As for the levers interfering with each other(tilt and forward-backward lock), it is my experience that with some Smallrig leavers they are spring mounted(pull outward) and you can rotate them to a more suitable position.

This is how reviews should be, Without having the product you get to know how will be the products. Appreciate this man.

Wow you’ve got an absolute TON of spec info and measurements here, which is perhaps helpful to some folks. But, have a feeling most people watching this video came here to see some actual footage to see how these heads perform, pros and cons of how they shoot, etc.

Thank you for a very thorough review. I just wanted to add my experiences on a few points. By the way, I have nothing to gain by promoting the SmallRig or any other product. I'm glad someone straightened you out in the comments on the issue of the knob interference, but given the amount of time you spent going down the wrong path on this it would be nice to see it corrected in the video, as many people might miss the correction in the comments. A video close-up of how repositioning the knobs works would be most welcome. A few other comments: 4:07 -- Tilting up 90-deg: "The SmallRig one won't allow you to do that." There's a simple workaround for this if you don't need to go from 90-deg down to 90-deg up in one shot. Because of the extra rotational freedom of the mounting plate, it's a very simple matter to release the clamp screw and rotate the camera 180-deg. Then by using the head "backwards", you can tilt up 90-deg. You'll probably want to reposition the handle, and with a small camera you may have to clamp down on the tilt friction because you'll be a the maximum tension of the balance spring. 21:00 -- Quick release safety feature: "So this quick release safety feature doesn't seem to work properly." On mine, the safety bosses engage well, up to the point where the quick-release clamp is so loose that the plate comes up and off, rather than sliding out the end. So I'm wondering if there is a difference in mechanical tolerances, or if you just didn't carefully consider how loose your clamp screw was. If the clamp screw is loose enough that you can simply lift the camera off, then of course no safety feature will help. Also note that many people will have a variety of QR plates from different manufacturers. I find that, for example, the plate from a Newer ball head, which by the way has cap screws for stops like the Ulanzi plate, works equally well on the SmallRig (and would probably also work well on the Ulanzi). 23:38 -- Pan/Tilt Smoothness: You say both pan and tilt are not "uniformly smooth" on the SmallRig. I don't have the Ulanzi to compare with, but I find my SmallRig very smooth on both, provided the clamp screws are reasonably loose. See below about the pan clamp. On the tilt, if the clamp is tightened almost to the point of immovability I can feel a slight bit of irregularity, but that would also be a very uncomfortable mode of use. There may also be a "wear-in" factor here, as I would expect it to become smoother with use. 25:33 -- Pan clamp screw: "...but if you unscrew it too much, it comes out completely..." On mine, it takes 8-1/2 revolutions to completely remove the screw, whereas it takes only 1/2 revolution (or less) to fully unclamp the pan joint. I can imagine some very peculiar situation where something rubs on the screw and repeated motion might tend to unscrew it, but this strikes me as very unlikely. The viscosity of the grease seems sufficient to prevent reasonable vibration from causing the screw to loosen. It is also worth noting that if you loosen the pan clamp screw only a small amount, say 1/8 of a turn, you may think that the pan joint is free, but it will in fact hit some bumps at various angles, resulting in jerky pans. A half a turn seems more than adequate to avoid this, and again, is very far from what is required to remove the screw completely. 28:21 -- Handle: "I'd just like to emphasize that this handle is really useless in my opinion." I don't quite understand why you are so down on the handle of the SmallRig, and it makes me wonder how much time you've spent shooting video with it. I find the telescoping feature to be very useful and one of the more appealing features of the head. Collapsing the handle completely is great for stowage and quick motion with a small camera. Full extension works very well for slow, smooth pans and tilts, and intermediate lengths allow the obvious compromises. The adjustable length allows you to optimize for the subject, type of camera, and lens focal length. Your suggestion of using just the camera with no handle seems misguided at best, and only slightly better than using a ball head. By the way, I found it was very helpful to put a small amount of grease on the threads of the handle attachment screw and on both sides of the washer under the head of the screw. Before doing that I would often find that I hadn't tightened it quite enough to hold the handle against rotation in the clamp when I twisted it to extend or retract it. With the grease that hasn't been a problem. Also worth noting: 1. The tilt clamp gives a reasonable degree of control over the clamping friction, whereas the pan clamp is essentially all-or-nothing. I would not expect this difference to be much of an issue, as you need the adjustable tilt friction to counteract gravity (depending on the weight and balance of your rig), whereas there are not likely to be external forces on the pan axis that need to be counteracted. 2. The mounting clamp rotation feature allows for very convenient rotation of the camera from landscape to portrait orientation by rotating, panning, and tilting 90-deg in each axis. It looks like you would have to unmount the camera and remount it with a 90-deg rotation to do this on the Ulanzi. On the SmallRig you can even do this very smoothly on a live video shot, should you be seized by an uncontrollable urge to induce motion sickness in your audience. Again, thanks for your review, and I hope these comments help someone.

This video is fantastic. Love the attention to details.

Very helpful in-depth comparison 💚

good video, the idea behind the telescoping handle is most likely as a Transport function, to store the head/tripod without any snagging issues, for instance, if you hike, and carry the tripod on a backpack, or over your shoulder, it can't snag a tree, or ones cloathing.

Very thorough comparison. This is also a very appropriate comparison. I have three professional fluid heads but they are not suitable for travel.

Thank you for the thorough review! Some functions in SmallRig is redundant, A long arca swiss plate will provide the movement needed.

