Spend my £500 - Monopod & head

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Blackbird

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Mark
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Looking for the best monopod and ball head for that money.

Largest lenses used will be the 100-400L and later in the year 70-200 2.8 ii and obviously smaller lenses.

Main usage, slower moving sports surfing, running etc and wildlife that I find on my wanderings around the coast path.



Priorities are

1. Stability ...............I know get a tripod :)
2. Fluid quality head
3. Compactness
4. Weight
5. nothing to short I'm 6'2" lol

in that order

I live at the very end of the world and have no camera shops to speak of to make any comparison tests

Any thoughts appreciated
 
Well, you can get a top-notch Gitzo monopod for around £200. The GM5541 is the canine's gonads for £220.

Not sure why a ball head is required. If I had £280 to spend on a monopod head then I'd get a RRS Monopod head from the US - total cost including shipping and taxes will be around £200. It's a simple, but strong, tilt head - rotational movement is done by rotating the monopod.
 
Another vote for the same kit from me, the Gitzo GM5541 is outstanding.
 
RRS monopod head pic of it here but scroll down to the bottom of page if your 6'2"

Try it with the Wimberley Head now tha be nice
 
Try it without a head, I have tried heads on my mono and hated it, now I just use a RRS QR clamp and find it a lot better.
 
Thanks all for the input, I've already had my eye on the Gitzo GM5541 I'll investigate the head issue further
 
malla1962 said:
Try it without a head, I have tried heads on my mono and hated it, now I just use a RRS QR clamp and find it a lot better.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm currently headless, just an arca-swiss plate, on my monopod. Hate using a ballhead with a big lens, tried the manfrotto tilt head and it would droop with my 300 f2.8 - so I'm trying to persuade myself that the RRS head would be a good idea.
 
hollis_f said:
Well, you can get a top-notch Gitzo monopod for around £200. The GM5541 is the canine's gonads for £220.

Not sure why a ball head is required. If I had £280 to spend on a monopod head then I'd get a RRS Monopod head from the US - total cost including shipping and taxes will be around £200. It's a simple, but strong, tilt head - rotational movement is done by rotating the monopod.
Click to expand...
Agreed, one of the big boy Gitzos, I have the GM 5531 I think...not sure I never used it!

I also agree a ballhead for monopod is a bad idea, the RRS monopod head is a much better solution :thumbs:
 
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