Introduction

When I the Really Right Stuff BH-55 I ordered arrived, I was pleasantly surprised; the head was much nicer than I expected it to be, and I'd had pretty high expectations.  After using it a bit, I decided that I'd try its little brother, the Really Right Stuff BH-40, and see if it would be suitable for a smaller tripod setup I've been considering (basically, a Gitzo 1228 carbon fiber tripod with a light ballhead on top).

So I went to the Really Right Stuff website and ordered one.  Three days later, I had it in my hands.  It's every bit as nice as I was expecting.

Specs:

Really Right stuff specify the height and weight of the BH-40 as:

Weight: 494 gm / 17.4 oz.

height: 77 mm / 3.0"

base diameter: 53mm / 2.1"

ball diameter: 40mm / 1.6"

Overview

Really Right Stuff BH-40 LR Ballhead - clockwise from upper left: front, left-hand side, back, right-hand side

The RRS BH-40 shares key features with the RRS BH-55, including the innovative dual drop slot design, and the excellent pan collar locking mechanism.

Also like the BH-55, the BH-40 has a separate knob for setting the minimum drag on the ball.

Because it's quite a bit smaller than the BH-55, the wonderful large main drag adjustment knob on the BH-55 is not used on the BH-40; instead, there's very nice lever in it's place.  The lever is cleverly done so that it can be pulled out away from the main housing and repositioned in 60 degree increments.  In normal use, spring tension keeps the lever drawn in tight. The main drag lever is on the LEFT side of the ballhead as viewed from the back, which is optimum for SLR use, since it lets you adjust the camera position with the right hand on the SLR grip, and adjust the ballhead drag (or lock the head) with your left hand.  The lever is 50mm / 1.96" long and 15mm / .6" wide at its narrowest; it's much wider over the bulk of it's length. The good lever size and shape, along with the reposition feature makes it easy to work even with stiff finger problems or when wearing gloves.

Like the BH-55, the BH-40 has an excellent pan collar lock.  The knob to adjust the drag on the pan collar is not the usual tiny knob that other tripod heads have, and it's not necessary to grip the knob with a pair of pliers and tighten it with all your might to positively lock the pan collar.  I don't know what the heck RRS have done inside the head, but they've performed a miracle as far as I'm concerned.  The pan collar lock knob is 22mm in diameter and has a gentle fluted design which makes it easy to grip and turn, and also serves to make it easy to distinguish from the minimum drag knob.

The RRS BH-40 has the same minimum tension setting arrangment as the BH--55:, a separate, large knob on the right hand side of the ballhead.  There's a little window that shows the current setting on a numbered scale, and the adjustment is repeatable - that is, setting the knob to a given number produces the same minimum drag each and every time.

The BH-40 is available with three different clamps - a regular, Arca-Swiss style clamp with a lead screw to tighten the clamp, an Arca-Swiss style clamp with a lever/cam arrangement to tighten the clamp, and a lead-screw Arca-Swiss style clamp which incorporates the RRS pan collar, for shooting stitched panoramics. 

Having been very pleased with the wonderful clamp on the RRS BH-55, I again ordered the lever style clamp on the BH-40. The clamp on the BH-40 lacks the spirit level that's incorporated in the clamp on the BH-55, and is slightly smaller, but still does an excellent job of securing the quick-release plate and making a very rigid connection.  Although the photo on the RRS website shows the clamp without centering marks, the version delivered to me has nice, laser engraved white centering marks.

All the knobs and levers on the RRS BH-40 are captive; the cannot vibrate loose, come off, and get lost.

Field Experience and Conclusions

Just as with it's big brother, the RRS BH-55, I'm delighted with the design, construction, and finish of the BH-40.   

In practice, the repositionable lever to control ball drag and lock the head works very well.  Rotating the lever through about 100 degrees of rotation adjusts the drag from completely locked to minimum tension, which means that you can make all the needed adjustments to the head with a simple flip of the lever.

The only unfortunate aspect of the design is that the reduced size means that the minimum drag knob and the pan collar lock are very close together.  Offsetting this problem is that the two knobs have different designs and can be easily distinguished by touch alone.  The minimum drag knob is also not recessed to the same degree as the minimum drag knob on the BH-55, so it's more likely to get bumped out of adjustment, especially when using the pan collar lock.  So far this hasn't been a problem; the design of the pan collar lock knob makes it more convenient to grip from the end (and thus avoid bumping the minimum drag knob), and the minimum drag knob has enough drag to resist minor bumps.

The pan collar locking knob is large enough to grip easily (unlike the stingy little damn knobs on the pan collars on my Linhof and Arca-Swiss ballheads) and the pan collar locks securely without resorting to histrionics in tightening the locking knob.

Except for the close spacing of the pan collar lock knob and the minimum drag knob, the control layout is excellent.  The big, easy to grip lever on the left-hand side of the ballhead makes it easy for me to adjust the position of the camera with my right and and control the setting of the ballhead with my left, and this is my preferred arrangement with an SLR.  The big main control lever is easy to find without looking, easy to grip, and has great feel. 

The minimum drag setting knob is easy to easy to adjust, and if it becomes 'unadjusted', the numbers and 'setting' window make it easy to set back to the setting I want.  Because the minimum drag knob is so accessible, it's easy to find and remember the settings I want for different camera/lens configurations and set the knob when I mount the camera.  Proper minimum drag setting is the thing that makes ballheads work, and the independent knob arrangement of the BH-40 is just vastly superior to all the ballheads that have the minimum drag setting done through a knob hidden inside the main drag knob.

The BH-40 has a smaller ball and thus can't carry the extreme loads that the BH-55 can.  So far my experience is that the BH-40 is more than equal to the task of carrying a large digital SLR with a large zoom lens mounted, not just in terms of rigidity when locked but in terms of making adjustments to camera position easy and fluid.  It's not so rigid, though, that I'd feel completely comfortable using it to mount a large format field camera like my Linhof TK-45s.

The light weight and compact design of the RRS BH-40 put it in direct competition with heads like the Acratech Ultimate and the Linhof Profi II.  Over those two contenders, I'd pick the RRS BH-40 any time, hands down.  I'm looking forward to getting a lighter weight tripod (like the Gitzo 1228) to mount this tripod on; I think it will make a stellar combination for digital SLR work in the field.