The top of Manfrotto’s range of centre ball heads in die-cast aluminium with precision phenol resin ball. The 490’s features make it versatile and ideal for digital and traditional photographic equipment from 35mm to 20x25cm format up to 12kg in weight.

It features separate locks on 360° pan and +90 -90° tilt movements, with an additional friction control on the ball movement to give just the right resistance and smoothness with minimum effort, even with varying weight of equipment on board.

The Maxi Ball Head attaches to the camera via a 50mm platform with an ingeniously combined 1/4” and 3/8” male thread. Head to tripod attachment is 3/8” female.

• Separate control for pre-setting the friction of the ball when unblocked.
  
  
• A repositionable ratchet means that the locking lever's action will never be blocked either open or closed by interference with the camera body, tripod shoulder, etc... simply pull the lever outwards and it's free to be positioned more comfortably without affecting the locking mehanism. Then you can continue tightening or loosening the knob.
  
  
• A separate lock on the panoramic axis allows for rotation adjustment or panning to be carried out without losing framing
  
  
• Sturdy all-metal construction
  
  
• The double 90° groove (one on each side of the head) means switching from landscape to portrait is convenient however you're set up
  
  
• Dual 3-8 1-4 screw