One of the longest migrator on the planet. The visually stunning and elegant arctic tern looks graceful in late evening light.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 350mm
• ISO: 2500
• Shutter speed: 1/1600s

Arctic tern 1 Tobias Hjorth.

Two makes a pair. Calm water and early morning light makes wonder for a photograph.

• Aperture: ƒ/6.3
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 600mm
• ISO: 400
• Shutter speed: 1/800s

Sanderling 6 Tobias Hjorth.

What can be said of the tern that isn’t already legendary. Imagine migrating from one pole to the other only to fight off intruders all day long. Talk about being worn down is a term the tern never learns.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 286mm
• ISO: 2500
• Shutter speed: 1/1600s

Artic tern 4 Tobias Hjorth.

You can almost see how skittish and shy the common snipe is. Hard to find but against the green grass in the midnight sun it’s wasn’t much of a struggle.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 540mm
• ISO: 160
• Shutter speed: 1/640s

Common snipe 1 Tobias Hjorth.

When you’re juvenile you’ll often find you need to find your own path before you’ll fit it.

• Aperture: ƒ/8
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 731mm
• ISO: 1600
• Shutter speed: 1/1250s

Red knot 1 Tobias Hjorth.

Battling gulls and other Sandwich terns the meal of the day is usually a struggle to bring home to the kind.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Focal length: 560mm
• ISO: 640
• Shutter speed: 1/2500s

Sandwich tern 2 Tobias Hjorth.

Widespread in most of Europe, most often seen on or at bushed along the shoreline and typically open moor like landscapes although occasionally found in gardens as well.
Here I tried matching including the natural habitat for a more dramatic and including photograph. Did I succeed? You tell me.

Common linnet 1 Tobias Hjorth.

What if I told you there’s a number of ways you can save weight and especially one that you might not think much about but one that does a major difference in overall performance? – Allow me to elaborate.

More than often modern lenses and even more so perhaps prior generation of larger telephoto lenses came and come with a vastly over or undersized lens foot that requires a hefty lens plate to mount on your camera support.
For more than a decade both Manfrotto and Arca-Swiss styled plates have been going like hot cakes every time a large telephoto lens was sold just to be able to mount the lens on a tripod. Besides added bulk and size it also adds weight. Manufactures like Canon and Nikon are brilliant in designing lenses that are optically superb but somehow when it comes to lens foot often fail to create the support the lens deserves, either by being huge and imbalanced like most Nikon’s or perhaps to fiddle and small like most Canon’s.

Photography is all about stopping time into a fraction of a second and one thing you don’t need or at least try to eliminate as much as possible is vibrations and carbon fiber is truly remarkable in that sense!

The Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot changes that.
In typical Zenelli fashion it’s made mostly by carbon fiber and aluminum, exotic materials only Italians truly master – Sleek woven carbon fiber that makes any gear near go aah and an item you can want to be fiddling with feeling the contours on the lens foot and beautiful craftsmanship. Or I could have a carbon fiber fetish, you tell me.
The ergonomically friendly design gives you a strong impression and one you can carry the lens with despite any heft of the lens for a long period of time.

At first when changing from OEM lens foot to the Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot you’ll notice just how light it is. Despite being the size of a hand it’s an object to your muscle memory will play you a trick thinking it’s much heavier than a really is. An object of this size can’t be this light, but Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot only weighs a mere 109 grams, most aluminum lens feet or OEM lens feet weighs twice as much. At least it feels like so.

Another thing you’ll be happy to discover is the build-in Arca-Swiss profile than not only saves the weight of it being carbon fiber but also saves the weight of a large aluminum lens plate you’ll otherwise have to use as well, twice the savings twice the gains!

Zenelli Clip Safe Support concurs that by adding a tiny clip on the mount side preventing it from ever toppling over

Moreover another important feature in the incredibly stiffness and anti-vibration properties of the carbon fiber, one you’ll perhaps already know from the Zenelli CARBON ZC Carbon Fiber Gimbal Head or Zenelli CARBON ZX Carbon Fiber Gimbal Head. Photography is all about stopping time into a fraction of a second and one thing you don’t need or at least try to eliminate as much as possible is vibrations and carbon fiber is truly remarkable in that sense. So not only does the Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot offer superb stiffness but it also class leading weight savings.

Thoughtful!

A brilliant feature I haven’t seen before that Zenelli incorporates besides the all impressive carbon fiber is the anti-roll over plate or what Zenelli dubbed the Zenelli Clip Support.
You see on every serious lens plate or lens foot you’ll find two safety stops, one in each end to insure that if you haven’t secured in probably in the lens mount of the tripod head it’ll staying within the safety stops and not tilt down and out of the mount and onto the ground leaving you and the lens as one smashed up pieces of expensive equipment. Until now the problem has been that each safety stop makes it impossible to put the lens on a table or on the ground without it rolling on to either side and potentially damaging the lens if you’re unlucky. The Zenelli Clip Safe Support concurs that by adding a tiny clip on the mount side preventing it from ever toppling over yet still incorporating the ever so important safety stops. Now that’s brilliant engineering and one you could ponder what none has ever done so before.

