I plan on doing a LOT more of these review on the equipment that I come across and love, or even hate.  I will try not to be too technical and just give a “seat of my pants” review so that it is quick and interesting.  I personally love all the nitty-gritty technical reviews, but I know they can be quite cumbersome  to get through sometimes.  And, I am sure there are a lot better qualified people out there to write up a techno-massive review than this guy.

So, without further ado:

The Manfrotto Joystick Head (222): http://www.manfrotto.com/product/8374.31708.76901.0.0/222/_/Joystick_Head

My first experience with this head was a few years ago when I worked for a Creative Development firm.  There was camera and video gear everywhere.  On my first assignment to do some behind the scene photography of a video shoot, I was told to grab a camera and tripod.  As fate would have it I grabbed a Manfrotto tripod with the 222 head attached.

To be quite honest I had no idea how it worked and why it looked so weird (compared to other tripods I have used).  It only took about one minute to fall completely in love with the 222.

Do you remember the Ron Popeil rotisserie oven? “Set it and forget it”.  That is the best way to describe the ease of use for this head.  Just squeeze the “trigger” and move the camera to which ever angle/position you want, and that is it. It just sticks there.  Not quite centered?  No problem! Squeeze the trigger move and within a second, it is set and ready to go. Nothing to tighten or unscrew…it really is that easy.

So, when I made the jump into full time photography myself years later, this was one of the first things I purchased.

It is made from cast aluminum so it isn’t too heavy, it has a bubble level so you can quickly check your …level (duh).

Some things to be aware of:

1.      There is only one section that you can go a full 90 degrees, so if you are planning on doing both portrait and landscape shooting, you just need to make sure where that section is.

2.      This does not make a good head if you need to do any panning while shooting video.  I have shot a ton of video with it, and this is definitely not smooth panning head.

3.      The 222 does add a significant height to your tripod, I view this as a good thing…but it is something to be aware of.

I think that about wraps up the first review.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.