You can't go on any photography equipment forum on the Internet without seeing some reference to the "tremendous value" Benro products represent. For those of you who may not have heard of Benro, Benro is a Chinese manufacturing company that pretty blatantly manufactures knock-offs of well known brands of tripods and tripod heads. Owners of Benro products swear they are "just as good as the originals" or "nearly as good as the originals considering the price". I think Benro owners state this to cover up their embarrassment at having thrown good money at a bad product. I didn't intend for my web site to contain product reviews but I thought someone needs to review this product in light of what it actually represents...JUNK!

To see what all the "tremendous value" fuss is about I decided to order a Benro KS-2 tripod ball head from eBay merchant "link-delight". I initially was going to order a Benro carbon fiber tripod but, even though they are a lot less expensive than Gitzo, I just couldn't justify the still high price of a tripod just to evaluate a manufacturer. I paid $121.00US for the KS-2 ball head after shipping from Hong Kong was included. This certainly is an inexpensive price for a large ball head and, after reading all the glowing comments in the various forums, I looked forward to its arrival.

Benro ball heads are mostly re-engineered knock-offs of more famous, and more expensive, brands such as Arca-Swiss, Kirk Enterprises, and Gitzo. I'm surprised there's not a knock-off of any Really Right Stuff ball heads yet. To their favor, Benro uses a quick release clamping system that is compatible with Arca-Swiss camera plates. The KS series, however, is sort of a blend between the Kirk ball head and the Arca-Swiss ball head. Superficially, the KS-2 ball head looks like an Arca-Swiss ball head but, unlike the Arca-Swiss ball head, the KS-2 ball head has three separate lock knobs like the Kirk ball heads. I've had considerable experience with Arca-Swiss ball heads and didn't really like the tension adjust incorporated in the single ball lock so I ordered the KS-2 to have separate lock knobs for tension adjust, ball lock, and pan lock. Benro claims the KS-2 ball head can handle loads up to 39 pounds and that it uses an elliptical ball just like the Arca-Swiss ball heads. Don't believe them!

After a fast 14 days in transit from Hong Kong my Benro KS-2 arrived at my door. Frankly, the process of purchasing the ball head went smoothly and professionally, much to the credit of "link-delight". The KS-2 ball head was packaged professionally in an attractive box, contained sort of a luggage tag-sized warranty card, an instruction manual (all in Chinese!), a wrench (!) to attach the included quick release mounting plate to your camera, and a leather-like pouch to cover the ball head. (The wrench should have been my first warning, second only to the price, that this ball head was going to be junk.) The ball head, itself, is fairly impressive at first glance. Exterior machining and finish looked quite good, not as finely finished as the more expensive brands, but still impressive at first glance. Closer inspection revealed a very finely dimpled surface of the support ball. Hmmm!?

I ignored the supplied, cheesy camera mounting plate since I am already heavily invested in the Arca-Swiss style camera mounting plates and attached the KS-2 ball head to my Gitzo G 1325 tripod. I positioned the ball so that the quick release clamp was positioned at the top. I figured a good first test of a ballhead rated to support 39 pounds would be to attach my Canon EOS 1D MkII body with a Canon EF 70-200mm f 4L lens to the ball head. I didn't use the tripod collar on the 70-200mm lens but, rather, I let the lens hang out the front like someone who would be using a consumer grade 75-300mm lens that is not equipped with a tripod collar. I spent the next 30 minutes attempting to adjust the ball tension so that I could position the camera/lens combo, take my hands off the camera, and have the camera/lens combo stay put. I never could get the tension right. OK, I guess I can live with this. I'll just have to keep my hand on the camera/lens until I lock the ball head in place. After all, some of the mid-price ball heads suffer from this, too. Right?

I set up a composition and went to lock the ball head in place. If I wasn't already beginning to have bad feelings regarding the utility of this ball head I was certainly questioning its utility after trying to lock the ball head in place. I set the lock tension fairly tight, let go of the camera/lens, and watched the camera/lens slowly droop down. I repositioned the camera/lens again, tightened some more, and watched the camera/lens droop down again, albeit more slowly this time. This camera/lens combo should have been a breeze to support with a ball head rated for 39 pounds. I finally had to crank down the ball lock knob very, very tightly to keep the camera/lens combo from drooping. However, this wasn't the worst problem. Read on...

