monopod, concern with a heavy lens ??. and what i like about it..

[dannylightning]

first my concern...

i just got a nice siuri p324 monopod. my lens and camera are about 8lbs and i have some concerns, it seems to screw on to the lens tripod mount nice and tight but i am not 100% sure i trust it. i would like to be able to throw the monopod over my shoulder and carry it around with out worry about it unscrewing from the mount.. i am just a little worried about the the lens screwing loose from the monopod when i have it thrown over my shoulder due to the weight of the lens and camera.. is this something i need to worry about and if it is what are the chances of the camera falling off and crashing to the ground.

i do have a way to secure it but i would rather not if i do not need to.

i pulled the siuiri K20X ball head off of my tripod, i can put it on the monopod, you can lock the ball head head onto the monopod with a set screw that screws into the bottom of a hole on the ball head. this seems like the most secure option but that ball head roughly adds 1 lb nothing is going to come loose this way, it seems like the most secure option.. but i would prefer not to use the ball head and ditch the extra lb.

so what do you think.. just screw the monopod on to the lenses mount so its nice and tight or should i keep the ball head on the monopod to be safe.
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what i like about the monopod with the heavy lens....

1. i got some back issues and that 8lbs of camera and lens can be quite unpleasant. with the monopod when i am standing still i can just rest the monopod on the ground and all of the weight of the camera and lens is now supported by the monopod and not me. all i need to do at this point is hold on to it so it does not fall over, i set my camera strap to the longest it can go and i can still wear the strap, if the monopod slips out of my hand its not going any where because the strap will catch it, plus the monopod has a wrist strap as well. often for the bird photography i am just standing still for periods of time holding all that weight and that really starts to make my back muscles tighten up and ache after a couple a hour or two. so far it seems like this is going to be a huge help with the aching back.. i went out on my back yard for about 30 min with it today and it seems to be a big help over all.

2. having the monopod over my shoulder so all the weight is behind me when i am walking around seems to strain my back less. when just using the neck strap and all the weight is at the front of my body it seem to strain my back more.

3. when i see a bird up in the sky or way up in a tree and need to lift the camera up to the sky, since i am holding on to the monopod its self i can keep my elbow against my body and use my bicep to tilt the camera which actually makes it feel lighter even though there is a added lb or two from the monopod and ball head, without the monopod my shoulder was doing all the lifting, even just to bring the camera up to my face to look into the view finder can be hard on the shoulder after your out there for a while.. my biceps are much stronger than my shoulders are.

unless you one of those wild life photographers that wants to crawl around on your belly and what not. the monopod seems like a huge help and it does not seem like its going to slow me down trying to shoot birds like it does when i have tried to use a regular tripod ( regular tripod sucked hard for bid photography)

i was worried the extra weight of the monopod would be a issue but i also though it might help, i was not really sure, i have been thinking of getting one for well over a year now and finally decided i need to give it a try and see how it goes. as of right now i thinking it was a good purchase.. tomorrow of the weather is good ill probably be out with it for a few hours so ill know for sure.

 

[Derrel]

I carry my heaviest two lenses that way, with the shaft of the monopod over the shoulder, but my monopod is an ancient and super heavy-duty, two-section Manfrotto made of aluminum. It is a very old (1985) model and it is super-stout; many of the new multi-section monopods are graphite or composite, and are multi-section and much lighter duty, and I too might have reservations about packing a heavy lens+camera combo on a modern, light-duty monopod. However, I looked at the monopod you have, which looks "decent" for sure, and not light-duty really--but I cannot really truly judge how solid and stoutly anchored the tripod screw is in its attachment to the shaft of the monopod!

Build quality is very difficult to judge from a photo! It "should" be stout enough...but these days....I dunno...so,so many products look good, but in the real world, end up being made to a standard that has become typical of much made in China stuff which looks a lot like older brand stuff, but ends up being the victim of cost-cutting or simply poor design. The photo gear industry has been flooded with knockoff products, at lower and lower prices, and some of the actual engineering and design choices I've seen in the last five years are dubious, at best, and shoddy at worst.

As for the ball head...that adds more possible points of failure. Instead of ONE screw-to-tripod mount point, you have added another one, plus the potential for a "flop" if the lock screw on the ball head comes loose or whatnot. Then there is the stoutness of the ball head's female receptacle, AND also the ball head's tripod mounting screw and the stoutness/security of its attachment to the ball head. Add in the monopod's stoutness, and the ball head + monopod gives three possible points of failure, plus the tripod mounting hole on the lens.

