Travel Tripod vs Monopod

[jfindley]

Next week I'll be taking a vacation to Europe. Heading to eastern France in burgundy region, Annecy in the French alps, training it through Switzerland staying in a few small alpine towns, then ending in lake como in Italy. I currently have a manfrotto tripod, but it's too heavy to lug around. Im debating if I should get a light travel tripod or a monopod. The travel tripods tend to be shorter in height. A monopod would get me at eye level, but would I miss Luton any longer required exposures for potential night shots. Open to thoughts and suggestions.

I shoot with a 6D, 24-105 mm f4L, and a 50mm f1.8.

[jamsus]

In my opinion there is no easy solution to that. A light travel monopod would probably be a good choiche because 6D + 24-105 or 50 is a lightweight combo and maybe you don't need a big head or something else... the problem maybe could be the wind.

I would discard the idea of the monopod, i find it usefull just in "sport\wildlife\heavy lens" situation

[Kayaker72]

It depends on what you want to do. A monopod is really for steadying your camera/lens while you are holding the camera. This is usually for sports/wildlife photography with bigger/heavier lenses.

A tripod is for supporting your camera when you are not holding it. This allows for long exposures or for you to run and be in the picture.

My guess is that you would like a travel tripod. I bought mine in 2012, and here is the thread where I slowly figured out the differences and what I wanted. I ended up with a Gitzo 1542T, Markins Q3T ballhead, and Really Right Stuff plates. I would put Gitzo and Really Right stuff legs at the top of the market and Really Right stuff as well as a number of others at the top for ball heads. But I know others really like Oben, manfrotto, induro and other brands.

BTW, I love my selection. It does exactly what I wanted. Small, lightweight and steady and travels very well.

[peety3]

It depends on what you want to do. A monopod is really for steadying your camera/lens while you are holding the camera. This is usually for sports/wildlife photography with bigger/heavier lenses.

A tripod is for supporting your camera when you are not holding it. This allows for long exposures or for you to run and be in the picture.

A tripod also allows disciplined shooting, regardless of exposure length. Think "tilt-shift", or architectural shots (where you want to be able to get the camera centered, etc., then be able to fine-tune the positioning), or just anything where you want the ability to repeat the shot, etc.

I know that my needs in a camera/support system are different than others, but I'm having a tough time contemplating the concept of a lightweight travel monopod. I keep thinking that any camera combo light enough to not overstress a lightweight monopod is light enough to handhold, and who would want to try a semi-long exposure on a monopod, but alas I do realize that I'm not everyone. I also know that I just added a second beefier monopod to our fleet (since my wife asked for a monopod, so she got my RRS MC-34 and I upgraded to the MC-45), AND I just added a second beefier tripod to our fleet (same deal: wife gets the Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 and I upgraded to the RRS TVC-34L with leveling head); I can't imagine buying a travel monopod and/or tripod after growing the fleet as much as I just did.

[jfindley]

Thanks for setting me straight. A tripod is definitely the way to go. Just purchased a Sirui T2005X.