Sitting roughly in the middle of Photo Clams line of Professional Ball Heads sits the PC-44NS, pictured below. Priced at $269, it features a large 44mm (1.73 inch) ball and has a whopping 110 lb (50 Kg) load capacity rating. Despite the massive load rating, the PC-44NS is a compact unit at only 101mm (4 inches) tall, and weighs in at just 500g (17.6 oz).

Like most ball heads in this price range, the PC-44NS has an independent panning base marked in 5-degree intervals complete with its own lock control, as well as a large friction/lock control for the ball itself. A separate control located on the friction/lock knob for the ball allows you to quickly and easily set the minimum amount of friction (also known as drag or tension) on the ball. This allows you to have the ball head loose enough to be able to easily reposition your gear and recompose your photograph, but tight enough to be able to let go without your expensive camera and lens flopping over to one side.

The Photo Clam PC-44NS also features an Arca-Swiss compatible quick release clamp, which has two bubble levels for easy leveling. A button on the side of the clamp operates a detent pin. Pushing the button lowers the detent pin, allowing you to slide in an Arca-type plate. Releasing the button causes the detent pin to rise. Most Arca camera and lens plates have 'pockets' in the bottom, so this detent pin typically comes up into one of these pockets, and prevents a plate from accidentally sliding out should the clamp accidentally come loose. If using a plate without a pocket, or if you don't get the plate lined up correctly, the button operating the detent pin stays pushed in, so it is obvious that the safety system isn't engaged.

Overall, the Photo Clam PC-44NS is a very well specified ball head, at an extremely attractive price point. The PC-44NS featured on this page was provided to us directly by Photo Clam for the purpose of this review.

At the time of writing the Photo Clam PC-44NS retails for $269. Photo Clam products are available from Photo Clam Directly or from ReallyBigCameras.com in the U.S.

Fit and Finish

The Photo Clam PC-44NS comes packaged as shown below:

Like other Photo Clam products we've reviewed, the finish is first rate, and the ball action is very smooth indeed. The knob on the clamp and the ball lock both feature rubber grips that are easy to operate, even with gloves on. The panning base is very smooth also, offering a reasonable amount of resistance.

Performance

Installation onto a tripod is straight forward; simply screw it onto the tripods 3/8"x16 stud, with the panning base locked. The panning base has small indentations all the way round making it fairly easy to grip. Removing it from a tripod is slightly harder, often requiring a reasonable amount of force to lock the panning base tightly enough.

Out of the box, the ball movement is super-smooth and very loose. However within the first few minutes of familiarizing myself with the PC-44NS, suddenly something changed � the ball still moved, but was not quite as loose as before. Great, it's my job to break stuff. Double checked the controls, followed the instructions in the manual and cleaned the ball with WD-40 and a soft cloth, but the ball was still stiffer than before.

So I tried it with a camera on a tripod. Perfect � super smooth, very easy to set the friction, locks rock solid, everything feels right with it. Very right in fact. Took it off the tripod, and it was back to normal. Turned the lock control a quarter turn (it takes over a full turn to lock completely), unlocked it, and now the ball wasn't as loose as before again.

After some heavy use over a period of days this behavior appeared only intermittently. When it is not fully loose, pushing down on the clamp results in a very small "click", after which the ball is fully loose. The two other ball heads from Photo Clam we have on hand do not exhibit this phenomenon. Most importantly, with weight on the ball head (e.g. a camera), it's perfect: It must be stressed that since this phenomenon only occurs with no load on the ball head, once the camera is mounted on the ball head this has absolutely no impact on the performance of the ball head whatsoever.

But I still want to understand why this is happening. Digging deeper, when you tighten the lock control on the ball, it locks the ball by raising the cup the ball sits in. On this particular example, when releasing the lock the cup doesn't always return all the way down to its lowest position (and either pushing down on the ball or having the weight of a camera on the ball solves this).

I checked with ReallyBigCameras.com (the US importer), they hadn't had any reports of similar behavior. I contacted Photo Clam directly, and they confirmed my suspicions about the ball not fully returning as correct. The cup is manufactured to fit into the body with a very tight working tolerance of (+/-) 0.001-0.003mm (yes, that is merely a few hundred-thousandths of an inch), and suggested that the tolerances on the copy I had may be very slightly out.

That got me thinking further, and a few quick tests later and it turns out the behavior isn't in fact inconsistent; it is in fact temperature dependent. Sit the head on a window ledge in the sun, or outside for a while, and it the exhibits the above behavior. Stick it in the freezer for 3 minutes to cool down, and it works perfectly again. Best I can tell, below about 79-80°F it works perfectly. Above that temperature, and the cup doesn't fully drop upon releasing the lock, unless there is the weight of a camera on top of it to help push it down. Again it should be stressed, that since this only occurs in warm conditions with no load on the camera, then this has absolutely no impact on the performance of the ball head whatsoever.

Two things will be interesting to watch moving forward: (i) As the head gets used more and wears, this phenomenon may well go away, and (ii) it'll be interesting to see what impact extreme high temperatures have on it (like leaving it in a parked car on a hot summers day here in Texas with the mercury in the triple digits). We'll report back on both.

Like other Photo Clam ball heads, the locking force is extremely impressive: a mere half turn of the lock knob clamps the ball sufficiently that the ball feels locked solid, yet with minimal force the lock knob will rotate a full turn locking it even further.

Finding the "sweet spot" and balancing a camera/lens on the ball is easy, thanks to the large 44mm ball diameter. The large lock knob gives very fine and linear control over the amount of friction (a.k.a. drag or tension) on the ball.

The layout of the controls is very good, controlling the ball head with one hand while you move the camera and position your shot with the other feels very natural.

However what got me most excited about this ball head, is its very compact size combined with its amazing strength means it works perfectly with our Kirk Window Mount WM-2. After a couple of months of searching and trying numerous ball heads from numerous manufacturers, we've finally found a head that will not only work with the Window Clamp itself, but will also has the clearance to use the WM-2 with a Wimberley Sidekick supporting the biggest telephoto lenses.