Originally Posted by
William W
I understand that from your experience, your opinion is that a Ball Head on a vertical Monopod, (obviously the Ball Head is loose so you can tilt and drop to track action) with an heavy lens on top of that rig is "the most stable position".
Based upon my experience, that is not my opinion.
Additionally, as I see the theory of it, the rig you describe is akin to having a wobbly weight attached to a loose elbow joint then attached to a long stick in the ground - very floppy. How do you keep the Monopod 'vertical' with that floppy elbow joint between the Monopod and the big heavy lens?
On the other hand, my experience is a good quality, stable Monopod, firmly planted in/on the ground, (with suitable footing) with the Lens's Tripod Collar directly attached to the Monopod, not only allows a very heavy rig to be panned quickly, moreover, it allows the Lens to be tilted and dropped to angles a bit less than 45 degrees from the horizontal, I have found 30 degrees is usually very easy. One foot at the base (in front or behind) of the Monopod is good technique to firm up the footing. All the pan, tilt and drop movements are achieved in an exceptionally stable manner.
One key point about best practice Monopod technique, especially with long and/or heavy lenses, is to have the left hand at the front end of the lens: one (not the only) key reason is to create a well balanced see-saw action for efficient and quick Tilt and Drop of the Lens and thus be able to track and vertical movement of the Subject/Object.
For the Tilt and Drop action of the Lens to be anywhere near efficient, the "pole" (i.e. Monopod) between the ground point and the Lens's connection to the pole, must be rigid: that rigidity implies, in fact demands, that the Monopod's angle to the ground changes as the camera is tilted or dropped.
The alternative, as you suggest, is to somehow keep the Monopod vertical at all times and tilt and drop the Lens via a loose joint at the base of the lens.
As I mentioned, I don't do BIF, and I would always default to those who do.
And as I mentioned, of those whom I do know, some use a Tripod and Gimbal (and many use Hand Held, which I didn't mention because the OP is asking about NOT hand held).
Importantly, pusuent to this conversation the remainder do use a Monopod: and use it as I have described. There is one fellow I know who does use a Ball Head - and it is locked solid (really SOLID), so effectively he uses the Monopod as I described. (He prefers the QRP Plate set up on that particular Ball Head, which he also uses on his Tripod - and it is a super expensive, heavy duty Ball Head).
Additionally, IME, it is much easier to leave the lens and camera on the Monopod when carrying it.
But if one wants to switch between the camera/lens which is on Monopod, or if one want to remove the camera and lens for carrying there are QRP that can attach directly to the top of the Monopod's Top Plate, there's no need to introduce a Ball Head for that purpose.
WW