Tripods and monopods are crucial for stability in photography because shooting handheld is ideal. Whether you’re shooting stills or video, stabilizing your camera with a tripod or monopod will help you reduce (or completely eliminate) camera wobbles.
But are tripods better than monopods?
In this tripod vs. monopod guide, we take a look at what tripods and monopods are, their key feature differences, and how they perform in different photography styles.
What Is a Tripod?
As the name suggests, a tripod is a camera support system with three legs. The legs included in a tripod typically fold and spread into three or four parts, depending on the brand. A tripod also needs a head, which is placed on top of the legs and serves as a platform for mounting your camera.
When it comes to selecting legs and a head for a tripod, most models provide you with complete freedom. In other words, practically any head you buy can be used with any combination of tripod legs. But remember that if you’re selective, there are different tripod heads made for specific jobs; some are best for studio work, some for astrophotography, others for panoramas, etc.
Pros
Better Stability
This is the main benefit of tripod use for photographers. Stabilizing the camera is advantageous for various shooting styles, including long exposure, low light, and HDR shooting. It eliminates camera shakes and reduces the physical strain of hand-holding that might lead to unsteady pictures during a protracted shoot.
Optimal for Low-Light Photography
It would be best to acquire the proper exposure while shooting in low light conditions, such as during the blue hour or at night. The exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed) is a set of three tools you can use to manage exposure.
You should try to catch as much light as possible when working in a gloomy environment. You can achieve it by turning up the ISO, but the pictures you get will be noisy and blurry. Alternatively, you may enlarge the aperture, but this will result in a shallow depth of field. The only option is to use a slower shutter speed, where a tripod will come in handy.
The camera must be steady to achieve a clear shot when the shutter speed is slow since even the most minor vibration of your hand can blur the picture. The most straightforward technique to avoid shakiness is securing the camera on a tripod.
Perfect for Long Exposure Settings
Long exposure refers to a prolonged time when the camera’s shutter is open and lets more light into the lens over a more extended period. Use a slow shutter speed of at least a few seconds or minutes to catch movement, especially in poor light.
A slow shutter speed necessitates complete stillness from the camera. A tripod is necessary for this approach since you won’t be able to keep the camera steady for that long handheld.
Better for HDR Photography
High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography uses editing software to blend at least two identical photos taken at various exposures. This method is used to balance out scenes with a lot of dark and bright contrast.
By hand-holding the camera, you won’t get the photos to line up as perfectly. But a tripod will save you a great deal of time and work compared to manually aligning them in editing. The tripod will enable you to take identical pictures of the same composition since the camera will be stationary. When shooting, alter the exposure settings every so often.
Ideal for Landscape Photography
The aperture is a crucial camera parameter for taking landscape photos. Aperture settings between f/8 and f/16 are preferable when photographing the natural world. You’ll therefore have a large depth of field. Additionally, everything will be in sharp focus because the light that enters is reduced because of such little openings.
Increasing the ISO will result in noise appearing in the image. Therefore, you must slow down the shutter speed. To avoid hand motions in this scenario, a tripod is required.
Cons
Slow Setup
You run a higher risk of missing a nice photo if setting up the tripod takes too long. Using a tripod in a busy area is not always suitable. It makes you a hindrance to others passing through the same street.
Can be Unwieldy
They may be cumbersome to move around with, bumping into things and people and generally getting in the way. And if you set it loosely, you risk your expensive camera and lens being knocked down and crashing.
Not Suitable for Subsequent Shooting
Not suitable for rapid and subsequent shooting because a tripod can slow down your camera’s quick motions if you need to record moving scenes. Everything will move more slowly when using a tripod because its primary function is stability. So it’s essential to decide whether a tripod or a monopod is better for you by first considering which is more important to you: stability, portability, or speed.
What Is a Monopod?
A monopod is a camera support device with just one leg and an attachment on top. It doesn’t require a head because a camera may be attached straight to it. However, doing so will restrict your ability to move vertically; that’s why you have to use it with either a pan and tilt or a ball head to avoid this issue.
Most photographers use monopods for fast movements and flexibility. A mobile monopod is preferable over a tripod depending on usage, such as an event coverage where you’ll constantly move to capture many things.
Some monopods can stand on their own thanks to leg extensions. But I don’t recommend these as they’re less superior to tripods.
Pros
Great Ergonomics
There are a lot of very large/awkward tripods out there taking up space and overall being a threat to people and other tripods, especially if there are many tripod photographers in a cramped area. Because a monopod has one leg, other photographers and uninvolved bystanders are significantly safer around this type of equipment than they are around tripods. Additionally, a monopod is simple to store in your camera bag.
Easy to Set Up
With a monopod, you only need to extend one leg and mount your camera. This sure beats stretching three legs and adjusting one or more of those legs when you find yourself shooting on an uneven surface.
Mobility
Due to their ease of setup and lightweight, monopods help outdoor, and sports photographers stay mobile.
Strong Support
Monopods are ideal for supporting the heft of a heavyweight lens/camera combo. This way, they prevent or lessen arm aches and pains after a long shooting day. You may have observed that sports photographers frequently use a monopod to stabilize their long lenses when shooting.
Cons
Less Stability
Using a monopod won’t significantly reduce camera shake. Monopods are great for improving hand-holding. Therefore, you should choose a tripod if you’re seeking a camera-support device to mount your camera steadily before the shooting action begins.
Not Suitable for Slow Shutter
Monopods won’t help if you want to utilize an extremely slow shutter speed. At slower shutter speeds, the tiny motions of a monopod can blur your photos. The monopod will not save the image when your shutter speed exceeds 1 second.
