Monopod: CF vs. aluminium?

I'm wondering if the extra weight of an alumunium monopod is better than a CF one. I like CF because it's lighter weigh which will help mobility. Any thoughts?

Weight's not the critical factor in either monopods or tripods - rigidity is. pound/kilogram for pound/kilogram a CF whichever will be more rigid than an aluminum one.

CF is also much more pleasant to work with in cold weather.

Chicks dig Carbon Fiber, 'nuff said.

I chose CF for my tripod, but aluminum for the mono. My reasoning: the mono was mostly for sports, where I would be close to my car and wasn't lugging it miles. The tripod was for nature and travel, so weight was a premium. It has proved a good compromise.

Greg

I have the CF monopod and tripod. While the CF tripod makes perfect sense coz of the lower weight, not so sure about the monopod. The CF one came to around 1-1.5lbs while the alum one will come to 2.5lbs - both very light to handle.

My experience is I will use a CF tripod out and about and I won't use a heavier one, so however good the heavier one is it is a waste of time and money.

Metal legs will pick up vibrations, amplify them and transfer them to the camera. CF is much better at damping vibrations.

In the Leica study of a number of tripods from last January 2006, CF was shown to be much better at dealing with vibration from wind (i.e. resonance sort of vibration). CF tripods, although much, much lighter than the biggest tripods in the tests performed pretty much as well as the big heavy beasts. Mass was shown to be the other most important thing and didn't seem to have any benefit based on a particular material.

You can easily add mass to ANY tripod. Just hang your camera bag around the legs or from the bottom of the center column (most give you a hook there). Some will use a tent stake and a shock cord or adjustable nylon cord to that hook.

Because of that ease of adding mass to the tripod, I would much prefer CF for its vibration damping capabilities (which are the benefit).

Rigidity is important in the legs, but having a totally mass coupled unit from the legs through to the camera is not a good idea if the material is a very good transmission medium for vibration. In that case, rigidity is a bad thing. For example, having a steel solid leg to a solid tripod spider (ridiculous case, I know) would be bad. It would transmit pretty much any vibration from the ground straight to the camera.

Here is another good link on tripod performance:
http://markins.com/cha​rlie/report4e6.pdf

Netting this all out, I would recommend CF over Al anytime. Use the center hook on your tripod to add mass. In this manner, you would have all the benefits of a big and heavy tripod in a smaller, much lighter one.

J.