>>3916161you people have no imagination
or is it just that you have never compared a camera on a strap to a camera on a monopod?
The monopod is a long object that if you arent careful the camera will flop heavily around on. this is dangerous for people at the pointy end of the monopod, and for the ballmount, and for the camera.
When it's retracted it's still an ~ 800mm long object thats heavy at one end, and has a metal spike at the other. The mere act of holding it at arms lenght down near your hip exposes surrounding objects, people and the camera to being damaged. It's ballmount is also greasy. You have to be careful with it in transport. And it's heavy, i find myself switching arms often, plus my grip on the monopod could easily fail if bumped and drop the whole bundle. There's no straps when you use these fuckers.
When it's extended and ready for shooting you then have a camera at one end with the potential to flop around heavily. It doesn't always immediately move into the precise position/rotation/elevation you may want as you frame a subject - and keep in mind that in many cases you might only get a single second to soot them being photogenic.
The monopod creates more difficulty than just having the camera on a sling, where it is essentially weightless, not requiring any hands to restrain it, and ery simple and effortless to raise momentarily for shooting. Versus a heavy, very unbalanced stick of various lenghts, not much to prevent it from partly extending at any given time (this is an unavoidable neotec flaw - quick extend/retract is its advantage too), sharp at one end and fragile at the other, where you can never let go of it, and even when it's extended it you still have at least part of the weight of the camera in your hands.
It probably reduces my camera shake, but I dont usually notice it when looking at the originals, and the published photos are resized to mitigate that.
It's just a bit of a hassle.
