"This is a tool that will be holding thousands of dollars worth of photography equipment. If it fails, your camera falls. It is positively worth an extra couple hundred dollars to be completely confident in the product that is holding your very expensive gear."
When it comes to photography gear, I love buying new lenses and flash equipment. I can spend hours looking at reviews, and I know exactly what it is that I want and need. However, when it comes to tripods and ball heads, my eyes glaze over and I have no idea what I need. The tripod I have now is decent, but I really don't care for the ball head and have been looking for an upgrade. Are you looking for a new ball head and not sure where you should start? Mark Morris has an article that helped me decide and will surely point you in the right direction as well. His reviews cover a variety of brands and a wide price range. Each review is detailed and the end of the article breaks down his recommendations by price range. There are so many different knobs and features I never knew to consider when purchasing a ball head. Mark even has discount codes in his article if you decide you want to purchase one of his recommended ball heads!
-Foreward by Erika Sneeringer