Mono V Tripod

Hi,

well here is my thinking, I am travelling to Inida this Xmas and I know I will be up at the crack of dawn allot (bus catching) and so I have plenty of times to get that great early morning shot. However can I get away with a mono pod or am I going to need my tripod.

I dont have the luxury of allot of space, and I will be lugging all my stuff around, on trains, cars and buses.

Can I get a shot of the Tarj for example that as a DSLR user I would be happy with, on a mono pod. I am really worried about low light and movement. Some work I have dont lately I have noticed blur creeping into some of my shots, and if I speed the exposure I let less light in and get darker images.

Is this a no brainer, or can you get away with a mono pod for sunrise and sunset shots.

Ideas, comments?

Cheers
Andyh

A monopod will help a little, but a good tripod will help a lot. Sounds like you're in the market for one of the light, compact carbon fibre tripods.

An alternative might be to buy a small 1# bag of peas or rice to put the camera on & use a remote release to trigger it. Not perfect, but it works fairly well if you don't have a tripod. Try it before you go & see what you think.

I've travelled through much of India on several occasions and with different budgets from skint to 4*. The first thing to know is you need to travel as light and easy as is possible. Personally, I would take a light monopod and if I missed a few shots when a tripod would have been ideal then so what? The hassle of carrying a tripod for the 99% of the time you don't need one just isn't worth the trouble. I really like my Feisol and hard to see anything better for a decent price. What lenses are you taking? Of course, fast is better assuming the quality is there

Hi, Condyk

yep will want to be as light as poss, hence I have been looking at the Manfroto Digi Cam, MN714SHB at 1.1kg in weight.

I agree, most of the time it will most likely end up in the sack but I love doing low light stuff and just worried that a wall or something wont be right for that shot. I guess it will come down to what I am prepared to lug around and at what cost.

However I have not ruled out a monopod.

choices choices choices....

Andyh

I just bought the Velbon Ultra Maxi-F. Its 2lbs, folds to 13" when closed, opens to 60"+. Comes with a 3-way pan-head (there's one w/a ball head too). Supposed to be able to hold 3kg, but we'll see (haven't used it yet). If you're carrying anything heavier, they also make a line called the Luxi-F which has thicker legs and a larger more sophisticated head, thus holding more weight. Its only slightly heavier. And before you get confused looking, Velbon also makes the same series with an 's' designation. Those are basically the same, but are shorter in both closed and open length. B&H sells all of these from $99 to $140. All of these are '5-leg' tripods, but they fold up and down incredibly fast with a fairly solid-feeling twist-lock mechanism.

I'll know more once I try this thing out w/my Canon 20D + 70-300 zoom, but for me, anything heavy and cumbersome, no matter how stable, would have spend more time at home than in my backpack.