I had been looking for a tripod or monopod that I could throw in a back pack or carry around without it weighing me down. I wanted something inexpensive too so that if I lost it or got it dirty I would not be upset. My husband found this at Walmart and I loved it immediately.
Description
the Targus Targus 70″ Monopod TG-MP7010 is made from lightweight aluminum and when I put it on my scale it weighed only 11oz. The height will be fine for you no matter your height unless you are 8ft tall. The max height of the Monopod is 70″ but remember that your camera is above that so that means it will be even taller and would work for most everyone.
I will start at the bottom and tell you that I think that the base is pretty nifty. I will admit that I have not had any other monopod so maybe this is normal, but on the bottom is a rubber foot, but wait, if you twist the rubber foot one way it will move upward revealing a metal point that would be convenient if you wanted it to stick down into the ground outside, but when you twist it the other way it moves down to cover the metal point if you were using it indoors so that you would not harm any flooring.
Moving up on the Monopod there are four aluminum sections that get progressively thicker. the thickest one at the top is about one inch across. Each section slides easily and has a black clamp that you can use to adjust the Targus Monopod to just the right height. The clamps feel sturdy and the aluminum poles have a ridge on one side so that they always stay facing the same direction and the clamps line up that way.
When you get to the top of the Targus 70″ Monopod TG-MP7010 there is a soft grip handle that is black like the clamps. This is made of a foam rubber or plastic material. I would imagine if anything was going to break down it would be the comfort grip, but it is nice to have something soft to hang on to that also will keep it from slipping around.
Just before the very top is a cloth strap that you could use to hang it on your arm if you had a bunch of things you were carrying. At the very top is the mounting screw which is standard and fits into my Nikon D3000 as well as my Flip video Camera
The Monopod closes up to a height of only 22″ and will support up to 5lbs. I used it with my camera with a pretty good sized lens and it felt secure.
Using the Targus 70″ Monopod TG-MP7010
There were no instructions with the Monopod, just a few illustrations on the paper that was packaged in the blister packaging. Frankly it was not even necessary to look at that because all I had to do was play with it for a few seconds to figure everything out. I also figured out quickly that I was going to love using this for many different applications. It was really easy to attach and detach from either of my cameras and folds up in a second to a small size that is easy to carry.
When I attached it to my Nikon camera it felt sturdy and did not move at all from it’s placement. The same was true when I tried it with my Flip Video. The nice thing about this Monopod is that it is very low profile. You could take this out in a public place and it would not be in anyone’s way. It is so small that I doubt anyone would even notice you are using it. It is also light weight enough that you could leave it set up and carry it around still attached to your camera if you were moving to a new spot that was not too far away.
I was thinking back to last summer and how great this would have been when I filmed my daughter singing on stage at an outdoor festival. I used my Flip Video for it and while my daughter did a great job it was all shaky because its hard to hold still…Plus being a Mom and all emotional It always makes me cry when I watch her on stage, and that added to the shaking. If I had the Targus Monopod I could have held it a lot more steady. Of course it is not completely steady like using a Tripod but the nice thing about the monopod is that it is really easy to pan from side to side without moving the whole camera and jumping up and down so to speak as you move your feet. I did one thing in my filming where I turned the camera around to see the crowd that was gathered for her show and this would have been much better if all I had to do was spin the monopod slowly.
Another thing that this is nice for is if you are at a concert and you want to put your camera up above everyone’s heads. Of course you will have to be able to view it on a preview screen to make sure you had it pointed in the right direction but I know many times I would have loved to have this. I am thinking about things like Graduations or School Plays for the parents out there.
While a Monopod or Tripod might seem like something only a pro would use, this item could really be used by most people just wanting to get nice shots. It is so easy to use and lightweight that it is not a burden to bring with you. On top of that the price is an absolute steal! We paid about $15 for it.
Final thoughts
I am very happy with my purchase of the Targus 70″ Monopod TG-MP7010 and can see I will be using it quite a bit in the future. I am planning on getting another Nikon Camera that will do video and having this monopod will make the video I shoot even better. I was thinking I would need a tripod but frankly I think this will be fine. I think if I had to set up a tripod even if I could find one that was very lightweight that I just would not bring it because it would be so intrusive for filming in a crowd of people. The Monopod was just what I needed.
Thanks for reading my review
🙂
Becky
