monopod hunt. johnny 5 needs input

Darren Levine

Darren Levine

Veteran
nothing better than a good monopod, and im in need of a new one. i'm rather attracted to the self leveling ones with the little legs at the bottom. seems there is the tried and true manfrotto one, which swivels from the base, and the newer benro ones which use a fluid head for the swiveling. anyone have any experience with either?

http://www.amazon.com/Benro-A48TBS4...&qid=1377891870&sr=8-1&keywords=benro+monopod

http://www.amazon.com/Benro-A38TBS2...&qid=1377891879&sr=8-2&keywords=benro+monopod

http://www.amazon.com/Manfrotto-560...qid=1377891879&sr=8-12&keywords=benro+monopod
 
I have a Benro. The taller verison, but mine has flip-lock legs, not twist lock. I like it, pretty handy. I chose it over the Manfrotto because it has panning on the video head not just tilt. This way you are not relying on the bearing at the bottom. This is an issue some have had on the Manfrotto with grinding and popping when they pan.

It's light weight so moving from setup to setup while I'm on location is not a problem, i just leave it all attached. I do wish the quick release plate were a standard size... but I know that's asking a lot for competing companies to play nice.

All in all, it's built well, it was a little cheaper than the Manfrotto 561, and it's made me pretty happy.
 
I have the Benro also, the one you listed first. Like Dan's but I have the twist lock legs as shown on Amazon. I looked at the Manfrotto monos for a long time and never pulled the trigger because every time I got to play with one hands on, I just never liked the ergonomics. I noticed the panning issue that Dan mentioned for example. I've only had the Benro since May, but so far I'm very happy with it.

Now the question is - the twist lock or the flip lock legs :)
 
I have a number of monopods including a slightly older version of the Manfrotto with feet.

The Manfrotto mostly sits on the shelf while a more tradional model lives with my sticks in a flight case.
 
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