Hi, I recommend buying a monopod that can be used as a walking stick, not the other way around. I am mobility impaired and normally us a a cane. My photography kit now includes a Sirui carbon fiber monopod (model 424S I think) that serves me very well, in fact let's me keep doing my photography. It's a video rated monopod that can be set to rotate the head for doing panoramas as well as having a controllable for and aft movement that's great for near/far stacked compositions. It can also be broken down for use as a small table top tripod for macro wildflower photography. I use it routinely to help get my butt up off the ground ( I weight ~ 240 #). Quality gear!!
I love the abstract nature of the bristlecone closeup, excellent!!
I use a CamRanger for wildflower work with a Nikon D7100 as I have trouble getting down on the ground. It works well but sometimes get tangled up in its underwear when you ask it to do too many things at once. The solution when this happens is to reboot the ranger by turning the camera or the ranger off and on. Slow and easy works the best! The other problem area is reading the connected tablet screen in bright sunlight - a jerry-rigged sunshade visor on the tablet is the answer here.
Could it be mainly driven by the marketing department???
Amazing shot Friz - what lens did you use?
I've noticed several posts today that mention problems with wives not liking our new cameras! Is the real issue here us spending money where they have no control over??? I'm curious!
That's pretty awesome in this day and age!!!!
I chose the 17-50 f2.8 because of the fixed f2.8 aperture and having image stabilization. About 98% of my use of this lens is indoors, handheld, and available light. It has served me very well in this duty except for my clumsiness re the focus ring. The enhanced auto-focusing of the 17-70 you mentioned would be of great interest to me, but the variable max f stops would not be.
I have the Sigma 17-50 f2.8 lens on a D7000 and it is my go-to lens for reportage for a newsletter I do. The only problem I had was sometimes hitting the focus ring when in autofocus. Do that enough and the autofocus stops working forever. I bought another copy of the same lens and simply keep the lens hood on the lens in a reversed position to keep my big hands from touching the focusing ring! This has worked like a charm for a year - no problem with lens flare as all my photos are inside buildings in low light.
It looks like these quadcopters make a pretty stable platform for videos!
I use it for wildflower photography with a Nikon D7100. With it you don't have to get your head down on the ground for a low level shot. My problem is I don't get down on the ground too easily, especially the getting up part! It hooks up WiFi wise to your cell phone or tablet, from which you operate the camera controls. It even does multiple focus point exposures automatically for focus tracking shots. The only problem area is seeing the tablet screen in bright sunlight - I made a foldable shade from black plastic that solved that problem.
TK
Try Sirui K series with acra compatible mounting plate. I just bought a K10 rated for 44 pound load for $114 at B&H and am very impressed with the quality and smoothness and lockup!
Have you considered using a monopod? It works as a cane/walking aid and no strain on neck or shoulder.
TK
See my recent post on D7000 midlife problems. Mine did the same thing along with other maladies. Switch and charge batteries if using a grip, switch and reformat SD cards in camera, clean all electrical contacts (lens/body and grip/body), and unmount and remount lens about 12 times. This cured all my problems. Shot another 417 images yesterday with nary a blib!
TK
Consider taking it one step further. Put the camera on a monopod and use it as a cane/walking aid. No strap, no strain on neck or back!
TK