Feisol CM-1401 Carbon Fibre Monopod - mini review

I just took delivery of one these today. Specs can be found here:

http://www.feisol.com/​english/ncm.htm

When I pulled it out of the box my first impressions were this thing is super light. The legs are thin and I was ready to question its sturdiness. This in comparison to my bloater Manfrotto 679 monopod. How wrong I was.

Leg sections are locked with hard plastic twist locks that require a 1/4 to 1/2 turn to tighten. The twist locks lack the extra luxurious feel of the rubber twist knobs you get on the Gitzos. Regardless the plastic knobs of the Feisol have a nice feel and are easy to twist as you would expect with any well engineered product. Opening up the leg sections you are greated with wonderful pneumatic hiss letting you know that each section fits well within each other. Unlike my old 679 I get no oily residue on the legs and no clanking and bagging sounds when extending or contracting the legs. Fully extended with my body weight leant onto the monopod and me applying pressure to its middle section I'm surprised by how little flex there is. In the real world pressure won't be applied in the same manner as I tested it so I'm confident when used in the field the monopod could easily handle more than the max load per their website. I'd say 10 kg rigs shouldn't cause any problems.

Screw mounts for the Feisol are the standard 1/4" and 3/8" (has a reversable screw) so I had no problem fitting my manfrotto 234 monopod head. Mounting a 20D with grip and 24-70 f2.8 on top the 234 the monopod felt rock solid. The Feisol was easily manoeuvrable, panning was a breeze, working at angles was easy and tilting the 234 along its Y axis caused no grief. With only the top two sections fully extended (bottom section contracted) and both the 6cm tall Manfrotto 234 and the 20D with battery grip mounted the viewfinder came to chin level. I'm 167 cm and find that to be an almost perfect working height. If you were to extend the bottom leg you would get an extra 43 cm of working height.

All in all I'm very happy with this purchase. The foam padding makes the monopod easy to grip. The carbon fiber takes away weight without loss of rigidity and I'm sure would be invaluable on colder days. It comes with a very snug fitting monopod cover. Unfortunately you have to take the 234 off to stow the monopod due to the tight fit.

The company themselves were very responsive to my questions and helpful with the shipping info - a shipping confirmation email was sent which included a tracking number. For U$70 plus U$23 shipping (wordwide) the Feisol monopod is exceptional value and looks to be more than up to the job for its given specs. Plus they booked it as a sample so I got away with no customs/VAT.

You forgot to mention that the monopod also makes you happy, attracts members of the opposite sex and guarantees perfect pictures every time.

absolute-didley-utily. It's the photographic equivalent of a red 930 turbo.

nation wrote:
I just took delivery of one these today. Specs can be found here:

http://www.feisol.com/​english/ncm.htm

Nice review of a very nice product. Glad you got one.

I find that my Manfrotto 488 stays happily on top of the mono and the case encloses the mono with the ballhead left peeping out the top. Feels a bit like a Zulu fighting club ... which is maybe not a bad thing in some situations

A 10/10 product that combines super-low weight, great build and excellent rigidity.

condyk wrote:
Nice review of a very nice product. Glad you got one.

I find that my Manfrotto 488 stays happily on top of the mono and the case encloses the mono with the ballhead left peeping out the top. Feels a bit like a Zulu fighting club ... which is maybe not a bad thing in some situations

A 10/10 product that combines super-low weight, great build and excellent rigidity.

Looks like you've got a different case to mine. My case fits virtually like a glove such that there isn't even enough room for the spanner let alone leaving a head on.

Mine is shown here. The opening at the top is secured around the mono by a cord and tensioner and the head then peeps out the top.

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Oh I see the whole ballhead is outside the bag, not just the ball section. Then in fact your case is the same as mine.

It's too bad that it has twist locks. I much prefer flip locks for speed.

---Bob Gross---

Feisol... Feisol...

I don't get what the ruckus is about. You can get a better CF monopod from Giotto for 100 bucks and no need to ship from the other side of the earth.

I think that this is my next purchase.

The ruckus is about a new innovative company coming up with well built, highly quality and cost effective products to challenge the established players in the market. I for one support this if it means better products for us at a more competitive price point.

At U$93 shipped (of course customs is the unknown quantity) I see it as exceptional value. The company being offshore causes no concern. They are, at this stage, small enough to provide exceptional customer service. I knew what stage my order was at every step of the way.

Why did I choose Feisol? Because when I was doing the research they were a company with products that people on the internet were quite happy to sing their praises about. Searching the Giottos CF monopods, apart from The Digital Picture, I couldn't find any independant reviews of their CF monopods nor has it been suggested here in the countless "which monopod" threads. Admittedly I didn't spend hours searching but I take the view that how good or bad a product is is what compels people to write about them. And of course as we know with these large multi product companies like Giottos the quality of individual product lines is rather hit and miss. Their rocket blowers are awesome but I wouldn't touch their ballheads with a barge pole.

Given I couldn't check out either of these models in person I'm going to go with the one that I know is a known quantity. The Feisol tripod which I have is an excellent product. Supplemented by independant user opinions on the monopod I felt the choice to go Feisol was a no brainer.

There is no ruckus. Just people very happy with their purchases

I had the tripod first and now have the monopod. I just wouldn't bother looking elsewhere for either. If you're happy with Giotto, or whatever, then good for you. But how do you know it's better? And how do you assess that? Personally, I wanted super light and stable with sufficient build quality to last a long time. I got all that after listening to people who had one and had tried many others. No fuss, no ruckus ...

If Giotto did the same cheaper and better I'd have got that. Currently they don't as far as I know. Furthermore, in the UK the Feisol is even better value that in the US. We pay the same as you do, which doesn't apply to many other photography related items. For a CF product you can't do better for the money right now.

This looks like a good product. Is Feisol only available on the net, and not stores?

They predominently distribute via ebay and their own website. They also use this mob for US distributions http://www.thresholdco​ncepts.com/ . Not sure if they have a physical store though.