I really like the Markins Ball Head. I was able to play with a Kirk B-1 and the RRS BH-55 ball heads and I am convinced that all three are of equal quality. I chose the Markins because of the friction adjustment. The friction adjustment is similar to the Arca-Swiss Ball Head. It is inset in the main control knob and really only needs to be adjusted once. The Kirk and RRS has a seperate friction control knob. I liked the design of the Markins better and went with it. I could see me in a stressful situation grabbing the wrong knob to adjust and the Markins has 1 large main control knob and a smaller pano control knob and less chance for a mistake. The Markins is also the lightest of them all and is built like a tank. I bought the Markins because it would work best for me and should not betaken that it is better than any of the other ball heads. The only real difference between all the top quality ball heads is egonomics and therefore other people could make a different decision and be justified in their decision. I would recommend anybody that buys the Markins ball head, buy it without a QR clamp and install the QR clamp from Kirk. The Kirk QR clamp has a bubble level built into it and a better feeling knob and is faster to operate the clamp. I don't like the lever release from RRS because it can become loose due to wear after a while and know a few people that has already experienced that problem with theirs. While RRS will warranty replace the clamp, it doesn't help when you are at a photo shoot miles away from home. I like the Markins so much that I am going to buy another for my window mount so I don't have to keep taking the ball head off my tripod when I want to use the window mount.