Hands up: how many legs do you stand on?

[Tannin]

If you use a long lens for sport or bird work - something like a 400 or a 600 - how do you support it?

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PS: if you hand-hold a lot but also use a tripod or monopod, please just vote for tripod / monopod.

[jim]

Hand held mostly. Braced against a tree or something for choice. Chasing birds with a tripod is beyond me, and I have nor want no monopod. Though if I'm going to use a long lens for a careful landscape I'll use a tripod.

[tandeejay]

Reason I voted tripod is because I only have a tripod. Have thought about a monopod, but don't have one yet, so it cannot influence my vote yet....

[Plays With Light]

I'm always on the monopod with the 120-400mm lens, with the camera braced hard against my cheek it becomes a tripod of sorts. It's the convenience of being able to take off quickly after a bird, without too much added weight and cumbersome load that I like about using a monopod. I know some folks have a preference for a tripod and gimble head, but it's just too cumbersome for me to lug around. Maybe if I was set up in a hide for hours on end focused on a nest or known perch it would be different.

[Tannin]

Most bird people seem to use monopods if they are not hand-holding (or that's the impression I get from reading threads here). I had one once but lent it to a friend and never got around to asking for it back. (Or maybe he kept it and paid me for it - don't remember.) Never really cottoned to it. Seemed a lot harder to carry around than just a lens, and you can't just set it up and leave it standing the way you do with a tripod. This makes standing waiting for a bird to turn up a bit of an ordeal after a while. With a tripod you can (depending on the species) even sit down on the ground and relax, but be ready to stand up again quickly and unobtrusively. Possibly also the weight of my big lens is a factor. At the shutter speeds I like to work with hand-holding is near enough to just as good as a tripod so far as camera movement goes (especially given IS) but I can't do it for very long at a time, and with shy birds, raising the lens back up to eye level after a rest often spooks them.

But I must give a monopod another go at some stage.

Interesting to see so many people not using monopods - I thought MP would be an easy winner of the poll.

[Plays With Light]

When we join up with the local bird watching groups it's either handheld or a monopod for the photographers amongst us, some of the fellows when out by themselves use tripods and gimbal heads when they know they are going to be waiting for ages on birds or are out and have all day to spend chasing down their shots and therefore have the time to wait patiently. I'm yet to fall into that category, as I always have severe time restrictions.

[Glenda]

I'm all hand held at present but fast approaching/already reached the stage where I should have a monopod. I rely on fast shutter at present but would like to upgrade my long lens and if and when I do think I'll have to get something to help support the weight. I know holding the current lens up to my eye waiting for that little bird to pop into a better position is becoming increasingly difficult.

[arthurking83]

I've tried using tripod for some (mainly sport), but this was only testing to see how it worked for me.
I then tried using the tripod as a monopod(ie. legs all together) to simulate a mono, to see if I could use a monopod, but didn't like that either.

Strangely tho, most of my usage of any long lens has been on a tripod. But that's using it for landscapes and other slow paced pursuits.

[Tannin]

^ Ha! I've seen you using a tripod.

Most normal people spread the legs out, place the tripod on the ground, then bend down and put their eye to the viewfinder. Not our Arfur - he folds the legs together like a monopod, stands up straight, and lifts the whole thing up in the air to bring the viewfinder to his eye.

Cash in a plain brown paper bag please. I have the negatives.

[Gazza]

I've voted for monopod...
I'm one of those lazy birders. Find a nice perch with good light, then wait for something to land

I have a quick release plate between the lens and ball head...a flick of the switch, and the monopod drops off.
Also, I've recently attached an old camera strap to it as well so I can now sling it over the shoulder if I have to (which hasn't happened yet)

[arthurking83]

.... and lifts the whole thing up in the air to bring the viewfinder to his eye.

.....

Hmmmm ... something to do with weight counterbalance, zen, ying and yang, dianetics, and crazy mad professor type hair styles, maybe!
I kind'a remember the situation a little, and it may have been that I was expecting an earthquake to strike at any moment .. thus eliminating the tripod to ground connection, hence minimising vibrations.

[Mary Anne]

Everything is Hand Held for me.. I am also a lazy Birder, and could not be bothered carting anymore gear around, the camera + lens is heavy enough.

[merlin1]

Hand held for me, I seldom sit and wait. Does get heavy after a few K's.
Ross.

[Brian500au]

Horses for courses for me. For wildlife and portrait work if I am using a lens under 400mm then I normally venture out hand held. Over 400mm then it is a monopod, but if I know I will be there for a while then I will pull out the tripod with a gimbal head.

If I ever do cityscape or landscape it is always a tripod with a ball head.

For travel photography I normally take a light kit so handheld is normally the go, but it I need to take a long shot then I will use some type of improvised support.

[Geoff79]

Sunrise/sunset landscapes and seascapes, and waterfalls = tripod.

Everything else = handheld.

Though I did try (and by try I mean failed) my hand at “birding” on the weekend, with my 18-250mm lens (completely inadequate for the cause) and I used a tripod on the waterfront shooting out onto Tuggerah lake.

I think if I ever get a zoom or even macro lens, I’d probably like to use a tripod if I can. But I imagine, especially with macro, that’d rarely be beneficial... I assume.


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[DacrimL]

Occasionally I will use a tripod (but need to replace said implement first........$$$)
I do use the monopod for some sporting shots
But mainly use it hand held or braced on something sturdy if need be.......the main reason I am getting too many so called soft shots

I know my problems and most of the fixes for them but $$$ play a major part of the fixes now.......in time, in time