Ballheads
Looking for a ballhead for your tripod legs? A ballhead uses some kind of ball to allow free rotation in any direction. Most photographers prefer them over pan/tilt heads.
My favorite is the Burzynski head, but it is best suited for a medium to large tripod. A reader emailed me a link to his ballhead page, and it’s worth a look if you’re in the market, offering a nice summary of many of the better choices. You might also want to purchase my research article The Sharpest Image, to understand the various issues that affect image sharpness.