Using monopods (2)

[ajohnw]

I sometimes walk with some one that just puts his camera on the end of a rather long one piece stick that brings the viewfinder up to a convenient height and walks around with it over his shoulder. The stick - I would say is around 5ft plus long..

Must admit so far with 300mm on m 4/3 (600mm) I haven't had any need for a monopod. Only a couple of shots round the 1/250 sec mark but shake free. I feel I have enough iso in hand to generally get up near that range. Can't say I am particularly steady either but 4/3 does of course reduce the weight. I do have an APS lens that gets a little bit further than that but it's a beast to use let alone carry about.

John
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[rpcrowe]

JCUKNZ... "After one shoot involving a church steeple I came to the conclusion that the 'proper' monopod needs to be tall enough so that with the camera in portrait mode, hanging sideways off the ballhead, one can look up a steeple while one's body remains relaxed and standing normally ... the basis of that is that your legs are the other two legs of the 'tripod'. I also organised a collar for my telephoto adaptor to balance the rig which worked nicely."

One of the things that I don't like about a ball head on a monopod is exactly what you mention, "the camera in portrait mode, hanging sideways off the ballhead" that is the great advantage of the Arca Compatible Quick Release with an L bracket. The camera is never hanging cantilevered over to the side but, instead is always over the center of gravity of your rig...

I have taken a hickory-walking stick, cut it off to where I want it and installed a spare Arca Compatible clamp. This makes an effective walking stick/monopod for navigating around rough terrain. Of course, I cannot go lower with this stick or collapse it for travel but, I can sure put a lot of weight on it when I need to. More weight than I would want to place on my monopod...

[jcuknz]

John ... it was an American who suggested simply 1/4x20 instead of Whit 1/4x20 so I assumed they had different things over there out of my experince ....I largely have 1/4 Whit or M6x1 which do not mate with each other

Richard ... my thoughts on the 'L' bracket is that it should have two quick release fittings but since I have yet to organise one ... two is way in the future and with OIS and IBIS not so pressing these days .. for me anyway
I made an L bracket for my mini-tripod becuase when held against a wall etc I didn't get a level camera in landscape mode due to limitations of its movement. I made my own ballhead with a large ball, the size of a golfball, becuase that is what I used as my pattern for casting

[ajohnw]

John ... it was an American who suggested simply 1/4x20 instead of Whit 1/4x20 so I assumed they had different things over there out of my experince ....I largely have 1/4 Whit or M6x1 which do not mate with each other

Richard ... my thoughts on the 'L' bracket is that it should have two quick release fittings but since I have yet to organise one ... two is way in the future and with OIS and IBIS not so pressing these days .. for me anyway
I made an L bracket for my mini-tripod becuase when held against a wall etc I didn't get a level camera in landscape mode due to limitations of its movement. I made my own ballhead with a large ball, the size of a golfball, becuase that is what I used as my pattern for casting

I have wondered if the threads in cameras have been made compatible with UNC, it wouldn't be hard to do but I made an extension bracket and found that a UNC thread wouldn't fit in the hole in the camera so I quickly bought a 1/4 whit die while there are still some around.

My biggest beef with monopods is ball heads. So far none are what I would call super smooth. Manfrotto show a picture of a simple tilt head with a decent handle under bird watching. I suspect that would be a better option as monopods can be rotated in the hand. It's not entirely sure that they still make it. I also love the way they price the ball heads - make em out of magnesium, increase the carrying weight, decease the carrying weight of the others and charge a fortune,

John
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[JayRayner]

I recently had a support bracket for my 70-300mm (140-600) Zuiko lens (yes, I have an Olympus camera) as the manufacturers thoughtlessly decided not have a bracket on the lens. I found that, being a heavyish lens (680g), when using a monopod, the whole setup was front-heavy and thus unstable when using the monopod. Results are significantly better that handheld shooting. Sporting events, birding and surfing are my interests.

[rpcrowe]

I do like to use my tripod collar when shooting with my 300mm f/4L IS lens on a monopod but, often when shooting with my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens, I simply attach the camera to the swivel head using my RRS L bracket which I leave on the camera pretty much all the time...

The 70-200mm f/4L IS lens is not that heavy and it balances well enough on my monopod swivel...

[Dave Humphries]

I recently had a support bracket for my 70-300mm (140-600) Zuiko lens (yes, I have an Olympus camera) as the manufacturers thoughtlessly decided not have a bracket on the lens. I found that, being a heavyish lens (680g), when using a monopod, the whole setup was front-heavy and thus unstable when using the monopod. Results are significantly better that handheld shooting. Sporting events, birding and surfing are my interests.

Hi John (and welcome to CiC),

That is a problem I suffer too, Nikon don't make one for their 70-30mm either (and that's a tad more at 725g)

Do I gather you had one (custom) made for it, or perhaps made it yourself?

Cheers,

[Panama Hat & Camera]

Hi Antonio,



I would not think of it like manufacturers often try to 'specify' IS/VR performance.

I would think of it (as I have found it in use) as simply a way to ensure sharper results at the shutter speeds I should be using (be that for subject movement or lens focal length).


No doubt I might find a tripod would be better still, but often impractical to carry or use.


You could always test yourself;
a) turn off IS/VR (simply to remove one variable in this test)
b) zoom to maximum focal length on a distant static subject with good contrast edges and tiny points of lightness (to aid identifying camera shake)
c) focus and set to manual focus so it doesn't change
d) set manual exposure (assuming constant lighting)
e) shoot 10 frames each with and without a monopod, be careful to shoot from exactly the same place (for constant focus distance)
f) critically assess/measure point blur at 100% (pixel peep)
g) average these over the 10 shot spread
h) reach your conclusion

Cheers,

Dave,
Please see my new thread Try to guess which photos were taken handheld, with monopod or tripod, with or withou. (Try to guess which photos were taken handheld, with monopod or tripod, with or without IS).

Cheers,
Antonio.