Hi Ryan, On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 10:45:18 +1000, Ryan Lee wrote:
>Just bought myself a Manfrotto 680B monopod and a 322RC2 grip-style >ballhead, based on reading some other users' experiences on the net. I'll >probably end up occasionally switching the head between my Velbon Mountain >Chaser tripod legs and the monopod- I don't think I'll switch between them >so often that it'll become tedious. Right, I have the same head, and have been using it for a few months, almost exclusively on a Monopod ... >Was just wondering if any listers use/have used this head on their monopod >(or with the older 3265 even) I think I have the 3265, an older one anyway, three sections and pretty heavy :-) >and would like to share experiences. Do you >prefer to keep the grip horizontal or vertical? I prefer the grip horizontal. However, I did change the orientation from the factory-delivered right-hand usage to left-hand (just moving the camera mount RC2 thing to the other side) I like that a lot better since I can hold the grip with my left hand then, and still have my right-hand free to operate the camera. I usually have both hands in use then, stabilizing the camera and monopod with my right hand on all the proper controls on the *istD ... >Also, the lens I'm going to use is going to be mounted via tripod collar- >are Manfrotto plates the only compatible plates? They come across as being a >bit small. I've looked at RRS lens collar plates and they look pretty good, >but I couldn't find anything similar to mate with a Manfrotto clamp. I am not sure, I have a few Manfrottos, and also have one plate that is a little bit larger than the ones that come with the grip. Can't find it in the current catalogue though, got it with a used bal-head I think. These types of plates are called the '200PL' series, at least in the European catalogue ... My main gripe with manfrotto is that they have at least 5 incompatible types of quick-release mechanisms. For my geared head (405) I have totally different (much larger) and very flat type of plates (410PL). Makes it a bit hard to mix and match lenses/tripods easily ... (I have such a larger plate screwed solid to the A* 300mm 2.8 :-) Regards, JvW ------------------------------------------------------------------ Jan van Wijk; http://www.dfsee.com/gallery
