Love them or hate them, massive lenses are just a requirement for certain types of photography. Sports, wildlife and other forms of action when you’re shooting from a distance all need them. Their size makes them a pain, though.
Even with a monopod, they can be quite difficult to shift around on location, especially if you need to act quickly. Colin Brister, though, has developed a solution. It’s called the SpeediGimbal (buy here) and you can stick it on the monopod you already own.
Colin’s video does a great job of showing how it works and what it does – with a dash of dad humour thrown in for good measure. Essentially, it’s like a ball head, except, it’s instantly detachable and instantly uhh… attachable.
A monopod head in 2 parts
It’s a two-part system. One is a ball that attaches to the top of your monopod. The other is a collar that mounts beneath your camera or the tripod collar of your lens. Both of these are made from nylon, so you don’t have to be as delicate as you would were it machined from aluminium or another metal.
As well as providing some cushioning when you plop your rig on top of your monopod, it should also minimise any wear while using it – another issue with metal-on-metal.
Not to be left unattended
It’s not the ideal head for unattended shooting. You can’t put this thing on a tripod and leave it there, firing with a remote shutter. Gravity will kick in and you’ll lose your camera and lens. But if you often find yourself moving around a location a lot and need to be able to respond quickly to what’s going on in front of you, it’s a great-looking solution.
The speed Colin demonstrates in the video, switching between stances and removing and replacing the camera on top of the monopod is very effective. You could potentially achieve a similar range of motion with a regular ball head, however, it would be much more difficult to disconnect the two when you need to move quickly.
This is why many wildlife and sports shooters just leave their monopod attached and locked all the time when wandering. Of course, this usually results in a 4-5ft pole sticking out behind you, whacking people in the legs as you walk by.
Not with SpeediGimbal, though. Here, you just lift it off, camera in one hand, monopod in the other, and leg it to the next spot. When you’re ready to shoot again, just pop it back on top and you’re ready to go in an instant.
Price and Availability
The SpeediGimbal monopod head is available to buy now for £65 (about $82) from Colin’s website.
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