Monopod Questions

[Dylan]

I'm using an aluminum monopod (cheapie but very sturdy) for most of my shots and having trouble controlling camera shake. It's not a whole lot of shake but I did notice it when I was shooting yesterday. I don't have the prints yet so I'm not sure just how bad it is. What's the best way to hold one while shooting? I have a tripod however it doesn't extend high enough (I'm 6'1).

Also, lens hoods, what is the difference between the cutout style (cut on the side and fully extended on top) and a standard hood that extends all the way around the lens? Is there any real advantage to either kind?
Thanks

Dylan

 

[Torus34]

Lens hoods: The use of cut-outs is to avoid vignetting in the corners of the image when a wide angle lens is used, or when a wide angle - normal lens is used at the wide angle end of the range. Hoods used for standard lenses and telephotos do not need cut-outs due to the narrower viewing angle of the lens.

 

[Dylan]

Very interesting. I always wondered about that. Thanks for the info.

 

[Alex_B]

... also on some zoom lenses the foremost elemts might rotate, there you are in trouble with a cut out lens hood, as it might accidentally and unnoticed rotate from horizontal into vertical, giving a lot of vignetting. Here the round ones are safer.

A cut out lens hood as used for wide angle is basically shaped as a projection of the rectangle of your film or sensor onto the cone or tube which the hood represents. If you look at it in a simplified way you could even imagine the outmost rays of light coming onto the lens (very simplified).

As for the monopod, does your shake have a preferred orientation? Is it maybe just your motion when you press the shutter release?

Of course a monopod will never give the stability of a tripod as it only removes motion in one coordinate (vertically), but not the other two.
It certainly is a great help compared to free handed shooting though.

How to hold it, depends on if you have a lightweight or heavy camera/lens combination and also is a thing of personal preference. supporting it by pressing it slightly onto one of your legs/knee might give further stabilisation.
This of course only works if your legs do not shake when that Grizzly prepares for attack

 

[castrol]

Also, when using your monopod... if you have a little bit of time to get the image,
you can always set your self timer to a 2 second delay. This way you don't have
the motion of your hand pressing the button to deal with. A MUST for tripod
shots, but found it does seem to help with monopod shots as well.

 

[Rob]

There's two things I'd think to say about the monopod issue....

Firstly, if you're too tall for it, then you're going to be at an awkward angle and this *will* make you shake.

Secondly, if you're using a long lens, they often have a collar on them which is a better centre of gravity if you're not already using it.

It should be noted that monopods are not as stable as perhaps a tripod, so it is worth looking at your exposure times. I reckon I can double the exposure length with one, so I can shoot a 400mm lens at 1/200th without too much of a problem.

Hope this helps!

Rob