monopod with ball heads?!?!

[Grooby]

Hi All, I have a question regarding monopod with ball head...what's the point of mounting a ball head on the monopod? or just easier to tilt? (or greater range of tilt angle?)

[PhotoJourno]

I enjoy my cheapo canon 100 Monopod with ballhead. Usually supports my 75-300 in low light, or the Bigma lens. The last few times I was walking around a lot, and it was very helpful to be able to simply retract part of the monopod, losen the nut, and then allow the ballhead to swivel freely. It allowed me to setup for another shot in just an instant.
It is actually due to this monopod, that I am getting a Manfrotto tripodwith Ballhead, for more static situations.

Smoothness of movement is non-important with a monopod, but the increased maneuravility is very enjoyable.

cheers,

[BearLeeAlive]

The main use my ballhead gets on my monopod is when I am doing macros. I often have the monopod at all kinds of weird angles to get the camera into the position I want and a ballhead allows me to adjust the camera angle to aim at my subject. Often I approach a shot with th monopod planted back a ways and lean in to the subject necessitating tilting the ballhead up, sometimes for overhead shots pointing it down.

For shots at most sporting events it is not really needed but it is where my quick release is so is great for changing lenses fast too.

[photographicsafaris]

I use the ball head only for portrait orientation or when using my flash bracket. Otherwise I dont use the ball head whenever I can on a monopod. It does take some getting used to particularly getting a lower height than you would think, and where to put the mono pod when you need to aim down.