Monte. Thanks for your recent comments and questions. Both have been greatly appreciated. The Mongoose M3.6 is a great head for super-telephoto lenses. I used one for more than a decade and we sell a few each year. It is far lighter than the old standards, the Wimberley V1 and V2 heads.

With any system, folks should not be walking around with a big lens clamped on any tripod head. All of the manufacturers specifically deny liability should a clamp fail. In addition, it is much better for your shoulder to carry the lens in one hand and the tripod in the other when walking any appreciable distance.

And now to get to your question -:). The Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro is a ballhead that acts like a gimbal. Once you level the black ball, you can point the lens in any direction and stays square to the world. The silver ball featured a counter-balanced spring mechanism that enables you to point the lens anywhere and have the lens sit like a dog. The levered-clamp enables you to mount the lens in two seconds without fiddling and removing it in one second if a good bird flies by overhead. Last is the bi-directional clamp the enables you to mount the camera with a short lens attached in addition to all telephoto lenses and telephoto zooms.

with love, artie

ps: click on the link and watch the video as I probably left a few good things out 🙂