I like a ball head that has separate controls for rotation of the base and adjustments to the ball itself. What I'll often do is leave the rotation control free and use the ball adjustment to lock the platform in place when I want the rig to be steady.
Pan heads are nice, but I would avoid those with long handles. Even better are fluid heads designed for use with videocameras, although they can get spendy. I had some time with a Sachtler fluid head when I was running big Nikon telephotos back in college and it was really sweet. Very smooth and very positive controls.