If you don't use an L-bracket on your camera you need to flop the ball over on its side to arrange a vertical composition. Well, I flopped the ball over on its side, arranged a vertical composition, cranked down on the lock knob as tight as I could, and watched the camera/lens combo slowly droop downward! I tried it once again and again the camera/lens combo drooped downward. I tried it a third time but watched to see if the ball was rotating in the head. That's what you would expect. Right? Wrong! The ball was tightly locked but the camera/lens combo still drooped down. I'll explain why in a minute. Keep reading...

After accurately lining up a composition, tightening any of the lock knobs caused the camera/lens to shift position, especially the pan lock knob. Tightening the pan lock knob caused the ball head to rotate as much as 1/8" on the panning base...every time! A little shift on a cheap to mid-priced ball head is somewhat to be expected but 1/8" of rotation caused by tightening the panning lock knob is intolerably bad. I could try to hold the camera/lens as tightly as possible to keep the ball head from rotating that 1/8" but tightening the pan lock knob always caused the ball head to rotate. It was now time to find out why.

Ultimately, I disassembled the ball head. What a difference between the exterior finish and the interior finish. The interior finish is crude, crude, crude. The only internal component that impressed me was the smoothness of the panning bearing that supports the panning rotation. The panning rotation is very smooth, much smoother than any mid-priced ball head I've used before, and pretty close to the smoothness of some of the much more expensive name brand ball heads. But that's it. The rest of the internal components are a joke! The panning lock is always going to cause the panning base to rotate. The end of the screw on the panning lock knob is squared off where it should be round. As the panning lock knob is tightened, the squared-off end of the screw digs into the aluminum of the panning base and causes the panning base to rotate as the screw is rotated to tighten the lock (see photo, above). If Benro had taken the time to round the end of the panning lock screw, the panning base would not rotate when the lock is tightened. Not only that but, with the squared-off end of the screw, the area the panning lock screw tightens against is badly gouged and badly burred after just a few attempts to tighten panning base. The better brands of ball heads would have used brass tightening/locking screws and at least a steel collar for the screw to tighten against. Using steel screws (rounded or not) against a soft aluminum collar only guarantees that the aluminum collar will be destroyed quite quickly. This is an absolutely unforgivable design flaw! Oh, but there is more. Don't stop reading now...

OK! I removed the panning base and the panning base bearing revealing the interior of the ball head body. All of the holes drilled through the body for the ball lock, ball tension adjust, and panning lock have chip-outs around them. I have to question the quality of the aluminum used to build the ball head body. Drilling quality aluminum alloys will not cause chipping around the holes. Chip-outs are caused by poor crystaline structure in the aluminum alloy. Only poor aluminum alloys will cause chipping or a very, very badly dulled drill bit. What was even worse, to hide the chip-outs, Benro painted the chip-outs black! I discovered this when I cleaned out the interior of the body with alcohol. The alcohol dissolved the paint!

The ball locking method employed in most ball heads is relatively simple (see above). The hole at the top of the ball head body is slightly smaller than the diameter of the ball. There is an insert just under this shoulder that is radiused the same as the ball head and is usually made of some plastic compound (usually Delrin) that will grip the ball. Below the ball there is a tapered metal cup that holds some more plastic grip material that is radiused the same as the radius of the ball head. The ends of the tension lock screw and the ball locking screw are tapered to match the taper of the metal cup. When the tension screw and locking screws are tightened, the metal cup is forced upward against the bottom of the ball which pushes the ball against the shoulder of the body sandwiching the ball between the plastic compound in the metal cup and the plastic compound in the shoulder of the body. Pretty simple, really. To save weight, the ball is hollowed out.

