With or Without a Ball head ?

In order to increase my keeper's percentage, I plan to use at least a monopod for my macro, and bird shots. Should I have a Ballhead on my monopod or not? I use 100-400 lens for this purpose.

Hi Eaglesnest, I reckon a ball head is good because sometimes the monopod which I use, needs one with BIF shots and fast buggers make sure its a good solid one and not a cheapy tho. You don't want the camera falling off

I have that on my monopod. It's very light. It's OK for my 400mm but my 300 2.8 is too heavy.


http://www.manfrotto.c​om …anfrotto/lang/e​n/pid/2375

Yes, I tried the Manfrotto tilt head on my monopod and found that it couldn't handle my 300 2.8, so I've just got a plate attached straight to the pod. Works well enough for most things. My monopod (Gitzo GM2541) is light enough to allow me to pick the whole assembly up if the birds fly too high.

A ball head will help, check out Reallyrightstuff.com

I used a 234 tilt head with a 400/5.6 but like Frank and Daniel I found it is not up to it with the 300/2.8.