monopod feet

Monopod With Feet

Several monopod feet are worth considering if you are considering upgrading your monopod accessories.

Monopods with feet are essentially tripods with short legs. That brings up the age old debate of monopod with feet vs tripod.

Monoods with give you better stability than unaided hand-held video and better sharpness than hand-held digital still photography. There are many different designs with an even wider range of price tags.

Understandably, they don't give you the same degree of stability as you get with a bonafide tripod but they do give you great size and portability.

advantages of monopod feet

1. Enables a monopod to stand on its own.  That frees up both of your hands.
2. Monopods with feet are smaller than tripods.  That makes them lighter to carry and also more easily packed into camera bags or luggage than a tripod with full-sized legs would be.
3. When set up the legs only spread out about a total of one foot.  That is a much smaller footprint than a regular tripod.  
4. You can set them up in much smaller spaces where traffic is heavy or you have to worry about infringing into other people's space.

disadvantages of monopod feet

1. Stability is less than a full fledged tripod with widely separated legs.
2. Heavier that a single legged monopod.
3. Cost substantially more than just a monopod.
4. More photography equipment that is subject to break down.

how to use a monopod with feet

When the feet are retracted, they work like any other monopod would.  Adjust the height of your camera by extending or retracting the monopod sections.  The big differences come with how the feet are mounted to the monopod.

Some monopods are designed with a fluid cartridge at the bottom of the leg. This gives the videographer or photographer the ability to make very smooth pans while shooting. A ball and socket design gives your monopod the stability while giving the video shooter a great way to pivot the camera.

The number of tools at our disposal for great photography and video shooting is at an all-time high. It can be confusing to sift through all of the "noise" by all of the companies that make these accessories.

One of the useful places to get information is to read reviews and opinions of actual customers who have purchased any given camera gizmo you are investigating.

I give my opinions based on over 50 years of handling camera equipment. Yes, that's how old I am. That doesn't mean I am the only one worth listening to.  I learn a lot by reading a ton of reviews on household items, electronics and yes digital photography equipment from Amazon's customers.

They sell so much to such a wide variety of customers that you are bound to get some insight about any product by reading them.

Ordering from Amazon, after going there from a link on my site helps me keep this site going........and it doesn't affect your purchase at all.  I appreciate your help.

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Here is the Review of Monopod With Feet that I Own - A Koolehaoda

I chose to get a Koolehaoda Monopod with folding feet. It's small enough to carry with me just about anywhere. It's plenty strong enough to hold my full frame Canon 5d Mark III with a Tamron 150-600mm Lens attached. 

Not too long before I researched this article I scoffed at the idea of using monopod feet. It's likely because we used nothing but tripods in photography school and I never even used a monopod until I got one for free with a background I purchased a few years ago.

Now I use my monopod more frequently for two reasons.

1. I shoot more video. Although it's not as smooth as a dedicated video camera stabilizer, it makes a big improvement over the shakiness you get with handheld video.
2. My recently acquired Tamron 150-600 is heavy and challenging to use hand held. I love the support that the monopod supplies for the super telephoto/camera combination.

Keep shooting. Keep learning. Keep improving.

ABOUT BRUCE LOVELACE

Bruce is the publisher of this website. He is the author of the book "Improve Your Photography Instantly."  Read more on Bruce on his Bio Page. He's been known as The Traveling Photographer ever since 1994. Read more about this website.

View some of Bruce's photos on Instagram.   Visit the Facebook Page. Watch him on YouTube.  Bruce runs photo workshops for kids and adults, and provides one-on-one photography coaching.

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