I own two of these: The Slik 300 mini-pod (4 section, grooved tubes, plastic snap locks) and the Bogen 3016 (3 section, metal lever locks). The Slik is a little flimsy, not suitable for anything much heavier than a 70-300 consumer zoom. The Bogen is _very_ nice and would probably easily support an 80-200 f2.8.
I'd recommend a ball head on top. I've got the Bogen "tilt-swivel", and it only tilts or swivels, depending on how the camera is screwed on. I find anything but a ball-head limiting, and favor my Giottos M1001 (under $100) on monopods.
Amita Guha wrote:
So what constitutes a "good" monopod? I might be heading to Adorama this week to look at their Podmatic and others. I'm mainly looking for something portable and the Podmatic's the shortest one I've heard of (14" folded). Anything else in particular I should look for? I mainly want an extra bit of steadiness for shooting events and nature with long lenses. I might be doing a bit of sports shooting but not much.
Thanks, Amita
