I have shot rodeo and horse shows off and on for over 30 years. This last year I started experiencing a lot of pain in the back from the weight of my Canon DSLR, battery pack, and lens, This year I am considering using a monopod, however it restricts my options for quick vertical/horizontal format switching. I am wondering if anyone else has used a monopod and what solutions have been tried. Thanks
If your lens allows, just loosen up the screw holding the lens and flip the camera back and forth (vertical / horizontal) as needed. I shoot on a monopod and really don't have much of a problem going back and forth.
I shoot with a monopod just about every single time I take the camera out of my bag. I'm a Nikon guy, but my 70-200 and 300 and the 400 all have a collar that allows you to quickly rotate the lens and body while it is attached to the monopod. Try it. Once you shoot a couple of events, you won't think twice about it....and your back and neck will be very happy about it too.
I'm not sure how much lighter it will be for you, but I sometimes use a Wimberley gimbal style head mounted on a monopod when I photograph birds. There are other manufacturers, but most will require an arca-swiss style plate be mounted to a collar on the lens.
I use a monopod with my 400 2.8 when I shoot horse shows but I almost always shoot in portrait mode as this gives me more room to frame the shots when the horses jump. If I have wanted to shoot in landscape, I just follow what others have said and loosen the screw on the collar just a bit so it makes for a quick changeover.
thursdaylsr wrote:
Look up TrenchMonkey over in the Nikon forums, he's a big rodeo guy. I think he uses a Bushhawk for his work if I remember.
Thanks, Justin. I'm usually using my BushHawk and 200 f2 but if I'm gonna be more than a couple
of hours then out comes one of my monopods. As previously mentioned....loosen the tripod ring to
facilitate a smooth transition from landscape to portrait. I have tilt heads on my Berlebach/Manfrotto
and leave them on the loose side as well. The mono is primarily for taking some of the weight off. HTH
I found carrying the big camera/lens/flash all day made me sore when shooting horse shows for long hours inside the show ring, where there is normally no place to even sit down. Often there is more carrying than shooting. I don't like using a monopod, so I got a Cotton Carrier, http://www.cottoncarrier.com which really helped a lot. It distributes the weight very well.
They have a chest mount and hip mount version, or you can combine them and carry two bodies.
