New member here, and it was this thread that convinced me to give the SPCH20 a try.
I ordered it from Amazon simply because as a prime member and the fact that Amazon was the fulfiller of the order I know that I can ship it back without question or cost should I choose.
The fit, finish and overall quality of the head is very nice. I own many ball heads and fluid heads since I've been into photography and videography for many years. The overall build quality of this head seems to be on par with some far more expensive name brand gear from Manfrotto and others.
The fluid resistance/action of the pan and tilt works very smooth (with a caveat). The scope I am using is an older Nikon 82ED Angled and it weighs in at over 4.5 pounds. With that much weight on top, the tilt fluid resistance is mostly overcome and the friction resistance is left to do the job of dampening the movement which is not as smooth as the actual fluid resistance as you would get in a more substantial head. A lighter scope will likely not challenge the mechanism quite as much.
The actual weight of the head is an issue, as mine weighed in at 17.5 ounces total with the included plate and 15.4 ounces without the plate. The advertised weight is 14.4 ounces, so all in it's a little over 3 ounces heavier than advertised. I have no idea how they came up with the advertised weight?
I decided to try this head based mainly on price and weight. Weight didn't pan out (no pun intended).
Overall I am so far satisfied with the purchase, but not feeling as good about it as I had hoped. I have yet to take it into the field and put some hours behind it glassing, so I intend to report back when I have done so. At the price I still think it's going to be hard to beat this head. Time will tell.
Edit: I should note that the scale I am using to weigh the head is a very accurate electronic for which I have various known weight verification weights with which to confirm accuracy. It is within .1 ounces accurate.
Update 9/10/20: I've used this head and have decided to return it for exchange. The tilt dampening was so little that it felt as if there was almost none. I had hoped that I just had a bad head, but the second head is no better. I will still keep it as I cannot find anything lighter or cheaper. I will just have to learn to work around the almost negligible tilt dampening.
I have two other pan and tilt heads, both Manfrotto, so I am not without comparison as to what a good head should be. The smaller of my two Manfrotto's is their MHXPRO-2W, which weighs about 12 ounces more than the SPCH20. 12 ounces is enough to make me want to live with the SPCH20's shortcomings. The dampening on the MHXPRO-2W is outstanding!
