I tried a monopod for the first time and....

I had a very hard time with it.

I need some advice from those of you who use monopods regularly.

I am sure it is my technique, but on my first outing, I felt that the monopod was the worst of both worlds. It restricted my mobility like a tripod would, and at the same time, did not provide the stability that I wanted. I felt like I kept wobbling the camera as I pressed the shutter, etc.

My question is - do I retain all my handholding techniques, i.e. camera against your face, elbows tucked in against ribs, etc. and have the monopod be an ADDITIONAL layer of stability in the VERTICAL plane? Rather than count on it to provide 3D stability, which, in hindsight, it cannot?

Thanks!

Heya,

If you try to hold the camera like you would handheld you will basically add the weight and leverage of the monopod onto your arms and it will be as if you were holding something bigger/heavier.

When using a monopod, you use the monopod as the base. Long lens technique still applies (ie, I hold the top of my lens, pushing down onto the monopod). Or you can hold the monopod or base of the lens collar, and push down. The hand sling is also useful for pushing down. This creates a firm contact with the ground and then it acts more like a tripod at least in the vertical plane. I also sometimes brace the foot into the inside of my foot/shoe so it doesn't scoot around if I'm pushing on something that slides, like sand. From there, the camera becomes weightless, and you simply control it in the horizonal plane.

Monopods are really for providing vertical stability and take the weight off your arms. Without having to hold up the weight, you can use yourself to stabilize the horizonal plane better because it requires no muscle effort. Let the monopod take the weight and push it into the ground in terms of where you apply force.

I use a tilt head on mine so that I can angle up/down without having to lean with the monopod pushing at an angle so that it's always a downward vertical force when I apply it.

With this, I'm able to get down to 1/40s~1/60s shutter speeds, no problem, with even 600mm.

Very best,

Thanks, Martin! Those were helpful hints. I will have to take it back out one of these days and practice again. This was with a 100-400 II, so nothing very big, so I am sure it was all faulty technique.

On a good day, I'm pretty good at panning. Tried a monopod once at an air show & it was a PITA because I wasn't used to it. I had better luck using my tripod with the head loose to allow movement.
OTOH, I might use one as a light weight stand to take the weight of the cam/lens between shots or flights at an air show, etc., if I still had a big, fat lens, but with only the 70-200 f/2.8, I don't bother with either.
Your experience with scrums & vertical stability will probably be different from mine. I suspect that it's just a learning curve situation.

Edit: Good post, Martin!

Another note,

If I was going to be doing complex movement, panning and up and down rapidly, I'd rather have a tripod + gimbal to have the flexibility and stability with the lens.

If I was dedicated panning in the horizontal, like sports, a monopod can do that just fine.

For stationary stuff, no matter the orientation, a monopod can do that just fine (with a tilt head; without can be a chore to do sharp angles).

I mostly use a monopod for low light birds and wildlife. Also very useful for low light performances. When I have to do above head complex tracking, I prefer to do it with the gimbal + tripod setup, or handheld completely.

Very best,

Heya,

Just to give a quick example, I was at the coast birding today, so figured I'd show how I generally use my monopod (though wasn't using it here for birding, too bright to need it with a shorter lens really this light weight, did it just for an example, was primarily going to setup to do some panning boats, but no one was riding around today sadly).

Long lens technique, hand/arm over barrel of lens to stabilize. Pushing downward with only a hair of force to create stability on the vertical plane down the monopod, even at a slight angle is fine.

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That picture above is about how I see most people do it, except they'll place their hands on the hood on the longer lenses. It stabilizes any movement. I watched guys do it all day this past weekend at the Indy car race at Mid Ohio. -I've also found that holding the bottom of the hood when panning hand held also works fantastic vs holding the bottom of the lens as I had been doing. less chance of accidentally zooming in or out, and it really does stabilize your motion better. I decided to give this a try when I saw photogs doing it at F-1 races. Tried it with those cars this weekend and got incredibly sharp shots even as cars went past at 135mph in the corner I was at.

You also have to be careful when panning as you will tend to swing the monopod down to the sides instead of swiveling around as you should. So basically you wind up swinging your camera in an arc rather than a straight line from left ro right or vice versa.

Very good points! When I use my 600, I do rest on the lens hood. On my 300, the lens hood is integrated into the lens so I don't put a lot of weight into it (they get loose and wobbly over time if you do that). Definitely a good idea to grab the hood when panning from beneath on the big ones. You really can get some creative stability form a monopod.

Very best,

Personally I dislike a monopod for panning, as I have to swing around a pivot point in front of me rather than being the pivot point myself.

I frequently use a monopod just as a tool to take the bulk of the weight of the camera and lens as I'm keeping it on target. Its only purpose in that case is to keep my arms from getting tired as quickly as they would if I were holding all the weight directly.

For panning shots I will even line the shot up 'a little low' while on the monopod, then lift the whole thing clear and pivot from the hips while shooting once the target is in sight. The pod then serves as added mass for an small inertial stabilizer.

Heya,

Just a quick example of my monopod (Benro A38F, inexpensive mag alloy) and tilt head (Desmond DMH-2 (tilt) & DAC-X1 (arca clamp) also inexpensive). The tilt head is really nice when you're looking up a lot, like birds that are soaring or aviation, etc. The tilt head and lens foot also adds more height to the monopod's fully extended length, so when you tilt up, you have more height since it drops your viewfinder (depends how tall you are).

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Hey, I'll just say I grab my sturdy monopod if I think it will be useful, the same as I grab my tripod if I think it will be useful, and with both of them, they can be very useful!

I'll grab my monopod sometimes if I'm going to be trekking around wild, rough terrain, where I not only don't want the weight of the tripod, but I don't want to wrestle with setting up/using the tripod in rough terrain, and guess what? The monopod works, not so much giving perfect balance/stability, not as "good" as a tripod, but still, it works!