Monopod

mercphoto

Found this at Best Buy, of all places. A monopod, telescoping to 60", decent ball mount, neck strap, and a neat "chest pod" feature. It has an optional bottom that allows you to hook the bottom into your belt, rather than on the ground. Supposed to help with tight quarters, or to help stability when panning.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1069300859536&skuId=6238715&type=product

I've used it once, seems to work well. Haven't tried panning with it yet. Easy to find, price is good. But I've never used a monopod before. For all I know this one is low quality and I don't even realize it. Would be interested in hearing from others that have used monopods before.

lynnma

mercphoto wrote:

Found this at Best Buy, of all places. A monopod, telescoping to 60", decent ball mount, neck strap, and a neat "chest pod" feature. It has an optional bottom that allows you to hook the bottom into your belt, rather than on the ground. Supposed to help with tight quarters, or to help stability when panning.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1069300859536&skuId=6238715&type=product

I've used it once, seems to work well. Haven't tried panning with it yet. Easy to find, price is good. But I've never used a monopod before. For all I know this one is low quality and I don't even realize it. Would be interested in hearing from others that have used monopods before.

I went to buy a monopod and found it was'nt much use to me.. I ended up buying a really light weight tripod that just fit in my pack and I LOVE IT...:D

pathfinder

mercphoto wrote:

Found this at Best Buy, of all places. A monopod, telescoping to 60", decent ball mount, neck strap, and a neat "chest pod" feature. It has an optional bottom that allows you to hook the bottom into your belt, rather than on the ground. Supposed to help with tight quarters, or to help stability when panning.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1069300859536&skuId=6238715&type=product

I've used it once, seems to work well. Haven't tried panning with it yet. Easy to find, price is good. But I've never used a monopod before. For all I know this one is low quality and I don't even realize it. Would be interested in hearing from others that have used monopods before.

Looks like it might be a decent monopod. I bought a monopod last winter and find I rarely use it. It really is not a replacement for a good tripod. I think its biggest use is for sports shooters using long telephotos at the sidelines who either do not or cannot use a tripod. A monopod will stabilize a telephoto fairly well and allow slightly longer shutter speeds, but it will not allow time exposures. Some backpackers carry monopods, but I would rather use a tripod or just leave it behind.

mercphoto

Monopods

pathfinder wrote:

Looks like it might be a decent monopod. I bought a monopod last winter and find I rarely use it. It really is not a replacement for a good tripod.

Thanks for the feedback all. I think I can use it at times when I can't bring a tri-pod, or when I'm on the edge of just being able to hand-hold a shot. But yeah, when you need a tri-pod, you need a tri-pod.

I hope to try some motocross pictures with it, see if it helps with panning any. Should be at the track in two weeks.

wxwax

mercphoto wrote:

Thanks for the feedback all. I think I can use it at times when I can't bring a tri-pod, or when I'm on the edge of just being able to hand-hold a shot. But yeah, when you need a tri-pod, you need a tri-pod.

I hope to try some motocross pictures with it, see if it helps with panning any. Should be at the track in two weeks.

Bill, I'll be curious to see whether or not you like it. I have one, and have only used it once - for indoor motocross! I tend to agree with Pathfinder, I think they're most useful for supporting long lenses.

mercphoto

Using a monopod for action sports

wxwax wrote:

Bill, I'll be curious to see whether or not you like it. I have one, and have only used it once - for indoor motocross! I tend to agree with Pathfinder, I think they're most useful for supporting long lenses.

Well, I got out today with it at a local outdoor dirt track. Was a productive day, lots of pictures, and tried the monopod. I did some normal panning w/o it. Then I attached the belt clip and panned with the bottom of the monopod hooked onto my belt. I liked it. Took some getting used to, though.

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/192447

I accidentally found a better way to use the monopod though. I'll see if I can describe it in words. Normally when you use a camera your right hand slopes down (towards the ground) and back (towards your body). Now, attach the monopod and adjust the ball head to make the pod hit at your elbow. You have just created a triangle, if you will. Your elbow is one of the corners. Your forearm goes to the upper-right of the camera. The monopod goes to the bottom center of the camera. The camera itself is the third line of the triangle. I found this gave me extra support for the camera. I was able to use my shoulder and upper-arm to help support the body/lens, rather than relying only on my wrist. I'm going to try this more often.

Did that make sense?

Also I found that I really like my 28-135 IS/USM lens, better than my 75-300 lens. At this track you can get real close (safely), so I don't need the reach of the big lens. The color and clarity of the smaller lens is much better. Glad I bought it.

muddyknees

Seems similar to how I use it

mercphoto wrote:

Well, I got out today with it at a local outdoor dirt track. Was a productive day, lots of pictures, and tried the monopod. I did some normal panning w/o it. Then I attached the belt clip and panned with the bottom of the monopod hooked onto my belt. I liked it. Took some getting used to, though.

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/192447

I accidentally found a better way to use the monopod though. I'll see if I can describe it in words. Normally when you use a camera your right hand slopes down (towards the ground) and back (towards your body). Now, attach the monopod and adjust the ball head to make the pod hit at your elbow. You have just created a triangle, if you will. Your elbow is one of the corners. Your forearm goes to the upper-right of the camera. The monopod goes to the bottom center of the camera. The camera itself is the third line of the triangle. I found this gave me extra support for the camera. I was able to use my shoulder and upper-arm to help support the body/lens, rather than relying only on my wrist. I'm going to try this more often.

Did that make sense?

Also I found that I really like my 28-135 IS/USM lens, better than my 75-300 lens. At this track you can get real close (safely), so I don't need the reach of the big lens. The color and clarity of the smaller lens is much better. Glad I bought it.

What I do is slip the leg of the pod between my shoulder and the strap of my backpack, with the head adjusted so the axis of the lens is approximately aligned with the axis of the pod - almost like using a rifle - maybe more like a bazooka with the pod's foot extending beyond my back.

In fact, when I'm just walking around, I can just leave the pod attached to the camera by just dropping the camera to my waist (hanging from neck strap) with the pod leg still held in place by the backpack strap - both my hands are free.

I use it alot currently with my Canon 100mm maro on my Eos300D, which I find is just a bit too long for me to hand-hold reliably. The main problem with this method is lack of flexibility in tight quarters (eg., low to the ground). In this case I free the pod from the backpack strap and often trap it instead under my arm, or just let ot flop wherever - it's still steadier than handheld due to the additional angular momentum of the long extension.

I started using my monopod this way several years ago hiking with two camera's - a manual Pentax with 28mm prime, and the original Rebel D with 80-200mm zoom. This way I could take the scenic shots and not miss the occasional wildlife. Unfortunately now I like my digital so much more that I do a lot more changing back to the 300D's kit lens even though I still have my 28mm Pentax along.

Gary