Help On Ballheads

Hi All
I am in the process of purchasing a new ball head.

I’ve narrowed it down to either Acratech GV2 or a Kirk BH-3.

My set up is Canon EOS Mark II with canon 70-200mm IS F2.8 or 24-70mm 2.8.

If you own or have owned one of these ball heads could you give
both the positive and negative feedback of each and which one might
be best suited for my camera setup.
I do a lot of shooting straight down. Do they lock down tight and what about lens creep.
I will post on other NPN forums as well.
Thanks
Joe

Check out the new Acratech GP model. It has some added features over the GV2.

Have you seen the Photo Clam ( http://reallybigcameras.com/)?
I'm considering one.

I bought a BH-3 for the same set-up, only my long zoom is non-IS. The ballhead is all I could ever want - been working great for me, even on a fairly lightweight Gitzo model I bought a few months back...

I have the Kirk BH-3 and love it. There can be a bit of creep when I shoot macro, and one issue to be aware of is that sand can get in the clamp (especially at the beach) and when you think the clamp is tight, it might not be. Make sure your camera is locked tight when you're at the beach, because once that grain of sand falls, so does your camera. Those are the only two issues I have, and I use a Canon 5D. I also purchased the Kirk King Cobra for wildlife shooting and that is superb.

David M. Cobb

After a lot of research, I just purchased the GV2 and am waiting for it to arrive. While I can't give hands-on advice yet, the open design of the GV2 makes a lot of sense for the types of conditions I photograph in and it is lightweight compared to the others I considered (RRS models in particular). The increased range of motion for the GV2 was also a major selling point for me. My biggest lens will probably never be bigger than the Canon 70-200 (currently on a Canon 5D II), so the GV2 seems like the almost perfect solution for me.

Have you considered Really Right Stuff products. Probable as good as you can buy.
JG