The best ball heads for tripods in 2024: simple, speedy setup with sturdy support

There are various types of tripod head to consider, including traditional 3-way heads, geared heads and more specialist items like the best gimbal heads, best panoramic heads and best pistol grip heads. For my money though (and probably yours too), there’s no beating a ball head for quick and easy setup, making it possible to get a vital shot before the moment has passed.

We often spend a lot of time thinking about the best tripods to buy, and rightly so, but ball heads often get forgotten about. A good ball head can make a huge difference when it comes to shooting, so it's worth investing in a good one, especially if your tripod kit came with a relatively humble ball head as part of a kit. So what makes a ball head stand out from the crowd? Particularly for travel tripods, you want something compact and lightweight, so it doesn't weigh you down. It's worth thinking about the size of your setup and how much weight the head needs to support; if you're using a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a long lens attached, the maximum payload capacity is a vital consideration. 

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Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.