Wiser Precision PH-170 NightHawk Ultralight Pan Head

Wanted a small head for my tripod when I hunt in Alaska where space and weight count. It does everything I need on my Silk 634 tripod when I am using my binoculars to glass. Easy to pack and doesn't seem to add weight.

Is this thing ridiculously small, lightweight and packable? Absolutely. Are the tilt/pan functions smooth and amazing? No. As with most 'lightest in class' products, it's all about tradeoffs. I purchased this very well knowing it wouldn't support my ATX 85mm very well. However, I sure was hoping it would work will with my 12x42 NL pures with digiscoping setup. Not the case though. You have to tension the tilt down so much that it makes the tilt/pan pretty tough. Also, I read plenty of reviews about the 'bounce back' when panning. It is very real and a bit of an annoyance. I also don't love the twist tension on the handle for the tilt--I found it very hard to fine tune and for that I prefer a separate tension knob. Also, as many people pointed out--the handle prevents you from tilting up much vertically, which seems like something they could very easily fix (not sure why they haven't?). The work around everyone says is that 'oh, you can just drop your back tripod legs.' Well yes, you can, but that's quite annoying--why not just improve the design to be better? I can say that this thing is VERY well built with very tight tolerances. It is really a beautiful piece of machinework.

Awesome head for the weight. Will be my go to for binocular glassing. If the spring-back in the panning didn’t exist, it’d be even better. I’m aware you can tighten it to the point of not having that problem, but it’s at the price of slightly more tension in the panning. The other thing is the location of the handle. It limits the height you can glass without hitting the base on the tripod (Slik 634 in my case) with the handle back toward you, or how far down you can glass when running the handle out the front. Two minor inconveniences in my opinion. I know that the price point reflects the top tier weight and build quality, but as a nitpicker (and baller on a budget) I’d hope for things like this to be figured out on top of the line gear. Will be using this head until someone engineers a sub 10oz VA-5 equivalent.

Start off by saying this is not a pan head for everyone. It is marketed for medium to lighter optics to be mounted on and that has been my experience. Putting a heavier spotting scope on it was about as heavy as I would go before really starting to crank down on the locking g handle. Just know that you are getting a narrow window of use….light-ish setups. Having said that, it is an awesome setup and a joy to use

I got this to use as a very light weight pan head for a mid sized scope - in my case the 65mm Swarovski ATX. I mounted it on a Peak Design travel tripod, using the accessory peak design supply for mounting a third party head
Firstly its very light, and very smooth. The adjustment is fine for smooth control - whether digiscoping or panning around. However its usefulness is limited by the inability to look very far up as the handle of the pan-head impinges on the mounting. Perhaps some tripods might have a small enough base this doesn’t happen, but none of the tripods I own do. This can be overcome by mounting the pan head with the handle pointing forwards - but controlling the tension is made very awkward doing this. The other way to overcome this is to use the supplied alternative knob. This works quiet well, and is even lighter and less bulky. The other problem is that it has a very narrow base - which means none of the fixation screws on the mounting base can lock the head in place.
As always when you try to go ultra light there are compromises - you are not going to get the same experience as you can get with a heavy duty tripod and a wimberley head - but try lugging that lot around the countryside!