The big plus is that the combined weight of lens + camera is only 8 pounds, and the monopod you have is listed at 22 lbs total max. weight. That is, I think, likely to be enough of a fudge factor to make it safe to walk with the pos over your shoulder and the camera and lens hanging downward, rifle-style (or is that hobo style?)

I use my monopod with NO ballhead. I have tried a couple, but have always gone back to just the pod, mounted directly to the tripod mounting foot on the lens.

 

[dannylightning]

I carry my heaviest two lenses that way, with the shaft of the monopod over the shoulder, but my monopod is an ancient and super heavy-duty, two-section Manfrotto made of aluminum. It is a very old (1985) model and it is super-stout; many of the new multi-section monopods are graphite or composite, and are multi-section and much lighter duty, and I too might have reservations about packing a heavy lens+camera combo on a modern, light-duty monopod. However, I looked at the monopod you have, which looks "decent" for sure, and not light-duty really--but I cannot really truly judge how solid and stoutly anchored the tripod screw is in its attachment to the shaft of the monopod!

Build quality is very difficult to judge from a photo! It "should" be stout enough...but these days....I dunno...so,so many products look good, but in the real world, end up being made to a standard that has become typical of much made in China stuff which looks a lot like older brand stuff, but ends up being the victim of cost-cutting or simply poor design. The photo gear industry has been flooded with knockoff products, at lower and lower prices, and some of the actual engineering and design choices I've seen in the last five years are dubious, at best, and shoddy at worst.

As for the ball head...that adds more possible points of failure. Instead of ONE screw-to-tripod mount point, you have added another one, plus the potential for a "flop" if the lock screw on the ball head comes loose or whatnot. Then there is the stoutness of the ball head's female receptacle, AND also the ball head's tripod mounting screw and the stoutness/security of its attachment to the ball head. Add in the monopod's stoutness, and the ball head + monopod gives three possible points of failure, plus the tripod mounting hole on the lens.

The big plus is that the combined weight of lens + camera is only 8 pounds, and the monopod you have is listed at 22 lbs total max. weight. That is, I think, likely to be enough of a fudge factor to make it safe to walk with the pos over your shoulder and the camera and lens hanging downward, rifle-style (or is that hobo style?)

I use my monopod with NO ballhead. I have tried a couple, but have always gone back to just the pod, mounted directly to the tripod mounting foot on the lens.

this monopod seems to be quite burly. the sirui brand gets excellent reviews and seems to be reguarded as top notch for the most part and they are usually less money than some other brands but said to be the same quality if not better. i got this particular model because it has the heavy duty locks for the leg and the reviews i read were all outstanding.. also i did not really want a 6 section monopod, too many locks to mess with, this 3 sections with the heavy duty leg locks should be much easier to deal with, its just not as compact when its all folded up which is find with me.

the mounting circle on the monopod that sets against the mount of the lens is a nice large diameter which i think will probably help. it seems to fit quite tightly, i can easily tighten it to the lens to the point where i need to use a bit of force to get it loose again, i am pretty sure its not going to go anywhere but i am one of those overly paranoid people.

i am wondering if making some sort of rubber ring to put on the mounting plate of the monopod would help,

good point about the extra failure points with the ball head. ill skip the ball head..

this thing is crazy sturdy, my carbon fiber tripod ( kind of a mid grade tripod ) flexes easily when i have a big lens on it but i did not buy that tripod to use with the big lens, the only time i would ever use it is to shoot at night for long shutter speeds with a small lens so its all i need as far as a tripod goes.

 

[Rob5589]

I cannot comment on your particular monopod but, I carry my Canon 6D/grip/70-200 2.8 on a Manfotto monopod the way you describe without issue. I do not have a ball head, however, but a quality unit should be fine.

 

[runnah]

I use my black rapid strap attached to the camera body as a fail safe. That way if the monopod ever unscrewed at least the strap would prevent a fall.

 

[dannylightning]

i also have a black rapids sport strap, it seems to work out well so i will also be using that for extra safety measures. i have been carrying it around the house and setting it down, slinging it over my shoulder, setting it down, ect.. with the lens pointing at the ground it seems like its gonna be just fine, but i still worry, gonna take a few months to pay that lens off, cant afford to buy another if it falls.