Tripod or Monopod for Macro work? - Advice needed

[Marty]

I have read a number of posts about monopods and tripods and there seems to be an even split among the opinions. I am interested in having one or the other to steady my macro shots of bugs, flowers, plants, etc. I would also like to be able to shoot close to the ground sometimes. I have a Canon T2i andthe Canon100mm IS L macro lens (which is really a fine lens). Manfrotto seems to be the brand that always comes up. I also plan to bring it backpacking. I realize that there is not one device that does everything so eventually I may need two pieces of gear for all of my requirements. But I am interested in whether I should start with a mono or a tri for my non-backpacking local shooting. Thanks

[neuroanatomist]

For macro shooting, you need a tripod. A monopod simply will not do the job. Monopods are for stabilizing long/heavy lenses when you need to be moving around a lot (sports, hiking and shooting wildlife, etc.). Macro exposures can run several seconds, a monopod is not helpful there.


Manfrotto is a good compromise between quality and value. Good construction and stability, much better than el-cheapo brands, not nearly as expensive as Gitzo.


Personally, I have a Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 carbon fiber tripod with 488RC2 ballhead - it does a great job for all uses (goes low, and has a 90° adjustable center column). It's compact and light enough to strap to the outside of my camera backpack, and supports a reasonably heavy load (gripped 7D with 100-400mm or 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II - but that's about the heaviest load I'd want put onto it). I also have a Manfrotto 694CXcarbon fiber monopod with 234RC tilt head. That doesn't see nearly as much use as my tripod.

[wickerprints]

In my experience, macro exposures tend to be short. Subjects like flowers and insects do not stay perfectly still long enough, unless they are either dead, indoors, or there is no air movement. The problem with using a tripod for macro work is that it involves far too much fine-tuning and adjustment to obtain precise focus, by which time the subject may have moved. Thus, if you do use a tripod, a macro rail--or a lot of patience--is a must.


A monopod will help stabilize the camera while still permitting positional flexibility. This is the main reason why some macro shooters use monopods. However, this still does not solve the problem of subject movement at high magnification (e.g., 1:1 or greater). If you want to shoot with greater DOF and low ISO, this is where you get a macro flash. This is really the only solution. With flash lighting, handheld macro is a far more attractive option.


Here is an example of a macro shot of a soap film @ 1:1. No crop, 5D2 + EF 100/2.8L macro IS, 1/125s @ f/4 @ ISO 640. I used continuous lighting for this, although it wasn't bright enough for me to stop down more. The liquid in the film is moving quite rapidly, which makes motion blur a real problem. Tripod or monopod would have been useless.

[neuroanatomist]

Good points, wickerprints (and a very nice shot!).


I suppose it depends mostly on what/how you shoot, and personal preference for ambient vs. artificial lighting. For flowers, it's not as much of an issue since most flowers are not shot at that high a magnification, meaning the DoF constraints of near-1:1 distances aren't much of an impact. For moving insects, a flash is pretty much required, unless it's really bright outside.


Looking overmacromy shots, I've got a lot of indoor flower shots with exposures of several seconds - those clearly require a tripod. I've got a lot of outdoor shots with exposures between 0.5-1 seconds (ferns, leaves, wood, etc.), where a tripod was needed (I don't think a monopod would work for those). I've also got a fair number of flower shots from sunny days where exposures are faster than 1/200, meaning the IS on my macro lens wasn't even needed.


The other issue with a monopod is positioning - a good tripod can get much lower to the ground.I will say that I've seen some people using a monopod with a support bracket (like this one), which can get quite close to the ground. I think a bean bag would work for those shots as well.


I really hadn't considered using a monopod for macro work, I'll give it a try. But overall, I believe that a tripod would be more useful than a monopod for most non-handheld macro shooting.

[wickerprints]

Funny thing about tripods is that the primary reason I got one was not to take long exposures, but as just a simple support so that I could be in my own pictures! Thus my choice of the Benro Travel Angel. It just needed to hold the gear.


And then I started getting into macro, and wildlife, and now I find the tripod to be really fiddly to use. Yeah, I'm kinda lazy. And not exactly possessing a lot of upper body strength to handhold superteles for the wildlife. So I'm thinking I need a monopod.


Then I started doing night photography through several local groups and now am seeing the deficiencies of using a 1.8 pound travel pod for 30 second exposures. Okay, so maybe I need a big stable tripod too. And since I still do wildlife I may as well get a gimbal head, a Better Beamer, a macro twin flash, some diffusers and reflectors, focus stacking software, a portable blind, a 2x TC, an MP-E 65mm....


It all starts to add up super fast. So much freaking crap to buy and not enough money to buy it all! (Well, I *could* buy it--it just wouldn't be *wise* to buy it.)


But still, there are those situations where nothing seems to be a good solution and you yearn for something simple...like just being able to hold the damn camera, press a button, and be done with it. Part of me wonders what any of this is actually good for. There are times when I sit back and look at this collection of beautiful RAWs I have somehow stuffed my laptop hard drive with, and the loads of money I have spent to do this, and I wonder if I have unwittingly become a member of some kind of photographic cult, like Amway for artists. I look at these people taking photos of flowers with camera phones and think..."Wait. You can just do that?"


Maybe it's time for me to step back a little bit from the edge....

[Marty]

Thank you to both of you for the advice. I really like the soap film photo. Amazing. I am more of a wander about outdoors macro shooter so I am leaning towards the monopod in order to just be a little more stable than I am now. That way I can stop down a bit to increase the extremely shallow DOF on the 100mm IS L macro. That small loop bracket may be a possiblity or just a standard bean bag as one of you said. Thanks for all of the advice. And it occurs to me that in addition to all of the RAWs on your hard drives, photography also creates a community of interesting, artistic people with whom to interact. And that, in itself, is also enjoyable!