Monopods won’t aid either stability or sharpness at quick shutter speeds. Small camera movements won’t be captured when the shutter opens and closes exceptionally quickly (like 1/600th of a second).
Key Differences Between Tripods Vs. Monopod
Difference on Purpose
Tripod
Tripods are indispensable for studio, macro, landscape, and still-life photography. Due to their stability, tripods are ideal for time lapses and slow shutter speeds.
You’ll see that most of these advantages of tripods have to do with time and are helpful when you have more time on your hands, as tripods often require more time to put up than monopods.
Monopod
Speed and mobility are the key features of monopods. Despite having only one point of contact with the ground (with a small base), they offer more stability than a handheld device.
Due to their portability, simplicity of usage, and minimal weight, monopods are used by action and sports photographers. They’re not the best option for extended exposure photos because they’re less secure than tripods.
Difference on Head
Tripod
Since the tripod legs align with the ground on which it is supported, most tripods also come with a tripod head: pan and tilt head or, at the very least, a ball head. And since you need to adjust the tripod every time you need to aim up, down, right, or left, these adjustable heads ease the process.
Monopod
The head is typically fixed when using a monopod. Being on one leg allows you to swiftly rotate it to change the aim and lean it forward or backward to aim up or down.
Difference on Size/Weight
Tripod
While several compacts, lightweight tabletop, and travel tripods are available, most full-frame tripods weigh between 4 and 8 pounds, which is heavier than monopods. In addition to having a bigger footprint due to the three legs, it might be challenging to set up in constrained or busy areas.
Monopod
Monopods are smaller and lighter than tripods and usually take less time to set up. They weigh between 1-4 pounds (including the head and base) and may be adjusted from 24′′ to 80′′ in height.
Note that these parameters might vary depending on the brand.
Difference on Payload Capacity
Tripod
Tripods typically have a weight capacity of 10 to 50 pounds; however, this varies by brand and type. The general rule of thumb is that the payload of a tripod is twice its weight.
You’ll need a tripod to set up your heavy camera and lenses and leave it alone.
Monopod
Despite the monopod being relatively lightweight, they have an impressively high weight capacity (some versions may support over 50 pounds, depending on the head used with the monopod).
Not that, unlike tripods that you can set and walk away from, with monopods, you’ll still need to hold your gear for extra support.
Overall, tripods rank better in terms of purpose and payload capacity, while monopods are great in size/weight. As far as durability goes, both can last as long depending on the specific build material– because they more often than not use the same materials for design and construction.
Tripod Vs Monopod Shooting Performance
Now that you know the major differences between these stabilizers let’s look at how they perform in different photography styles.
Portrait Photography
Portrait photography necessitates shooting photographs from a relatively short distance, usually done in a shooting studio. A tripod is a superb option for clean and steady shots since the subject is motionless with an illuminating background.
And if you’re shooting stunning portraits outdoors, a solid tripod is your best bet for holding the weight of your camera and lenses.
Street Photography
Mobility is essential in street photography since you must walk around the street regularly to capture images. And because you’re constantly on the move, a monopod is what you want in your arsenal.
Monopods are lightweight; you can hold them in one and shoot effortlessly. Also, note that sometimes setting a tripod in the middle of a busy street can be challenging and cumbersome.
Wildlife Photography
Again, there are several facets to wildlife photography. Many individuals use a tripod to get crisp photographs of wildlife animals by positioning their tripod and waiting for the perfect moment to capture clear and appealing snapshots.
But, if you’re short on time and want to shoot footage that records the movement of animals, you may want to go with a monopod. Because of its ease of mobility, with a monopod, you can monitor /follow the movement of animals and capture several sharp/nimble wildlife images.
Landscape Photography
A higher depth of field is required for landscape photography, meaning you want to capture lengthy distances in focus to create appealing landscape photographs. You can effortlessly accomplish this by using a camera with a low ISO/aperture setting or slower shutter speed.
A tripod can help you capture clear and sharp shots because it’s more stable for big cameras and lenses. Furthermore, for this form of photography, stability is far more crucial than mobility; hence a tripod is a spectacular pick for landscape photos.
Night Photography
Many individuals wish to create breathtaking nighttime photographs of landscapes and surroundings. Because natural light is insufficient, you must boost the ISO setting to some level for night shooting. This is why a tripod is preferable for night photography because it gives additional stability against camera shake.
Astrophotography
Long exposures or slower shutter speeds with heavy telephoto lenses are required for maximum light from faraway stars or subjects to become seen and visible in the photos. Because of its incredible stability and weight capacity, a tripod is definitely the champion for this style of photography.
Overall, it’s safe to say that a tripod takes more badges than a monopod because it supports more photography styles and performs better as well.
Bottem Line
In summary, tripods are better than monopods, but this doesn’t rule out the versatility of monopods altogether. While both tripods and monopods provide additional assistance and stability for your camera, there are instances when one is more beneficial than the other, and one can’t be used in lieu of the other.
Go for tripods if you want to:
- Reduce camera wobble
- Ensure uniformity between frames
- Shoot very long shutter speeds or time-lapse photography.
- Also, tripods are great if you’re a macro, still life, studio, and landscape photographer.
Go for monopods if:
- You need a little more support to sustain the weight of a camera/lens combo.
- You want more mobility than stabilization.
- When shooting street photography, sports action, or wildlife.
We recommend tripods if you’re looking to invest in a camera-support system. Tripods are worth every penny and are a must-have when shooting. They have excellent stabilization and work well in different photography. Wrapping up, feel free to leave a message and share your experiences with tripods and monopods and let us know which of the two you think is better!
