheap tripod but wasn't expensive either. It was just under a $100. So, I searched around and compared tripod heads and decided on this one. It's perfect. It doesn't shift. Once you have the camera where you want it, you tighten the ball and it remains in the position that you need it to be in. I would certainly recommend this to anyone that uses a tripod and most definitely to those who do macro shots.

It's definitely very smooth and light, as well as reasonably priced. Be aware that the QR-5 system is not arca-swiss compatible, so if you already have arca-swiss compatible system components, you probably don't want this ballhead. What you might get instead is the MH054M0-Q6, which comes with an arca-compatible plate, though not all arca-swiss equipment is compatible with the Q6 clamp (see reviews of the Q6 system.)

Very good ball head! I have used this thing mounted to a three pound lens and then leaned it 90 degrees. This ball head held the weight with ease. I highly recommend this tripod head.