Monopod (1 Viewer)

I'm travelling abroad in the near future and cannot 'afford' the weight of my Manfrotto 055XV tripod and 701RC2 head. What I really want to know is how stable a monopod would be for use with my Kowa TSN 824 Scope? Would I be wasting my money or should I look for a lighter tripod and head?

Thanks for any advice.

S Crisp,

when I use my Nikon ED50A I use a Manfrotto 079B (I think...) monopod with a side-bracket at the lower end to put my foot on. It is made from a bicycle bar-end. I have no video head but a medium-sized ballhead on top. This combination works extremely well for me and I consider it a lot steadier than my full-sized tripod.

Anyway, that tripod broke a while ago and I put another quick-release for the ball-head on my other scope, the not-so-heavy Pentax 65 mm.
But I find the combination with the larger scope unbalanced and awkward to use.
The scope is longer and heavier so I can't use the same grip as with the ED50A, although they are built in the same fashion.

A monopod is suitable for added support for digital SLRs and for binoculars, and for tiny scopes like the ED50A.
I would definitely not recommend it with an 82 mm scope. Consider getting a small scope, or can you use a high-mag binocular instead?

Good luck!

/L

i frequently use my monopod for my 80mm scope, not rock steady but still perfectly usable

S Crisp,

I use a Nikon ED50 with a monopod, but only for specific habitats. Like looksharp above, I think it works because the Nikon is short and light and I find it works best up to 20x magnification. 27x is often still very useable, 40x is still useable but only for a quick look. However, for any birding that involves standing for an extended period of time in one place e.g. scanning a reservoir, or a large flock of roosting waders I almost always take a tripod. I wouldn't even think about using my 80mm scope on a monopod. However, I suggest that my experience is no more or less valid than captaincarot's, because it all depends on where you personally draw the line between useable and unusable, and that has a lot to do with the type of birding you expect to do.

I therefore recommend that you take your scope to a "Field Day" (have a look at the In-Focus website for starters, but there are others) and try it out with a monopod before you buy one. If there are no convenient Field Days then your local Jessops and/or other camera shop is sure to have some monopods to try. If you can stand the embarrassment it's worth trying it outside the shop in daylight. Hopefully it will be a blustery day, which is your worst-case scenario, because theroretically a longer scope has more area to catch the wind, and more leverage for the wind to knock it about.

Regards

Mark

Monopod / Tripod

Thanks for advice. Assuming that I don't go with a monopod then which is the lightest tripod that will fully support my Kowa TSN 824?

Thanks.