Tripod head for Shooting AND Photography?

[VaRandy]

Not. sure I can solve both with the same head. Need pan and tilt range and fluid movement beyond some made for shooting but need strength to trust high dollar tactical mounts. I seem to only be able to find someone knowledgeable from the two different sides without knowledge of the other. The mount seems to be the nut to be solved and the tripod need not be high tec or light but just work with the head.

 

[K9TXS]

The tripod I use for hunting is the SLIK 700 Pro DX. Depending on what and where I'm hunting, weapon I'm using etc., depends on what mount I'm going to use for the tripod. I have four different types of supports I like to use. I have a Pig Saddle, 2 different bag rest and a home made Bog Rest that is no longer made. I got tired of having to unscrew the mount from the center stock of the tripod each time I wanted to change my rest and decided to have multiple center stocks. I cut the center piece in half and that gives me to different mounts. When I get to where I'm going, the rest I will use is placed on the tripod. If I want to it later to something else, it takes about 5 seconds to pull off the current one and replace it with the other.

If you make a living with the photography, I would buy the best head for the type of photograph/videos that you do. On another tripod center support, you could have your shooting rest.

Here are the different rest I like to use below.

 

[Maynard]

I recently picked this up due to the rated 110lb capacity. A DLOW 55 was atop my SLIK tripod and gave excellent service but this ball head seemed too good to be true:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B095JHQSQS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I've had it about 3 weeks and there was a bit of a learning period due to the subtle differences in the controls. Overall it holds up to the rated capacity and is an upgrade over the DLOW 55. It was cheaper by a fair amount than the DLOW.

 

[Delfuego]

I have run the RRS BH-55, BH-40 and a Manfrotto XPro. All worked, the BH-55 worked best by far, but it was heavy and expensive. It will really come down to your budget and how heavy your rifles and lenses are. There are a lot of knock-off/look-alike ballheads (Sunwayfoto/Leofoto/Etc), they may work great, but I haven't personally owned any of them.