Lightweight,nice looking,good ergonomics,relatively cheap (73€ on ebay)

Build quality:not smooth,has a lot of friction,tends to stick in position

Not impressed:the major drawback IMO being its lack of smoothness,which makes small adjustments very tricky,it will either not budge or move too much,this is really annoying me.
Other than that,it's lightweight,has a nice design,ergonomics are good,it's not outrageously priced,but all this is pointless if adjusting the camera position is a pain:you buy a 3-way head to be able to easily adjust your camera position,which requires smooth action,this head has a lot of friction,even with the handles completely loosened it tends to stick in position.
Compared to the 029 head that I've replaced,it's way worse in this aspect:the 029 was much heavier and bulkier,but,even if its moving parts were crudely machined (I've taken it apart for re-greasing,and observed quite a lot of grooves and machining marks),it still was a lot smoother.
If only the had managed to make a lightweight 3-way head with the design of this 804 and the smoothness of the 029,it would have been a great product.

Similar Products Used:

Manfrotto 029