Carl Stone

Hogan recommends the RRS monopod heads. He definitely does not like the pistol grip ball head on a monopod. IMO, if there was ever a mis-match, that's it. The swivel action of a tilt head is very close to hand holding, except you have added verticle support and that really lightens the load from the equipment. Hogan talks about it here in his article about safari equipment. How to Think About Equipment for Safari | Cameras and Photography Explained | Thom Hogan Scroll sown to "How are you going to keep everything steady?". To be clear, I'm not advocating trying to follow BIF with a huge lens mounted on a monopod. I might die of old age before I ever acquired the target. But if it was perched, or it was not a monster lens, well then, that's another matter. YMMV

Yes, on the Kirk and RRS heads the clamp can be rotated 90˚, allowing mounting by camera body or lens foot. I don't hold the monopod straight up and down, it's angled to the ground. Combining the fore and aft swivel of the head with monopod rotation keeps me dead on target. I don't want the head to rotate because it's already swiveled, but I can easily keep everything level as I turn the monopod by way of the camera body while adjusting the degree of offset with the swivel. It sounds way more difficult than it is. I have one hand on the camera body and the other on the lens, while my body motion controls the pan and swivel. That also allows some different effects using rear curtain sync and flash on moving objects after dark. Below is one of my favorite examples of what I'm talking about, and it's all done in camera, no PP on that subject. I call this one The Coupe from Hell.......

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Thanks for your response, Andrew. In answer to your question, yes, I'm looking at tilt heads, One can mount any head that they like on a monopod, but that does not qualify it as a monopod head. If you search for monopod heads at B&H tilt is what you will see. But. my original inquiry was for recommended monopod heads, not a pointer to the boatload of heads on the market. There are a lot of knock offs, a lot of inadequate models, and I'm not interested in buying blind, hoping that I won't make a mistake. So, do yoi have any experience with that Benro head that you listed? I am not willing to trust my gear to an unknown mount, and that one is unknown to me. As an example, the Bogen that I had was great, except that was not A/S compatible, and it's weight capacity won't support larger lenses. So, I could use it sometimes, but not all times. Another attempt at "saving money" up in smoke. If I had got the Kirk to begin with we would not have this thread. Budget, well I'm as averse to spending more than I need to as anyone else, but I have learned that it's better to buy right the first time as opposed to being forced to upgrade later because I failed to do that. I do not often mount large lenses, but I do want to be able to do so at will. A tilt head allows near instant changes in framing, allowing the user to follow moving target (no, I don't do BIF), while having solid support underneath. A modern and decent clamp allows re-orienting the swivel direction, so that you can go from lens mount to camera mount using the same clamp. A/S compatibility allows me to go from landscape to portrait using the L-bracket on my bodies. I know my needs, I was just looking for the best solution for me.

I know some folks that have had real problems using the lever clamp on a monopod on safari with expensive lenses mounted and the lever clamp screwed up. While I have not had that experience, neither do I want to, so I'll go with the knobs, which are captive anyway. I will move the camera between monopod and tripod, but I don't need to do it so rapidly that I need the lever clamp. I have the lever on my RRS clamp on my A/S B1, but the knob would serve me just as well. Then there's the guy that had to install some plastic washers in the RRS swivel bolt to take up the lateral slack. That should not be necessary at the prices RRS charges. So, Kirk is still in 1st place here, but thank you for your comments.

JD, I'm sorry, but, I don't need to try a pistol grip on a monopod to know how cumbersome it would be any more than I need to jump off of a building to know that I would regret it. I did not say anything about leveling, and a monopod is exactly the right tool for some applications. I don't know what your issue is over my choice of a good quality, useable head. I respect your choices for your use, but they are not workable choices for my use.

Hector, an Amazon review for that Kirk has it running ahead of the RSS models. Not only better priced, but according to that review, the Kirk has some drag friction while the RSS had none, it was either open or locked. The Kirk is in the lead here at this point.

Thanks Ed, you've just confirmed Hector, and what I suspected. That is, no inexpensive way into the RRS monopod heads, and used Kirk models aren't on every corner either. Looks like I get to pay, whoopee!

Great JD, if that works for you then wonderful. But a ball head on my monopod will not serve like a swivel head. That pistol grip one would be extremely cumbersome. You may have noticed that I also specified A/S compatibility, which I use all the time.

Thanks Hector, I will look into the Kirk a bit more. I really like the top end RRS head it's ability to quickly re-orient the swivel direction allowing you to move between camera body mount and collared lens mount. But they're really proud of it. I was hoping to find used, which is not happening. Thing is, I don't know what lens I might want to mount at some point, I have access to a good local rental source if the occasion arises. With that in mind, I'm trying to avoid buying stuff that might not be up to the task in the future. Manfrotto is okay for light stuff, as you say, but larger lenses push it beyond it's limits.

Thanks, but those are tripod heads and not monopod heads. Plus Bogen/Manfrotto stuff is not Arca-Swiss compatible, they use a proprietary clamping system instead of A/S. I want to be able to move my camera bodies between my tripods and monopod using the L-brackets on the bodies, and that means A/S compatible.

Tempe. Az.

Looking for a decent monopod head for my D7200. Finding used RRS heads is next to impossible, and new ones are not inexpensive, so what else id in their class with Arca-Swiss compatibility?

Reely?