Self standing monopods and pole panos using monopods

This morning I checked my email, hotukdeals and then got granny her breakfast. After that I went on my comp and did a bit of work on my website. Then I went in the garden for a bit, and saw a small black snail (it looked like a small slug with a very small snail shell on its back) and a cranefly. I came back in and went on the pinternet, went on Flickr for a bit and then checked the panoguide thread about shooting panos in public places. TTurner posted to say that the Manfrotto 682B self standing monopod works okay as long as it's on a flat surface. That sounded quite good to me so I did some more research on the 682B and 678 Folding base.

It seems that with the 682B/679B/680B/681B the monopod is hollow at the base and there is a space that the 678 folding base is inserted into. For using the monopod as an extended centre column in a tripod it seems you need a rotator (like the Manfrotto 300N) that is screwed on top of the normal centre column (or a monopod that is replacing the centre column). Then you need to get an adapter made with a thread that inserts in the bottom of the monopod. The bottom of the monopod then screws onto the rotator, so you can rotate the whole monopod. It was also interesting to see how Hans Nyberg was using a light boom adapter with his monopod setup in it to take offset panos (useful for taking panos over the edge of cliffs, bridges etc).

After that I decided to see whether it would be possible to do a pole pano using my existing tripod (Benro C-428) and monopod (Manfrotto 676B). First off I tried to find a way to mount the pano head to the bottom of the monopod (intending to use monopod upside down so the top is near the ground and the bottom up in the air). The 676B doesn't have way to remove the rubber foot at the bottom or to screw anything into the bottom. First I tried clipping the large clip from the Wimberley Plamp to the rubber foot, then to that I clamped the Manfrotto 035 Superclamp. I had to do it this way instead of clamping the superclamp directly to the monopod because if I did that the 1/4" screw thread would have been on the side of the monopod rather than on top. Then I tried screwing the Nodal Ninja offset camera plate onto the superclamp, to try and get it so the screwthread to mount the pano head on was over the end of the monopod (to eliminate parallax errors when rotating the monopod). Unfortunately the offset camera plate wasn't long enough to get the screwthread over the rubber foot of the monopod, and it didn't feel that stable either.

So instead I tried just attaching a chinese Gorillapod SLR Zoom knock off on the end of the monopod, and this worked fine. Next I needed to find a way to attach the monopod to the tripod. I tried inserting the monopod into the tripod instead of the centre column, but the clips for the sections on the bottom and the plastic bit at the top were too big to get the monopod into the centre column hole.

So I decided that I would have to find something that would let me screw the male thread of the monopod together with the male thread on the tripod. I got the box of nuts and bolts from the garage and found a 3/8" nut and a 1/4" nut that I could part screw the monopod into and part screw the tripod into.

I needed a ballhead on the bottom to act as a rotator, I tried my FLM Centerball 18 ballhead, but that was no good as it only rotates when the ball isn't locked. So that meant I would have to use my Markins M10 head, which requires a quick release plate. Then I realised that actually I could take the screw out of the QR plate and screw the monopod into the top of the QR plate, so I did that and took it out to the garden for a test drive.


Pole pano test setup
Originally uploaded by djeyewater

When I extended the monopod to its' maximum height, it seemed to bend over quite a bit as the sections are quite loose fitting and so each section bends over slightly at an angle. However, now looking at the photo I took and straightening it in photoshop, the problem doesn't look quite so bad. I think that really I needed to level the tripod first, levelling the setup on the ballhead won't do any good because you have to rotate the ballhead (unless you just twisted the whole setup round on the ball rather than rotating the whole ballhead).

After dinner I watched Lost with Maccy and Ben, then me and Mac started watching a Korean martial arts film. Partway through Autumn watch started, so I went and watched that instead. When Autumn watch finished I went on the pinternet to check into the price of the Manfrotto 679-682 models. It seems that the 682 is actually equivalent to the 681+679, and actually works out cheaper.
The below comparison table is using data gathered from the warehouse express website:

Model	682B	681	680	679B	678
Weight (g)	1150	800	830	600	420
In-built head type	None	None	60mm	None
Max load (g)	12000	12000	10000	10000
Min height	69.0 cm	67.0 cm	51cm	64.0 cm
Max height	172.0 cm	161.0 cm	154cm	156.0 cm
Leg sections	3	3	4	3
Price	£62.95	£35.99	£34.99	£29.99	£34.95

After checking that I did a check to see if the 681(B) or 678 can be bought cheaper elsewhere. They can, but only by a couple of quid so still not as cheap as the 682B. Next I checked what the cheapest price for the 682 was, a couple of places have it for a quid or two cheaper (£62 @ www.collegecameras.co.uk, £61 @ www.devoncamera.co.uk). Then for all those you need to add £8 P&P on. I think for the sake of a couple of quid I would rather order from WEX since I already have an account with them and have ordered stuff from them with no problems before.

Food
Breakfast: Crunchy nut cornflakes; orange juice.
Lunch: 2x cheese on toasts; lettuce; cherry tomatoes; apple; double take (fake kitkat); cup o' tea.
Dinner: Slice of cheese & tomato pizza; slice of pepperoni pizza; mixed veg; chips. Pudding was small apple pie warmed in the oven with custard. Coffee; Roses.
Supper: Choc chip cookie; milk chocolate digestive; hot chocolate.