Learning wildlife photography – Monopod usage
Posted on 28. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell in Equipment, Everything, Wildlife photography
Black Bear family photographed from a Gitzo Monopod, Really Right Stuff Pro Clamp, Canon 500mm F4L IS Lens, Riding Mountain National Park, Boreal Trail
Learning wildlife photography – Monopod usage - There is little doubt that a monopod is a very useful tool for a wildlife photographer. Like everything, using a monopod requires proper technique to make sharp images, but probably equally important is the way the monopod is configured.
When you’re shopping for a monopod you’ll want one that is strong and yet light weight. You’ll want to check the monopod’s specifications to make sure it can support your heaviest gear plus an extra 25% safety margin. Additionally, it should extend quickly and when fully extended and placed on the ground in front of you should at least come up to the height of your chin when you’re wearing your normal outdoor footwear. Now, what do you put on top of the monopod to support a lens or camera?
RRS MH-01High Capacity Monopod Head
I regularly run into people who have a ballhead attached to their monopod. To me, this is just an accident waiting to happen and is a horrible way of configuring a monopod to make sharp images. While a ballhead can be a very useful tool on a tripod, on a monopod it’s complete freedom of movement in any direction (left, right, up, down, flop, crash, etc.) is its main issue. If you insist on having some sort of device on your monopod to adjust the angle your photographing up (tilting up or down) consider the Manfrotto #234 or Really Right Stuff MH-01High Capacity Monopod Head. Which one you use just depends how much gear you plan on supporting. On the manfrotto, you’d add a Really Right Stuff B2-Pro clamp and on the Really Right Stuff High Capacity Monopod Head you’d use the B2-Pro II clamp. These clamps allow you to securely and quickly attach the gear.
The big advantage of these units over a ballhead is that the range of motion is restricted to tilting up or down rather than the wiggly all over the place adjustments that a ballhead provides.
Really Right Stuff B-2L Pro Clamp
Another option, and one I’ve used a lot, is to simply attach a Really Right Stuff B-2 pro clamp directly to the top of the monopod. I use the B-2 Pro/L clamp which is a bit longer and useful for supporting the lens plate on my Canon 500mm lens. When I want to change my shooting angle, I simply angle the monopod in the required direction.
A monopod is a great tool for the wildlife photographer to have in their tool box. But, please repeat after me: Monopod, ballhead, NO!!! Monopod, ballhead, NO!!! Monopod, ballhead, NO!!!
Have some comments on using a monopod? We’d love to hear from you.
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7 Responses to “Learning wildlife photography – Monopod usage”
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30. Jan, 2009
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16. Apr, 2009
[...] tip to Paul Burwell for the pointer to the RRS Monopod head. No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post) [...]
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22. Dec, 2009
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Eric Brown
16. Apr, 2009
Paul – Thanks for the introduction to the RRS Monopod head. I’ve just purchased one and will be practicing my wildlife photography using my monopod.
Paul Burwell
16. Apr, 2009
Eric,
Glad to be of help. I know you’ll love the monopod head.
George Slusher
28. Apr, 2009
Good tips. However, you CAN use a ballhead successfully on a monopod IF you use a good “friction” head (Markins, RRS, Kirk, etc). Those don’t “flop” around, at all. In fact, they allow you to track a moving subject much more easily, especially if the subject is moving quickly, as you have to wrap around the monopod. (Remember that the monopod will be the axis of motion: if the subject goes left, you’ll have to go right.) Sometimes, in shooting horses on jumping courses and in eventing’s cross-country phase, I have to pan through 60-120 degrees to follow a horse galloping at 15-20 mph. That’s too much to do comfortably by just pivoting on the monopod, plus it’s hard to keep the camera from tilting (right-left) as one pans.
Consider this: ever see a videographer with his/her camera on a monopod? If you’re shooting fast-moving sports, you may have to pan (and, depending upon the situation, perhaps tilt up-down, as well) just like a videographer would.
Håkan Olsson
14. Sep, 2009
I use a gimbal head on my monopod. Try it, because it’s great when tracking flying birds and so on…
I use Manfrotto/Bogen 393 gimbal head. I’m sure it works nice with the other brands as well. Actually, it’s so convenient and fast, that I have almost stopped using a tripod when photographing flying birds and such.