What is a Monopod?

The monopod is an aid to providing stability for your camera during a shot. We provide a full definition of a monopod in our glossary (see: Monopod).

It is a false economy to buy the cheapest available of something. Good quality and great design are not cheap. However, popularity often brings the price down to reasonable levels. Good quality, well designed equipment, becomes affordable. This superb Monopod from Manfrotto, the quality tripod manufacturer, is a great example.

Manfrotto have a wide range of monopods. The Manfrotto MM294A3 294 is a popular popular monopod in Aluminium, built in three sections. It is compact light, durable, and reasonably priced.

The fittings, especially the clamps on the leg joints, are superbly designed. Cheap monopods often suffer from poor or wobbly clamp joints which reduces the monopod stability. Another feature of this model is the aluminium mounting disc. Cheap monopods often have plastic platforms. This does not perform well, especially with bigger compacts and DSLRs. This model also features both the 1/4in and the 3/8in standard tripod screw sizes – most monopods only feature the 1/4in size.

A suitable head for this monopod is the Manfrotto 234RC monopod tilt-head (Quick Release) . It’s a simple tilt head which allows a camera to be turned through 90 degrees for either vertical or horizontal format shots. It features a quick release head for immediate release of your camera for hand-held shots.