I bought this ball head because I was looking for a cheap, serviceable unit that could easily hold a DSLR with a moderate lens. I was a little hesitant since this unit had no reviews/ratings - but did have a five-dollar off coupon which I took advantage of. So far, I'm pretty impressed: fit and finish are excellent. The body itself is a single powder-coated aluminum casting with a clamp-style friction lock which includes a drag setting adjustable via hex key, although the included key doesn't fit this screw. The 1.5"/38mm ball itself appears to be anodized aluminum (is non-conductive and non-magnetic) and rolls smoothly and evenly in what looks like a Delrin shell. Lock up is even and firm without cranking on the lock knob and release is smooth and doesn't stick at all. The pan axis ring is nicely machined with laser-etched hash marks in one degree increments and has buttery smooth rotation with nice damping and firm lock-up, but drag is non-adjustable. The knobs have a nice knurled finish and operate with smooth, fluid motion. The Arca-Swiss style QR base is firmly attached to the ball, but I didn't try too hard to get it loose. It may or may not be a challenge to swap for those of you that prefer the Manfrotto rc2 style QR. It comes with two semi-proprietary plates that seem to mostly adhere to the standard 38mm Arca-Swiss plates, but with some minor differences: the safety interlock studs on the bottom are all part of the single, solid casting; there are no removable screws. The plate is slotted and uses a nice 1/4-20 screw that can be tightened by finger loop, coin, screwdriver or the included hex key. I actually prefer the slotted plates because you can usually offset them enough to clear your battery door. The plates are aluminum and cast as one solid piece. The casting pattern/molds for both the head and plates are nice and fresh and the castings themselves are almost flawless. Plates lock up solidly to the base and pins work as designed to keep your rig out of the dirt. The unit comes with two QR plates with screws, a hex key, and a thread reducer insert to adapt from 3/8-16 to 1/4-20 for smaller tripods. It even comes with a nice little tool to attach the insert. Minor issues: the listing states there are horizontal and vertical bubble levels, but there is only the horizontal. Since these are pretty useless anyway, it's barely worth mentioning. The listing is also a little confusing with regard to loading: the main description claims a 35lb/16kg max load which is ridiculously heavy, but further down is claims 17.6lb, 8kg which I would consider more accurate considering the size of this unit. Overall, I would recommend this unit as a quality, budget-friendly ball head and expect to get many years of service from it. I even love the green color. Normally, I'd use something like this for a while before recommending it, but this thing is well put together and I don't see many ways it could fail short of straight up breaking. I may even get another to replace an aging unit from an overhead rig that gets abused almost daily.

I took a risk on an unknown brand, and it paid off! This is a super sturdy ball head mount. It holds my full frame camera with no issue. It's also strong enough to use with a rifle for a hunting tripod.I'm impressed by the quality of the material. The ball head rotates smoothly and the powder coating is thick. I like that it comes with two mounting plates. The mounting plates can be tightened by hand, with a Flathead, or with a hex key. I found tightening it by hand wasn't enough to keep it solidly mounted to my camera. But, I've had no issues with it coming loose after tightening with the included hex key.If you have a tripod head that's in need of replacing, this is a quality ball head that won't break the bank.

perfect finish and functionality. holds very solid unlike ones that use a set screw to tighten. well worth the extra cost.

Much better than expected. Very nicely made and worth twice what I paid ($20). Comes with two mounts. The azimuth motion is smooth, the ball joint is smooth and clamps securely. The load in pics is 8.5 lbs. One review mentioned the ball is hollow - this is true - presumably to reduce weight/cost but does not appear to affect function. Liked it so much I bought two.

So the weight that the listing says this can hold up to is not accurate. I purchased this item twice for two different tripods so I can mount rifles on to for ease of shooting when in a blind or long distance shooting. Based on where the arca Swiss plate is mounted on the handguard of the rifle will determine if this can handle the weight (balance of it). For a spotting scope it works well and I’m sure for a lighter camera it will work as well however with a heavy lens attachment I don’t think it will. Other than that it’s is built pretty decently also the price point was worth it.

I have a Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera with a EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 is II lens for taking close-up shots. That means the camera is very front-heavy because of the relatively longer lens. The standard baseplate doesn't tighten enough to keep the camera from flopping over forwards. Clearly, I needed something more substantial. After doing a lot of research, I decided on this, the Avella V1 DSLR Camera Tripod Ball Head. The entire assembly is steel, so it helps to balance the camera's weight. The thumbscrews can be tightened down so that the camera remains in position despite its awkward center of mass. I like the ball design. The markings around the ball let you record the angle at which you were photographing. A small bubble level makes keeping the camera parallel with the ground an easier task. The assembly's plate easily attached to my camera. The camera quickly can be extracted from the tripod ball head with the loosening of a thumbscrew. I use an adjustable "octopus" style tripod since I don't need elevation. I had no problems attaching the tripod head to my relatively cheap tripod. The tripod ball is smooth steel and lets the camera head point in any direction-- and stay there with the help of some thumbscrews. The rest of the tripod head assembly is also metal and is powder coated in a forest green color that would blend in well with nature. I've been using this tripod head exclusively for more than a year as of this writing. It has yet to show any signs of wear and has never failed to stay in place. I'm a hobbyist photographer taking product photos. I'm very happy with this tripod head. It's exactly what my camera needed and gives me a lot of freedom when taking pictures.

Knobs need to be larger but are adequate.

Using this as a replacement on my hunting tripod. I have zero complaints. Seems very sturdy and adjustments are good, easy to lock down with no movement.