Manfrotto 322RC2 Joystick Head Review

In my review the the Slik Tripod I had mentioned looking at upgrading my tripod head to the Manfrotto 322RC2 and finally decided to go for it.

What convinced me to finally change heads?  One would have thought the many hours I had spent turning knobs making small adjustments to my Slik pan head would have done it.  But alas it all came down to my Black Rapid camera strap.

I realized I was coming up with excuses to not use my tripod simply because I didn’t want to unscrew the mounting system from the Black Rapid strap and switch it out with the mounting disc used by the pan head.  Inconvenience is the biggest reason people don’t do things, or at least don’t do them correctly.  That and the fact that the rubber grip on the bottom of my camera was being relocated every time I would use the pan head mount really put me off.

Now that I have this head I wish I would have switched to it a long time ago.  It is just unbelievable how much simpler it is to compose a shot.  The fluid movement of almost any direction has certainly sped up the process of composing shots.  Having to only squeeze the trigger in order to make an adjustment is wonderful.  It has eliminated that devilish voice in the back of my head saying, “Your composition is good, you can just crop that little thing out later”.

Obviously I would recommend the Manfrotto 322 to anyone, but if your a Black Rapid (review) user this is a great workflow companion for you.  As of this writing (5/5/2011) it is hovering right around the $100 price range.