On good brands of ball heads, the metal cup is made of steel to withstand gouging and wear from the tapered ends of the steel tensioning and locking screws tightening against the metal cup. Not so on the Benro, unfortunately. The metal cup is made of soft aluminum. (Correction: In an email to me dated 03/23/2007, Benro brought to my attention that the metal ball cup is made of a zinc compound. IMO this is still too soft of a material and is prone to gouging.) Every time you tighten the ball tensioner or the ball lock, the aluminum is gouged. The more times you tighten the knobs, the more the metal cup will be gouged, eventually becoming so rough that it will be impossible to lock the ball head in place without the ball head shifting. This is going to drive a photographer nuts while attempting to line up a composition. Coming up next, the coup de grace. You can't stop reading yet...

Perhaps the very worst design feature of this ball head, and the reason the camera/lens combo still droops after the ball is locked, is due to the extremely poor design of the post that extends from the ball on which the quick release clamp is attached. (Refer to illustrations, above.) On good ball heads, and even some bad ones, the post and ball are machined from a single piece of aluminum. The post is then center-drilled and threaded to accept a threaded stud on which to attach the quick release clamp. This is very strong. Not so Benro...again! In the Benro head, the hollow ball is drilled and countersunk slightly and a short length of aluminum tube is press fit into the drilled hole. The quick release clamp is attached to the ball by extending an Allen head screw from inside the ball, through the post, and then screwing the Allen head screw into another press-fit bushing in the bottom of the quick release clamp. If the Allen head screw is not tightened adequately, the quick release plate is able to loosen and rotate around the post. At some point in the future that Allen head screw running through the post is going to loosen requiring the head to be taken apart to tighten the screw again. In the meantime, if the Allen head screw loosens it will render the head absolutely useless. Shame, shame, shame on Benro for adopting such a weak, sloppy mechanism with which to attach the quick release plate!

After such a terrible review I can see you all wondering how I have the Benro KS-2 ball head supporting the Canon EF 500mm f4L IS lens and Canon EOS 1D MkII camera as shown in the image, below. Quite simple, really...

I coated everything that touches the support ball, and coated everything that can rotate, with a strong, slow-cure epoxy glue!

The ball and quick release clamp might as well be welded into place! :) After this...umm...er..."slight" alteration, all the KS-2 ball head will be used for is as a panning bearing for the attached Wimberley Sidekick gimbel support. I was originally going to chuck the ball head in the waste can and eat the $121.00US but I really liked the smooth panning bearing! :)

Benro misses the mark very badly through the use of inferior materials and poor workmanship on the internal components of the ball head. The only steel to be found in this ball head are the locking/tensioning screws and the little screws that hold the ball head body to the base. Bearing surfaces against which tensioning/locking screws bear should have been made of steel and the tensioning/locking screws should have been made of brass to avoid gouging bearing surfaces. Benro avoids the use of steel because it is more expensive than aluminum and it is harder to machine. Production costs and labor costs are much cheaper if a manufacturer only has to deal with one or two materials. Sadly, you, the consumer, aren't going to see these defects unless you tear apart your own Benro ball head. I think Benro is going to get away with selling a ton of these ball heads to the American market becuase 1) the ball heads are so cheap, and 2) few people are going to be willing to send a poorly built, defective ball head, given the initial cheap price, all the way back to China for warranty repair/replacement.

I am glad I did not order a tripod. If Benro is going to take a simple ball head design and produce such an abominable product, imagine what they will do to a more complex product like a tripod. If you are considering purchasing a Benro ball head, let me steal a line from "Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail"..."Run away! Run away!". Save your pennies for a real ball head and don't waste your money on a Benro ball head. Some of you may get lucky and buy one that functions almost well enough at first use. However, given all the design and manufacturing shortcomings, the Benro ball heads will never stand up to continued use. Benro. Just say, "No!"

On 03/23/2007 I received an email from "Kimberly" at Benro discussing my evaluation of the Benro KS-2 ball head. In the email, Kimberly expressed a desire to review the design and materials used in the KS-2 with the possibility of improving the quality of the KS-2 ball head. As further details become available I will make updates to this review.