Introduction

The Linhof Profi II was the first ballhead I owned.  I bought it after struggling with mounting my Linhof Technikardan 45s on the A-250 tripod head that was mounted on my Ries J-600 tripod.

Linhof sell the Profi II in two versions.  One is the screw platform version shown in the photo below, and the other is equipped with Linhof's flat plate quick release system.  I bought the screw platform version, removed the screw platform and threw it into a drawer, and mounted a Really Right Stuff Arca-Swiss style clamp in it's place.

Specs

Linhof claim that the Profi II has a height of 107mm / 4.21" and a weight of 540 gm / 19 oz  My Profi II weighs 543 gm/ 19.2 oz.  Base diameter is 63mm.  The weight is specified with the screw platform supplied by Linhof mounted; adding an arca-swiss style clamp will increase the weight.

Overview

The Profi II is a straightforward ballhead design, with a ball diameter of about 35mm / 1.4".  It has a single drop slot on the front of the case; in ordinary use, the ballhead would be oriented so that this slot is on the side closest to the subject, so that the mounted camera can be pointed down. 

There are three controls: the main drag adjustment knob, the minimum drag adjustment knob, and the pan collar lock knob.

The main drag adjustment knob is mounted on the left-hand side of the head, and is 34mm / 1.35" in diameter, with a gripping surface that is 16mm / .63" wide.  The surface of the knob is textured soft plastic.  The knob is large enough and wide enough to be worked with stiff fingers or gloves and is far enough away from the main casting of the head that it's easy to work without interference.

The minimum drag adjustment knob is mounted inside and between the main drag knob and the main housing, where it's protected from accidental adjustment (although when working the main knob with gloves, it's surprisingly easy to grip both knobs at once).  The knob is numberd and there's an index mark on the main housing, so you can set the minimum drag to a given value easily.

The pan collar lock knob is mounted on the rear of the tripod head (the side toward the camera operator).  The pan collar lock knob is 18mm / .72" in diameter and has a gripping surface that is 8mm / .35" wide.  The surface of the knob is knurled hard plastic.  To lock the pan collar securely, an extraordinary amount of force must be applied to this knob (Pliers are nearly required) and the small knob and narrow, hard gripping surface of the knob, along with the close placement of the knob make it quite hard to lock the collar securely.

The bottom surface of the ballhead is a leather pad.  This can make it difficult to get the Profi II securely mounted to the tripod head stud, and makes the mount somewhat less rigid than a hard surface would.

Field Experience and Conclusions

The Profi II is easily rigid enough for 4x5 work. On mine, I've removed the senseless, pathetic screw stud that Linhof sell the thing with, and replaced it with an Arca-Swiss style quick release clamp made by Really Right Stuff.

The Profi II features nice, smooth movements with no backlash, locks securely, and is relatively small and lightweight. The minimum drag setting on my example is somewhat more stiff than I would like.

Like many ball heads, the locking knob on the pan collar is annoyingly small, and it's hard to lock the pan collar securely.

The two drag adjustment knobs are captive, and cannot unwind and fall off (get lost) due to vibration (such as when the tripod is being transported).  However, the pan collar lock knob is not captive, and if it's not locked securely, it can and will vibrate loose, fall off, and get lost.

Like all Linhof equipment, it's appallingly expensive for what you get.

Because the minimum drag setting on the Profi II can easily be disturbed by gripping too much of the main drag adjustment knob when adjusting/locking the head, and because the Profi II has no other anti-flop feature other than the minimum drag setting, it's at a risk of camera flop, and in fact a camera flop that nearly deposited thousands of dollars worth of camera and lens into a river prompted me to replace the Profi II with an Arca-Swiss B1 for view camera use.