How much is adjustable drag worth?
 

Am using an XL1s. Sometimes stock. Sometimes not. Found some good legs. Now looking for lightweight true fluid head.

I had selected a Miller DS10, Sachtler 4, Cartoni AP, as the heads to consider as they seemed to be recommended often as "right sized" for XL1 in terms of counterbalance and load.

I'm interested in hearing from folks who've used drag adjustable heads to help decide whether it's worth it to move to that level head. It seems to require jumping $400 to get that feature.

TIA

Personally, I'd go for the adjustable drag. It's true you'll probably only use one setting most of the time, but having a heavy setting is great when you need to do a real, real slow pan or a lighter setting for a whip pan. Also, depending on what type of work you do, you might find that you do real slow pans more often than you think.

Besides, camera support is one area where you can buy something nice and use it for a lifetime. For an XL1s, I'd personally go for a Sachtler DV6 or a Cartoni Focus. The Focus has a more flexible counterbalance system, but I tend to prefer Sachtler's of drag module step adjustment.