Monopods?

[Flyboy]

Flyboy
Member
Today at 10:02 AM
OOoK...Years ago, I bought a Bogen (Manfrotto) Monopod, used it some, added one of the little tilt heads Bogen offered back then...Gimbals were hardly a flyspeck on the horizon, or not thought of yet...but, not a real happy experience.
It has been gathering dust in my closet, except for one outing where a Raven must have thought the little black foot must have looked like some sort of food, and kept shaking the 'pod and camera. Now at 80, I am finding some sort of support is a definite plus, although I don't have one of the Big Guns to tote, and my 70-300 DX AFP doesn't have a tripod collar on it. Suggestions for a head for my old 'pod, or a new one that is sturdy, yet won't break the fixed-income bank?

 

[DRwyoming]

Flyboy
Member
Today at 10:02 AM
OOoK...Years ago, I bought a Bogen (Manfrotto) Monopod, used it some, added one of the little tilt heads Bogen offered back then...Gimbals were hardly a flyspeck on the horizon, or not thought of yet...but, not a real happy experience.
It has been gathering dust in my closet, except for one outing where a Raven must have thought the little black foot must have looked like some sort of food, and kept shaking the 'pod and camera. Now at 80, I am finding some sort of support is a definite plus, although I don't have one of the Big Guns to tote, and my 70-300 DX AFP doesn't have a tripod collar on it. Suggestions for a head for my old 'pod, or a new one that is sturdy, yet won't break the fixed-income bank?

If your existing monopod is tall enough it's almost certainly strong enough for a DSLR with the 70-300 DX lens mounted. If you want to look at new monopods Feisol and Leophoto have some good affordable options and pretty much anything they sell will be sturdy enough for your relatively small and lightweight lens. Just make sure it's tall enough to allow you to work on uneven terrain and to allow you to slope the tripod out in front of you and still achieve a good working height when standing up.

The big issue is you lose flexibility with lenses that lack a rotating tripod collar when used with gimbal or tilt mounts including the Wimberley mono gimbal head. When you directly mount the camera on those heads you lose the ability to easily rotate the system to flatten horizons as compared to using those types of heads with lenses that have a rotating tripod collar.

I really like the Wimberley mono gimbal on a monopod and use it with a variety of longer lenses up to my 600mm f/4 but for a direct camera mount it wouldn't work so well. I'd probably recommend a small ball head with a good drag adjustment for using a monopod with direct camera mounting to retain the ability to easily level your photos but really monopods shine with a tilt or small gimbal head IF the lens has a rotating tripod collar.

Tough call, perhaps someone makes an affordable after market tripod collar for the 70-300mm lens, if so then that and the Wimberley mono gimbal would be a great way to go. Either that or consider a move to the 80-400mm lens that does have a tripod collar and gives you an extra 100mm of reach as that would pair with a light to medium weight monopod and mono gimbal head very nicely.

 

[Pistnbroke]

I have one I use with the Manfrotto 222 trigger head or a full gimble but having said that its just more to carry.