I have this ball head for upgrading an older, bought slight Linhof tripod because my Manfrotto tripod I often too heavy to take home. The ball head is quite stable for its size and holds eg the Canon EOS 50D with the lens EF 70-200 f / 4 L IS USM without problems. The quick-change system looks like the Manfrotto system, but is smaller and in my opinion, no worse than this. The ball head has no panorama function, but what I have expected even for this price. The Friktionsknopf perform its function properly.