Monopods and Big Glass

Firstly, Why a Monopod?

Well, there will be times when a tripod is just too big and heavy to take with you. When we travel to Africa, we leave the tripods at home and take a couple of monopods with us. Handholding a 500mm lens for any length of time is not an option. You can of course use other means of support such as clamps, beanbags, etc. But standing up, or sitting in a safari vehicle with no sides, means there is no other way, it has to be a monopod.

OK, So Which One?

Obviously it needs to be capable of handling the weight of your lens, and you need to be comfrortable using it. If you're tall, make sure you get one that can extend to your full height for those times when you need to stand upright. Leaning over to look through the camera when it's fully supported on a tripod is one thing. Trying to do the same and having to keep it steady on a monpod is not so easy.

There are two main contenders in my opinion, Manfrotto and Gitzo. I looked at both, particularly the Gitzo CF range as I have one of their tripods. In the end I went for the Manfrotto 681B. It's metal, can take the weight of my lens and then some, and extends nicely for my height. I didn't think the extra money for a CF monopod was worth it as there isn't a great deal of difference in weight between a metal and CF one anyway.

Do I Need A Head

No, you don't need a head, you could just screw the monopod into the lens foot and away you go. But consider this. A Canon 500F4L IS lens has two screw sockets in the foot of the tripod mount. Getting the lens mounted on the monopod to balance the weight is tricky, particularly if you have an extender or extension tube, and your camera has a battery grip with two batteries, etc. I use a wimberley clamp and plate for this reason on my tripod. Without a head on the monopod, I need to remove the plate from the lens collar before I can screw in the monopod. That's way too much work with an allen key for me. Also, I would need to be careful about how far I tilted the monopod forward or backward, as gravity could take over and the whole lot goes crashing to the ground.

OK, So Which One?

You clearly don't need a head that can swivel, or pan, as you can just swivel the monopod. What you do need is the ability to tilt the lens up and down. It just so happens that Manfrotto make a tilt head specially for monopods, the 234. There are two versions, the 234 and the 234RC. The RC means it's a quick release system and isn't what you need. This head is really designed to turn a camera and lens from horizontal to vertical, but we're going to change that.

OK, I've Got The Gear, I'm Good To Go Right ?

Not quite. We need to modify the head to take the lens with the Wimberley plate still in place. To do that, you'll need a Wimberley C10 Clamp.

Now we need to put the whoie lot together.