Is The RRS BH-40 Ball Head Worth The Money?

Quick background. Ball heads are an essential part of the tripod equation if you need to steady your camera for landscape, long exposure or portrait work. Really Right Stuff (RRS) established a reputation for their ball-heads as the best there is amongst the web-based photography pundits. They cost a small fortune, and don’t look wildly different from any other competitive heads. So are they really better?

If you would rather head straight to a concise summary, the TL;DR is at the foot of the page — or jump directly to the FAQ.

Well here we get into the ‘audiophile mains cable’ (or power cord) arena. When I was interested in hifi, I was always amused by the reviews of audiophile power cords, which could cost several hundred pounds, and claimed to deliver mains electricity better to your high-end hifi than a normal cable. Reviewers would write about the ‘improved sound stage’ and ‘crispness of the high-end’ with these cables. All b*llocks of course. No way could you detect any difference by changing the power cable in a hi-fi system, and the lack of blind testing of this or any other component of hi-fi systems showed what hogwash it all was. The same b*llsh*t applies to much in the photography accessory arena. Camera sensors and lenses have a standardised set of tests from the likes of DxOlabs and Photozone, that allow true objective comparisions. Not so in the case of tripods and accessories. Most reviews are purely subjective, and reviewers are clearly swayed more by marketing than objectivity. Those that do tests usually conduct them over a few (say 5-10) products, and don’t maintain a database. But I have discovered an amazing German database of ball head tests from the excellent Traumflieger Fotographics (literally Dreamflyer Photography – go figure). They have been testing ballheads since 2009 and so far have done 37 at all prices. So what are these tests? The main requirement for a ball-head is that it can carry a reasonable load, doesn’t droop when a long lens is mounted, is easy and smooth to adjust camera position, and has reasonable damping of camera vibrations. Oh and ideally it needs to be low in weight as it has to be carried around. The Traumflieger chaps have objective, repeatable tests for all of these. They are located here and are in German. The easiest way to understand them if you are not a native speaker, is to use Google translate. I have extracted their summary below – and translated the headings. if you want to know how the tests were done, it’s in part I of the test report. And what of the results? In objective testing, the RRS-BH40 is only an average performer. It comes 17th out of 37, and does pretty poorly in the droop tests. It also costs 340 euros and weighs half a kilo. What is the best ball head in the test? This is the

unpromisingly-named Tiltall BH-07, which costs only 99 euros, and destroys the RRS head in almost every category. It also weighs half as much as the RRS. You can get them from Amazon UK for £84 including delivery. I ordered one, and it’s absolutely excellent. The table is useful for evaluating most other expensive and highly regarded makes of ball-head like Arca, Markins and Kirk. Not surprisingly, these all do fairly poorly in objective tests. An abridged version of the results summary is shown below. At the end of the table, is a picture of the test results for the RRS BH 40, showing the 8mm of droop (!) when a 4kg load is applied…….

Head	Approx price	Weight	Max weight skew	Points Quality/ Haptics	Points Features	Points droop	Points damping	Points Weight / Vol.	Points Total
Tiltall BH-07	99 EUR	284 gr	7.5 KG	90	80	104	76	102	90
FEISOL CB-40D	129 EUR	420 gr	about 12 KG	85	85	148	63	69	90
Manfrotto 468	250 EUR	690 gr	15 KG	88	80	141	100	43	90
Sirui K-20X	115 EUR	400 gr	6.5 KG	85	90	98	100	73	89
FEISOL CB-30C	99 EUR	235 gr	about 8 KG	85	75	107	50	123	88
RRS BH-55	420 EUR	900 gr	about 8 KG	93	80	123	100	32	86
Markins Q3	285 EUR	385 gr	about 8 KG	90	80	100	79	75	85
Triopo B3	150 EUR	590 gr	about 7 KG	90	75	124	84	49	84
Arca Monoball P0	285 EUR	350 gr	about 6 KG	88	80	88	79	83	83
Arca Swiss Monoball Z1	280 EUR (without Schnellw. system)	600 gr (o. Schnellw. system)	about 8 KG	95	75	94	100	48	83
Sirui K-10X	100 EUR	350 gr	6.5 KG	60	90	91	89	83	83
Sirui G10	81 EUR	300 gr	about 6 KG	78	80	78	76	97	82
Sirui G20	85 EUR	400 gr	6.5 KG	80	80	81	92	73	81
Benro B-2	145 EUR	480 gr	about 7 KG	88	75	80	89	60	79
Benro J-2	185 EUR	510 gr	6.5 KG	88	78	85	84	57	78
Triopo B-2	105 EUR	420 gr	about 6 KG	88	75	66	89	69	78
RRS BH 40	340 EUR	480 gr	6.5 KG	85	79	74	89	60	77
F eisol CB-50D	1 45 EUR	560 gr	about 7 KG	85	85	94	71	52	77
Cullmann MB 6.5	149 EUR	640 gr	6.5 KG	92	88	85	63	46	75
Sirui C10	35 EUR	180 gr	5 kg	75	70	65	63	100	75

RRS BH 40 test results Note that ‘Testergebnis Nachsachen’ does not refer to scrotal dimensions, but to the amount of head droop experienced. Quite a different thing.

Tiltall BH 07 test results

TL;DR

Based on the Traumflieger Fotographics database of 37 ball heads tested objectively since 2009, the RRS BH-40 ranks 17th — an average performer that does particularly poorly in droop tests, showing 8mm of sag under a 4kg load, at 340 euros and 480g.
The top performer in the test is the Tiltall BH-07 at 99 euros and 284g — it outperforms the RRS in almost every category and weighs half as much. The Feisol CB-40D and Manfrotto 468 also rank in the top three, both well ahead of RRS.
Other expensive and well-regarded brands — Arca Swiss, Markins, Kirk — also perform below their reputation in objective testing, clustering in the mid-80s of the total score.
The broader lesson here is the same as the audiophile cable problem: without objective testing, subjective reviews tend to amplify brand prestige rather than measure real performance. The Traumflieger tests are the only comprehensive objective database for ball heads available online.

Back to the article.

Frequently asked questions

What does “droop” mean in the context of ball head testing?

Droop is the amount a ball head shifts from its locked position when a load is applied — in the Traumflieger tests this is measured in millimetres under a 4kg load. The RRS BH-40 droops 8mm at 4kg, which is a poor result given its price. A lower droop score means the head holds its locked position better under a heavy lens, which matters for landscape and long exposure work where precise framing is critical.

Is the Tiltall BH-07 still available to buy?

This post was written in 2015, and the Amazon link above may no longer be active. The Tiltall BH-07 was available from Amazon UK at the time for around £84. Availability varies — check current listings on Amazon or specialist photography retailers. If it is out of stock, the Feisol CB-30C (99 EUR, 235g) and Feisol CB-40D (129 EUR, 420g) are strong alternatives that also ranked near the top of the Traumflieger tests.

Are the Traumflieger tests still the best available reference for ball heads?

At the time of writing they were unique in offering objective, repeatable, multi-criteria testing across a large number of heads. The site is in German but fully readable via Google Translate. Whether it has been updated since 2015 is worth checking — the test methodology is sound and the database remains a useful reference even if some models have been discontinued.

Why do expensive heads like Arca Swiss and RRS score so poorly in these tests?

Largely because their reputation is built on build quality, materials, and feel — attributes that the Traumflieger tests score as “quality/haptics,” where these brands do well. But the functional performance metrics (droop, weight-to-volume ratio) are where value-for-money alternatives outperform them. The RRS scores 89/100 for damping but only 74/100 for droop and 60/100 for weight/volume, dragging its overall score to 77.

Back to the article.