Beyond the Tripod

 

I do a lot of Architectural photography in old dark Italian monuments. At the moment I am doing a series on Romanesque Architecture. I always use a tripod when I can, but this is not always possible for a series of reasons. I do a lot of HDR and I needed some way of fixing the camera in position.

After a bit of lateral thinking, I decided to dig out my old Manfrotto monopod, that I used under my 300 2.8, when I did performing arts photography. It has three screw in feet that converts it into a free standing platform. Maybe using IBIS in the Z7 to compensate for the instability, I would have a solution.

I did a quick experiment locally, before a planned trip to Brescia, where I knew my tripod might get frowned upon in the Rotonda. It seems to work. I let the vibrations die down and with a cable release I arrived at 30 seconds in a place with no air movements. In Brescia, it gave me some good sharp HDR frames at slow shutter speeds. I obviously used a cable release.

After the Manfrotto experiment, I bought a "Three Legged Thing" Alan 2.0 Carbon Fibre Monopod . Here are a few thoughts about it after a few trail runs in real shooting situations. I always try out new gear this way on stuff I can shoot again

It seems to dampen vibrations a little better than the old one and is much lighter. But as I expected it is a bit unstable with a heavy lens moved to vertical position. Carbon fibre tubes are more flexible than aluminium tubes of the same size. So a foot pressed down on one leg is needed for security and the feet need rotation to keep the centre of gravity within the footprint of the feet. ( It is best to have the camera strap round your neck or some way that you can stop the whole rig overturning with a heavy lens). It was fine with the 14-30 F4. The Nikon F 24PC was at the limit. With the camera in the horizontal position the centre of gravity falls within the feet footprint, so even with the 24PC there were no problems. Anyway great care is needed!

A Manfrotto L bracket solved the problem elegantly. It keeps the centre of gravity of the camera centred above the pole, or at least in the circle traced by the feet.

IBIS in the Z7 works well to eliminate any small vibrations. It was fine for exposures up to 25 seconds. I presume it is the amplitude of the vibrations rather than the duration that is the limiting factor with IBIS. I guess nobody has ever considered the usefulness of IBIS on unsteady tripods. I use the in camera level, and it is a good indicator of the vibrations. When it is still I can shoot ( about 10 seconds).

The tripod will be obviously my first choice for Architecture, but for travel and places where a tripod might be problematic, this looks like a really good solution. It is almost impossible to get things perfectly plumb, so a bit of post is needed. But HDR frames are possible and I can shot at base ISO.

The Alan Monopod is made in the UK and seems to be well engineered, and at a price that was cheaper than some similar ones coming from the Far East, So far highly recommended. I had got the choice down to two models, so a pinch of patriotism tipped the balance. I might add their lightweight ball head, as my Manfrotto weighs more than the monopod!

Rotonda di Brescia

Rotonda di Brescia

Rotonda di Brescia

Rotonda di Brescia

Duomo di Reggio Emilia

Duomo di Reggio Emilia

Duomo di Carpi

Duomo di Carpi

Duomo di Carpi

Duomo di Carpi

San Pietro Modena