I’m planning a trip soon, and in a bid to keep equipment to a minimum, I’m considering getting a monopod to take with me instead of taking my tripod. If anybody has any useful information or experiences to pass on I would be very grateful
Thanks
PS any comments on panorama quality or results would also be very appreciated

Dear Phillip,
the smaller the distance to the nearest object will be, the more critical a correct nodal point setting is.
I would rather consider a smaller, light-weight, less rigid aluminium tripod, since you may maintain your nodal pivot point, although you might need to use it with more caution than with your usual heavy/rigid tripod.
Especially, if you are going to locations, you 're not turning back to every week-end! :-)
Best regards
Tim

Hi Phillip!
 
Sorry if this post is too late for the trip you were planning - but it might be valuable for your next outing.
 
I have created a couple of very lightweight heads to work with monopods or tripods - the emphasis being on weight and portability. I created a series of web pages on this topic here.
 
If you sift through them there may be an idea or two that you will find useful. On one of the pages is an example monopod cubic taken under fairly low light conditions (max exposure length 0.7 secs).

Hi Jim,
Fantastic, this is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I probably won’t have the time to construct it for this trip, but I’ll certainly have a go when I get back.
I’ll let you know how I get on
Regards
Phil Roberts
PS Do you think it’ll hold a D1X

Hi Phil!
 
"PS Do you think it’ll hold a D1X"
 
Possibly - using the "U" shaped head. As I mentioned in my web pages this configuration easily holds a D70. I have also had a Canon 5D on it - no problem... but this was without a vertical grip/battery pack.
 
Another detail - the lens support... not shown in relationship to a camera body in my previous examples - but a very important piece. You want the lens support to butt up to the camera body and drill the nodal point hole directly under the nodal point (aka the non-parallax point) of your lens. The "turn-key" clamp affixes the lens on to the support.
 
This "home-brew" set-up is as precise as you craft it... but if you do it well, is as good as anything on the commercial market (for only US$5.00 in materials cost).
 
The following schematic shows the lens support in more detail here.
 
Though this schematic demos the concept of a laser pointer as a virtual monopod (extremely lightweight, portable) - it is the same principle (as per Fig. 1 in the URL link just above), but a monopod/tripod would be attached at the non-parallax point instead.
 
At this same site there is a sample spherical output using the laser pointer/virtual monopod.