Acratech Leveling Base, Fits All Standard 3/8-16 Tripod Heads

by Acratech

Product Details

• Item Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• ASIN: B000VACI0Y
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

The Acratech Leveling Base fits between the tripod (or stand) and the tripod head, and can be used with any tripod that features a 3/8" head screw. This device allows for the photo or video head to be quickly leveled, independently from the tripod. At its center is an oilless and greaseless ball that will not attract or hold dirt and debris. It allows 10° movement in any direction, and features smooth knob action for easy and secure positioning.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adaptable, June 10, 2010

By 

Christofer Aiken "Aiken Imagery" (CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acratech Leveling Base, Fits All Standard 3/8-16 Tripod Heads (Electronics)

Panoramic photography sits atop the myriad list of creative exploits in my career. I see it as a way to illustrate the often sweeping landscapes and cityscapes with realism and depth.
Often, the difficulty lies not in finding such vistas, but in one's ability to render them in sharp detail from corner to corner. This can only be achieved if we have accurately adjusted for parallax, depth of field, degree of overlap, and most important is the uniformity of the ball head and camera relative to the plane. They both have to be Level for the panoramic stitching to work the most effectively, and to capture the entirety of your picture without having to crop for uneven borders.
Enter the Acratech leveling base. I own it and it is absolutely fantastic because there is a lot of time and energy saved when there is 15 degrees of movement on a 360 deg axis. In this way your ball head is level, and it will not budge unless you want to readjust for a change in scenery. It will hold the typical lenses required for panoramic photography. I.e., medium zoom range lenses work best, as do telephotos, but try to avoid wide angle lenses as there are issues with overlap in panoramic software. There are also a plethora of related articles out there which will help you determine the nodal points for your lenses in order to get the best degree of overlap and avoid juxtapositions in your images, i.e., crooked or disconnected linear planes that even the best programs cannot repair.
Here is a link that you may find helpful in your pursuit for the best panoramic scenery you can imagine! It is a short tutorial from Acratech: [...].

5.0 out of 5 stars Best way to quickly level your camera, January 5, 2012

By 

Steven E. Schwartz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Acratech Leveling Base, Fits All Standard 3/8-16 Tripod Heads (Electronics)

This leveling base makes locking the camera to dead level fast and easy, invaluable in run-and-gun shooting situations. The leveling bubble is large and easy to see, the knob is easy to loosen and tighten, even with gloves. Solid, quality construction; it handles the weight of my EX1r camcorder loaded with external monitor, two wireless receivers, a shotgun mic and a very large battery. I plan to get another one of these for my second tripod. My only complaint is there're no way to use the tripod's set screws to positively lock the base to the top of a tripod and it has rotated if I have the pan head swivel locked too tightly. Small complaint about a very useful piece of gear.

5.0 out of 5 stars very well built, August 14, 2011

By 

E. D. Giralt "enriqx" (Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Acratech Leveling Base, Fits All Standard 3/8-16 Tripod Heads (Electronics)

This is my latest acquisition for panoramas, it is very strong but lightweight, i have another leveling base, by manfrotto, but its very heavy and slow to operate compared to this one. whoever designed and built this knows the needs of traveler and hiking photographers, i recommend this if you need a leveling base that works.