The Upside-Down World of Platyball
Is it just another ball head or will it actually inspire me to use my tripod?
I have been intrigued by the Platyball since I first saw it during its Kickstarter campaign in early 2020. I admired how it looked and thought the concept of flipping the ball head upside down was a great idea. Not because I knew the engineering or physics behind it, or if it would be superior to current ball heads. I thought it was a great idea because I have never enjoyed using a ball head and was glad somebody had finally tried something different with one.
That, however, was not enough for me to buy one when it launched in late 2021. Then, a few months ago, it went on sale for what I thought was a great deal, and I had a project that was going to require me to use a tripod so I thought I would give it a try. Now that I have used it for a few months, I thought I would share my experiences with it.
Product Basics:
There are two versions of the Platyball, the Ergo and the Elite. The difference between the two is the Elite adds a rear-facing, electronic level and is red. Both are pictured below.
The rear-facing level solves the issue that most ball heads with bubble levels have — when you attach your camera to the ball head, the bubble level is…
