Comments on: My New Monopod

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:36:17 +0000

Thanks for the info on the tilt head, very good stuff to know.

An expensive option for dealing with the perpendicular plate mounting problem is to use a leveling or “panorama” base. I have never used one, but if it’s for making panoramas I imagine it should swivel 360 degrees.

was the cheapest ($77 as of this posting) I could find with a few minutes of searching. Acratech makes one too but it’s double the price.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:33:30 +0000

Thanks for an interesting post, Jeffrey. I have the same ‘problem’ you have with the lens plates and camera plates being at 90 degree angles to each other. Did you ever find a good solution to that?
Not really… carry a wrench, I guess. It turns out that I use the monopod rarely (using requires the foresight to bring it when I head out with the camera, something I seem to find challenging), so it hasn’t been a big issue for me…. —Jeffrey

By: René Damkot

René Damkot — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:19:52 +0000

Mark: IMO the manfrotto head should be used for tilting the camera up/down. Use an L plate to flip the camera.

Like Jeffrey says, that would require a repositioning of the QR head when using a lens with a tripod collar.

Simplest solution is to use a square QR plate on the lens. Allows mounting “both ways” so to speak.
RRS makes them, so does Novoflex.

Alternatively, Markins makes “Bi directional” camera plates which can be mounted both ways.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:16:21 +0000

I use the Gitzo G1277M ballhead on my monopod with a Canon 30D and 70-200 2.8 IS, and I like it very much. I have no problem locking it tight and I like the flexibility it provides.

By: Mark Wood

Mark Wood — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:06:00 +0000

I’ve been looking at the RRS Monopod solution you mention for quite some time. I got a different impression than you did with regards to how the head should be mounted.

I thought the Manfrotto head should be mounted such that you can flip the camera from side to side — thereby allowing you to take horizontal and vertical shots with a lens without a tripod collar. To do this with a lens with a tripod collar, you spin the lens in the collar.

The whole idea with a monopod is to rock the monopod forward or backward to change the vertical angle of the camera. Putting the camera strap around your neck, you can then push the monopod / camera against the camera strap making a somewhat sturdier base and including your two legs in the equation creating almost a tripod.

Then again, perhaps I’m just doing it wrong…

By: Joe Beda

Joe Beda — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:32:49 +0000

As for lenses with tripod feet, here is what I would do: Loosen the tripod ring and rotate the lens in the ring. I can confirm that this works well with the smaller Canon lenses such as the 300 f/4 IS.

I have a bunch of the RRS pano stuff (the full spherical setup with two rotating clamps) and I love it. It is just so well done. You can adapt the pano stuff to be a poor man’s gimbal head. Rotating the collar is the only way to make that work.