shooting portrait on monopod

Those of you shooting filed sports on a monopod, what do you use to quickly switch back and forth from portrait to landscape? Or, do you only shoot in landscape and then crop?

TIA

With the lens mounted to the mono (72-200 2.8 or 100-400) via the tripod collar, I leave the tripod collar screw loose so it`s a quick flip of the camera to portrait. However leaving that screw loose can cause you to get your horizons not level. You must be very aware of this. This can be corrected in post but why add the extra work.

^^ +1

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Sibil I'm assuming none of your lens have a tripod collar? The lens in mounted to the mono and spins freely to go from portrait to landscape.

70-200 has a ring which makes you switch really quick, i think almost all 200mm+ lenses has these!

My only lens with a collar is the Sigma 100-300/4. My Canon 70-200, 70-210, and 100-300 are without collar. I'll try the Sigma with the method you mentioned and see how it goes.

I use the Canon 100 monopod which comes with a mini ballhead. What I have been doing is manipulating the ball head to go between the two orientation which keeps the ballhead somewhat loose and kind of defeats the use of the monopod a little bit; not to mention, this methods changes the eye level enough to bug me.

For lenses without a collar, how does one go between portrait and landscape? I know the mentioned lenses are not heavy, but for low light situations, the monopod is very useful.

Thanks for the replies.

Flash bracket is the only way you haven't already mentioned.

The tripod collar is worth its weight in gold.. smooth easy transition without adding more equip.

I hate the ballhead method.

eigga wrote in post #8936135
Flash bracket is the only way you haven't already mentioned.

Great idea. I will look into it. Thanks

I have a manfrotto monopod with a 488 RC4 on it(way overkill I found out) and thought that I would use the ballhead to go into portrait, but once I had actually used the setup and gotten some experience in photography, I found that just loosening the tripod collar on the 70-200 or 300 f/4 was the best way to do it.

I would look into tripod collars for your lenses even though they can be expensive they are worth their weight in gold IMO for shooting on a monopod. It also will help the weight distribution of your setup as a 70-200 is quite hefty in and of itself.

Sibil, most sports shooters mount the tripod collar directly to the monopod without any head. Try that with your Sigma for a game or two and see if it works for you. If so, you might want to pick up a collar for your 70-200.

The other thing to consider is a ball head or pan/tilt head solely for the quick release plate on it if you switch between lenses at all. I have to with my 300 f/4 and then go to my 70-200 f/2.8 when it gets darker out.

Actually, I do use a quick release plate on my Canon 100 monopod. When the action is further away (and the lens being at the longer end), and I am in landscape mode, the camera stays on the monopod. When the action gets real close, where the head/legs are cut off in the frame, I quickly drop the monopod and shoot hand-held (in portrait orientation) in the 100+ mm range.

I can hand-hold just fine in the shorter end of the lens if I have enough light giving me good shutter speeds. It is when the shutter speed is marginal that I could use the monopod to curb the motion jurkiness on my end; meaning, I tend to mash the shutter a bit to hard

In addition, I am also trying to help my second shooter who has a hard time keeping the camera steady. I don't think there are lens collars available for the Canon 70-210, or the Canon 100-300, are there?

There are a few options if there's no collar for your lenses.

The "Mercedes" option would be something like a Custom Brackets Studio pro kit (image below).
The cool thing about these is that the camera pivots around the lens axis.
http://www.custombrack​ets.com …Viewnew.asp?idp​roduct=153

There's something called a Vertaflip (never used this myself):
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …_Heavy_Duty.htm​l#features

The least expensive option I could find is a simple tilt head that could be placed between your camera and monopod. Align your lens with the axis of the tilt so the camera can tilt sideways instead of up/down.
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …_Swivel_Tilt_Mo​nopod.html

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You shouldn't be having those kinds of problems if you are using shutter speeds fast enough to freeze the action in sports, especially for daylight shooting like you show in the picture. If you are not shooting at 1/500 at the very least, you might want to try moving your ISO setting up a notch or two. For daytime, it would only be with a long telephoto, like 400 or longer, that your shutter speed wouldn't be fast enough to eliminate any blur from camera shake.