Sirui KX-Series Aluminium Tripod Head incl. TY-Series Quick Release Plate - Black (K-30X)

Crafted to perfection The Sirui K-40X is an extremely well designed ball head. Suited for the professional and photo enthusiast alike. Aesthetically this ball head is beautiful, it is evident that simplicity rang supreme here. From end to end it is high end CNC coated giving it a nice professional matte-semi gloss finish. With reinforced rubberized grips, beveled groves at the mid-section, and base of the body providing the ultimate grip allowing for maximum tightening to your tripod. This BH has two main dial one function controlling the friction of the ball head, and the other the 360 degree panning rotation. I also admire the blue accent around the dial nob. Solidly built it feels hefty in the hand and with a 54mm ball head is it not shy to the more beefier cameras, averaging a height of 6.1in and weighting in at 1.2lbs this BH has the capacity to support a maximum load up 77.2lbs. It is primarily geared to medium to large format and DSLR's photographic cameras. Now I don't know of any camera on the consumer market weighting anything thing relatively close to 77lbs but just know this baby can support it.Let’s jump ahead to some of the features, now I would not particularly consider this a “feature” but I am really fond of the overall smoothness of this BH. Everything from the dialing nobs to the articulating rotation of the actual BH is buttery smooth. The large nob contains numerical adjustable friction and a quick locking mechanism screw locking in the dial. What is cool about this once you have adjusted the dial to your liking, you can lock in the tension preventing it from ever budging. The Sirui K-40X has a 125mm expandable Arca Swiss quick- release plate style platform suitable for a variety of quick-release plates. Included on the quick-release plate platform is two bubble levels vertical and horizontal this is perfect for optimal composition, and balancing. Also included on the plate is a red safety button preventing your base plate from sliding off, I find this feature to be very useful because I didn't have this on my last ball head. Although it has never happened I was always concerned about my camera accidentally sliding off hitting the floor, and that would just be tragic so I was in need of a feature such as this.My impression of the Siuri K-40X it is an absolute winner, this BH is the epitome of professional ingenuity. The overall build quality smoothness of this ball head excites my expectations in performance. As I mentioned in the introduction it is crafted to perfection and virtually indestructible. Aside from the awesome features it packs such as the quick locking pin, 125mm Arca Swiss style quick release plate, two bubble levels and the red safety button. Coming in at a fraction of the cost in comparison to its counter parts, I am sure you will find this ball head a bargain. It is well packaged coming with instruction, extra quarter inch small screw for the “QR” plate, an Allen key, labeled soft pouch, generally you will only see this in your higher end ball heads, and last but not lease a 6 year Warranty you heard that right!. Paired with my Gitzo G-2220 they offer the ideal support, balance and stability.

The Sirui K-40X exceeded my expectations for smoothness and ease of use. Its nicely machined, finished and functions extremely well. This was purchased specifically for use with a large DSLR and Tam. 150-600. The large ball head lock knob provides great control over friction and camera movement. The small screw on the side of the knob permits setting the amount of minimum friction to a predetermined level, this works great as you can go from full lock to nice fluid movement without losing the camera in a free fall. This takes about 1/4 turn of the knob, fast and very controllable as it should be.The horizontal pivot (pan) action is stiff, however with the mass of a large camera and lens it moves quite freely. I would not want it to pan more freely than it does. The pan lock thumb screw is basically go or no-go, it does not work well for an incremental friction adjustment. Initial tests using the Sirui K-40X ball head indicate the mass and stability provided can make a noticeable improvement (greater "keeper rate") in the apparent sharpness of my photos when using the telephoto at 600mm. I think it is probably overkill for many users with light weight cameras and short lenses and as some have noted the stiff panning action could definitely be a problem without the leverage of a large camera and lens. For a good comparative review of ball heads see DPR, search ball head tests.

This is my first ball head, and my first head investment so I may not be the most apt reviewer but here it is.So far I really like the head, it's very smooth and everything feels very precise, smooth, and well made. I have it attached to my Sirui T-2204X CF tripod, we will see how the equipment holds up but my initial impression is that it they are very well constructed.It has tons of levels, which I enjoy because I felt my previous tripod was lacking since I couldn't level portrait shots.The panorama control rotates very smoothly and the head easily supports my D5000 with a Sigma 70-300mm attached without feeling like I'm torquing the knobs.The knobs also feel very solid, I haven't experienced it yet but they seem as if they'd be very easy to use wet or when wearing gloves.I like that the quick shoe has the feet upfront to keep it straight on the camera base.So far my only complaint is my lack of experience with a ballhead, but that's not the fault of the K-10X and I will quickly adapt.***UPDATE 7/11/14***After over a year with the head I'm still very happy with it. I had a few qualms early on, but it looks like they due to my inexperience. I spent a lot of time fiddling with the improperly adjusted knobs. As I thought, the knobs are quite easy to adjust in wet conditions and while wearing gloves. Although now that I've figured out how to set the knobs, I don't touch them nearly as often.The head also easily supports my current, heavier, setup of a D7100 with Tamron 70-300 the heft and weight of the lens combined with no tripod mount on the lens itself.I have swapped out the QR for a PeakDesign plate (although I may change again) because I use a black rapid strap and was leery of hanging my heavier D7100 from the included D ring. This is not a fault with the ballhead though since very few are designed for this.*** Update 3/4/24 ***After over a decade, I still love this head. It still works as well as the day I got it, even after many hikes and trips, and bouncing around in the backseat of my truck off road.