I wrote a post a couple of months ago about some problems that I was having with my tripod, specifically that the ballhead was drifting during long exposures. I parked the idea of trying to add a proper head to the existing legs after messing around unsuccessfully with various random bolts and attachments, and accepted the fact that I’d have to put up with it.

That was until a couple of weeks ago when we had a day trip to Ely. I was taking some pictures inside the cathedral with my 24-105mm lens and had to scrap every shot. It’s just to heavy for the integrated plastic ballhead, and the drifting problem returned in force. I also over-tightened the clamp out of pure frustration, and damaged the thread. I decided to take the plunge and ordered up a Manfrotto 486RC2 ballhead from Amazon. I’ve figured out a much simpler way of lashing it to the legs, as per the photo. One slight problem is that the only bolts that I’ve been able to find for sale are metric, whereas the head has an imperial-measure diameter. I’ve used some PTFE tape to bring the M8 bolt that I’ve used up a fraction, which is a pretty solid but non-permanent solution. In the meantime I’ve tracked down a contact back home [Ireland] who should be able to get me what I need.

Manfrotto head and National Geographic legs