Couple of D200 Nature Shots

[Lava Lamp]

Nothin special -- jus tin the backyard for a few minutes seeing what the new camera can do with the Sigma 50-500mm and a monopod. All of them are cropped and adjusted a little.

[Knight]

Nice Captures, do you always use the monopod with 50-500mm ?

[Lava Lamp]

Nice Captures, do you always use the monopod with 50-500mm ?

I now try to use a monopod when I can. Conventional wisdom has it that you should always use a tripod with a lens that long, but I rarely do -- I'm just nto a tripod guy. The monopod makes a noticeable difference in my pictures.

[Knight]

I have a monopod also but never use it , My max range is 300mm at this moment but i think i will start using it from now on , just to get the feel of it .

[Lava Lamp]

I have a monopod also but never use it , My max range is 300mm at this moment but i think i will start using it from now on , just to get the feel of it .

I had a monopod I bought for $20 and it was pretty rickety, so I never really used it. I was getting a little frustrated with the 50-500mm and felt that I wasn't getting the quality photos out of it, that I wanted., so I bought a somewhat heavy, sturdy, Bogen monopod (679b, I think) and like I said, it makes a big difference. The drawback, of course, is that it is hard/impossible to shoot things moving overhead. The head I bought for the monopod has a quick release plate. Sometimes I take the camera off the monopod, sometimes, I just pick the whole thing up, but the results from that suffer.

[Speed]

Yeah, right, we hear you....

;-)

Great shots Lava Lamp! It's obvious that time spent with the D70 and D50 have paid off.

I prefer my tripod when feasible, but reality is, I shoot a lot more handheld shots then I should. I do use my monopod for soccer photo's though. The F5 with the 80-200mm f2.8 gets heavy, quick! The monopod takes the weight off me, plus it helps keep me level, and I know my images are better for using it. I don't bother with a head though, I just screw the monopod into the tripod collar of the 80-200.