Thanks man! I could be wrong, but for the SmallRig one, I think you can unscrew the mount lock lever to reposition it. This would solve the hitting problem between adjustment lever and mount lock lever when tilting. By the way I would love to see in movement comparative footage of theses heads.

Amazing level of detail! Wow, thanks.

Thanks for the reviews. The ability to rotate the A-S mount makes the SmallRig 3457 the better choice for me because mount the camera square when using shorter lenses but toward the target with lens mounts. I’m planning on pairing it with a set of self-leveling Leofoto LS-223CEX Ranger legs for low POV wildlife photography and video. FYI, Small Rig has a new smaller head with leveling base for $70 but it lacks the ability to rotate the A-S mount.

An interesting comparison for those who haven't seen either head close up or felt 'in the metal'. SR do at least 5 fluid Heads. SR models #3259 at 279g or #4270 at 350g are more comparable to the Ulanzi. Everything is a compromise. Arguably neither head is a great fluid head where one can easily spend $2000+ for better performance. But equally there is a place for both of these heads, albeit as you go ever smaller then the fiddle factor and ergonomics mitigate against being useful. I feel your video would have benefitted from you knowing your key points in advance. It was longer and less certain that it might otherwise have been (for instance conjecture about the Ulanzi plate turning). Also your attempts to detail measurements, whilst well intended, bordered on 'obsession' and could be much tighter. eg the arca plate dimensions top and bottom were excessive detail that just distracted from your key message. BTW the SR 'knob conflict' although not great, is easily overcome by lifting and then rotating the cam knob so that further turning is possible. I don't mean to be negative and critical as I felt you made a good effort to explore the micro differences. But better prior product knowledge and pre-planning your key message points might help you make even better 'clearer' comparison videos.

Both might suit travel use, although neither is a great head IMO, albeit I like the SR #3457 enough to just buy for stills and occasional video use when travelling light but not wanting to 'hand hold'. Everything is a compromise. After 40 years shooting, I currently own about 6-7 tripods and 10+ heads - different size, performance trade offs etc (like scredrivers - the right tool for the job). I must have sold on a similar number of inferior sticks and heads in my quest to understand the differences and find the 'best' - which doesn't and won't ever exist! Best I can manage is a 'good enough' tool for any given use case. I like SmallRig kit and have certainly bought enough of their kit to assist the Chinese economy (joke). I recently ordered this #3457 for possible travel use and a heavier #4165 to compare with one of my Manfrotto heads, which I may sell on eBay. Like lenses I try a lot of stuff and retain less than 50% but try to keep stuff that helps me and merits a place in my photographic 'tool box'.

자세한 리뷰 감사합니다 궁금증이 풀렸습니다 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 👏👏👏

Excellent review, very detailed, it helped me a great deal, thank you so much !

Does anyone have experience with this Ulanzi U-190 vs SmallRig CH-10? They are about the same price, just wondering if there is any major difference in quality and smoothness of pan/tilt. Very useful video, thank you.

Thanks for sharing! I prefer Ulanzi U-190 with Falcam F38 Camera Quick Release System

I have tried a bunch of small video heads including these two, which are very nice in terms of materials and construction quality. However the panning and tilting is pretty bad. It's barely usable in the Ulanzi but very bad in the smallRig. If you have a small setup with a mirrorless camera, for travelling I recommend the Velbon PH-248 which despite being plasticky and using a non standard plate, it's pretty smooth even at panning. It's actually smoother than a lot of bigger video heads as the Manfrotto MHXPRO-2W which I also owns.

Thanks a lot. 100% what i was looking for.

Your video is not bad but the recording voice too poor alot of eco sound. You should use a more semi professional mic closer to you to prevent echo background.

There are no screws on the device In proper English, They are all bolts. I am just very picky about using proper terms over "colloquial" ones

Thanks for this video. Super useful

Sadly, I don't see the Ulanzi sold in Canada. I'm looking for a more lightweight fluid head for an iPhone on a tripod.

Did you see if the 4 screws on the baseplate would line up if rotated 90 degrees on the Ulanzi?

there someone comment to use the L key on the bottom of tripod holes, it can reduce the stif of the pan an tilt and make it more smooth stop when paning and tilt, have u tried that? i wanna buy this but many review and video say that they are to stiff not smooth

Can these be used for still photography? I use nikon d850 with 200-500 f5.6 lens.

Got mine today. For 44 Euros a no brainer. At least for camera settings up to 2 kg.

Please, compare also to Smallrig CH10. What changes in the comparison?

Is the Ulanzi so strong that you risk tipping your tripod (say a simple one that is 2.5 lbs in the $75 range) over when trying to tilt the video head? Or is the tripod still reasonably stable while you are handling the video head?

excelente comparativa...

Thank you, you help me a lot.

Nice review. What tripod are you using? if you retrofit this to most tripods balancing them to be flat is a nightmare. I am surprised they don't incorporate a levelling method. is there a work around?

Will the Ulanzi be strong enough to handle a telephoto lens for birding?

How about the Smallrig 3259 for $49.99 and 5% off rn? I'm tossed up between this and the Ulanzi U-190. I'm looking at getting the Ulanzi Coman Y Tripod (Travel tripod) and getting this as a ballhead. I mostly do photography, but I wanna have something for when I do videos, like when I was at a tennis tournament, I used a ballhead to pan between both sides of the net and it was NOT stable, lol.

Can either head be used for a Nikon Z9 with a 100-400 or is that too heavy?

❤

Thanks a lot! Id go with ulanzi. Why? R5 is heavy and...the price from china is 32$ vs 84 for smallrig Lmao

First!!!