Which tripod head?

[Scott85]

I am about to order an outdoorsman medium tripod and I'm having a hard time picking which head. I was looking at the Jim White Pan Head, pistol grip head, and the mirco pan head off the outdoorsman's website. The tripod will be mainly for binos but will also be used with spotting scope. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[wannakillabigbull]

Those are three great heads for three slightly different purposes. If your spotting scope is bigger than a 65mm (48ish ounces or more) then you'll need to go with the Jim White Pan Head as the pistol grip and micro struggle with heavy optics. The micro is a cool head but a little harder to get used to using than a full sized pan head since the tilt controls are modified to be integrated into the handle. But the micro is very lightweight and compact so guys choose it for backpacking setups when they want a pan head over a ball head. If you're going to be using the binos 90+% of the time and only using a relatively lightweight spotter to identify game then the pistol grip is a great option.

If I were you I would just give Outdoorsmans a call. They're super helpful if you tell them what your optics are and what you're using them for.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I personally like small pan heads, the Jim White they brought back out looks plenty nice. I'm happy with my 700 RC2 for the price. I could save a few ounces by spending up but I can't imagine it's a whole lot smoother; maybe I'm wrong.

 

[mtmiller]

I run a micro head off my Outdoorsman. I am not that impressed with it, but since I haven't used the others mention, I can't compare opinions. My spotter is Zeiss 65.

EDIT - I should say I don't like the micro based on the small handle and touchy sensitivity. It is smooth though.

 

[NVDesertHunter]

I have the Sirui VA-5 for my Vortex 85mm spotter and its as smooth as the Outdoorsman head. Plus a lot cheaper.

 

[Trial153]

Under a 65mm spotter and any Binos I run the micro pan head. At times if I am just running binos I will use a ball head from RRS

 

[Scott85]

Under a 65mm spotter and any Binos I run the micro pan head. At times if I am just running binos I will use a ball head from RRS

Which RRS head are you using, do you remember?