Acratech Leveling Bases - Fast Tripod Leveling

An interest in panoramic photography led to a need for a good leveling base. Already having an Acratech ball head, I knew, correctly, that the quality of the leveling base would be the same as the ball head. I found that leveling a tripod is significantly more successful using this leveling base as the controls are easy to use and make for a quick and accurate process. It is now a permanent part of my panoramic kit.

Another high quality, highly engineered piece of equipment. Fulfills it’s mission with precision. Truly outstanding!

This is a beautifully machined piece of hardware that operates as well as it looks. The large bubble level allows for a more precise set and the locking knob is nice and large making it easy to securely lock the base in the desired position. The leveling base adds 2-iches to the total stack height on the tripod and if I could have one minor change it would be for a slightly lower profile. Not sure that could even be done while maintaining the excellent engineering design and operation of this base, however, and definitely not a reason to not add this base to your kit.

I should have bought the leveling base years ago! The silky-smooth operation of Acratech's leveling base makes tripod set-up a breeze. No more fiddling with tripod legs trying to make small adjustments. Solid construction and lock-up means set it once and it's good for the entire photo session until it's time to move the tripod to another location. The leveling base perfectly complements Acratech's tripod heads and works well with other brands' gimbals. Highly recommended.

I purchased the smaller leveling base to fit along with my RRS series 1 tripod and the Acratech Pano Head. These two items (leveling base and pano head) together are perfect for my traveling and hiking needs. And together make single row panos a breeze.

This really comes in handy when shooting outdoors. Many times the ground is uneven and it's a pain to adjust the tripod legs for small leveling adjustments. With this, you try to get close when you set up the tripod and then make the fine adjustments with the leveling base. It's quick and easy to use. I have two tripods and I keep one of these on each of them.

First of all this is light, high quality, and effective. I have used the Acratech Leveling base for years, and it is essential to my work flow. I primarily do Landscape Astrophotography and use a tripod and the Acratech Leveling base for every photo at night. For single frame acquisitions I level the ball head using the Leveling Base and then take a photo and recompose. Since you cannot see through the viewfinder at night you have to take a photo, look at it and recompose. Having the head leveled makes recomposition vastly easier and faster in the dark, with less composition mistakes. Usually recomposing just means rotating the head a few degrees once the head is leveled. For panoramas it is essential and I use it for every panorama, and I do panos routinely. Using this leveling base and lots of overlap virtually every pano I do stitches easily in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you want to see photos using this Leveling Head and an Acratech GP Ballhead go to lightcrafter.com and check out the photos. Virtually every photo on the page was taken with the leveling head (and bullhead).

The leveling base proved to be very easy to level with the Gitzo tripod. After extending the legs of the tripod getting that fine tuned level is easy to adjust along with the Acratech Ball Head. Picked it up for doing panarama photography and find that it is great for all around photography. The unit is solid and the large knob is easy to use and adjust even in very cold weather. Do recommend the leveling base to go along with the Acratech Ball Head.