So what to conclude exactly?

Easy peasy!

The Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot is the best lens foot ever made, light, super strong, patented Zenelli Clip Save Support and class leading low weight WITH built-in Arca-Swiss mount. – What’s not to like.

Zenelli Carbon LFC / LFN lens foot Tobias Hjorth.

Some prefer feet, others a good bum, me I like a nice pair of legs. When you can’t have a pair I’ll settle for just one.
Bad jokes aside the Gitzo GM4552L is as good a leg or monopod as you can buy – If you’re into photography.

Firstly a big thanks to Tura Scandinavia and especially Jan for hooking me up with short notice just in time for my trip to Iceland. Some of you might know but for those who don’t Iceland is basically a huge lava rock in the northern region of the Atlantic ocean just below Arctic where the weather can be a harsh and as windy as they come. If there’s a place you need proper support figuratively speaking it’s here. And what better way to support a largish lens than a solid carbon fiber monopod and tripod head.

Ahh yes Gitzo, the brand that every other manufacturer strives to be yet no one to this day haven’t really reached that level of finesse and quality. Some have come close, others have surpassed on some aspects but failed on others. Gitzo is still the de facto go for still photography setting industry standards for the past decades as the number one support brand, bar none.
Gitzo is the equivalent to Ferrari just for comparison in case you haven’t heard of Gitzo before – Chances are, since you are looking at this review they’re probably slim.

Over the years Gitzo has come to be even more expensive than they were just 10 years ago yet their products have also improved. Slowly but surely under the radar updates like new sleeker woven beautiful carbon fiber, not something you can easily see just by looking but more something you’ll notice as soon as you use it. Increased stiffness as a benefit.

Gitzo might not have past times popularity due to increased competition from particular Asian brands that often offer (at least on paper) roughly the same performance. But Gitzo is also their own biggest competitor meaning they have been building tripods and what have you that most wouldn’t change in a heartbeat the next 20 years to come. Customers literally thought they had no reason to replace their expensive high-end Gitzo tripod bought back when D-SLRs was a new thing with another one that looks almost the same. To some extent they’re right at least until they try the updated version, then everything is apparent.

With video being ever more popular and still photography with typical regular D-SLR being on a steady decline other brands looks to please the video market too much more so than I think Gitzo does. The product is prove of that – Geared towards the professional still photographer that want the very best support money can buy.

I’m not too sure the Gitzo GM4552L changes that and thank god for that. This is an old-school, the best of the best type of monopod without super innovative never-seen-before solutions that cater to another crowd other than the one they have been serviced for the last 50 years.

So what is it?

GM4552L just rolls of your tongue doesn’t it. It’s about as sexy a name as a numberplate. Sure you can argue that the name itself actually implies the capabilities of the monopod which it does but no other than Gitzo, retailers and perhaps returning customers know that.

But what it means is that it’s a 4 series monopod (Gitzo characterized their series from 0-5 where the later is the beefiest and most solid), 5 sections (meaning it’ll fold to a relatively short length) and that it Long (meaning ability to go over the head type of shooting). It also tells which generation it is which is less important. Did you figure that out before reading all the way here – Be honest.. I for one wouldn’t if I didn’t already knew.

I looked high and low for the very best, over my head, fold down to fit in a smallish luggage bag yet also support whatever lens I could muster on the tripod

A new thing for Gitzo is to include a pivot foot which makes the footprint larger but also one that in certain situations on flat tarmac and what have you increases your stability as well as movement – Perfect for the professional sports photographer, a hindrance on the molten lava rock. Thankfully Jan got me covered and included the regular rubber foot as well just as well.
Like all monopods and tripods in this segment you can just as easy remove the regular rubber foot and discover a steel spike perfect for where the soil it extremely hard and you really need to dig down in order to gain traction.

Based on my needs!

I knew I needed a hefty monopod but like most of you that travel anywhere with your gear know there’s a certain size and length you can bring along before it becomes a nuisance.
I looked high and low for the very best, over my head, fold down to fit in a smallish luggage bag yet also support whatever lens I could muster on without it bending (I can’t count the number of both tripods and monopods the claim a kilogram number so vastly out of league to what the capabilities actually are).
I brought the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x which was a perfect fit. Like the monopod not too heavy, not too cumbersome and delivering the very best money can buy (or regular folks can buy at least).

An evening in windy conditions at the coast reminded me why it’s sometimes better to use a monopod than just to go handheld. On this very evening was there was opportunities the whole time reaching into early night. We’re talking at least 5 hours of constantly shooting – Sure I’m not the weakest of the bunch but still 5 hours hand holding 5 kg camera gear in stretched arms would be a hassle at some point or another.

…that certain safety professionals tend to like and rely on

The strong winds reminded me why I brought the Gitzo GM4552L along as the increased support gave me quite more keepers than if I didn’t. Sure the awesome Zenelli CARBON ZC Carbon Fiber Gimbal Head that I converted to a side loader helped quite a bit. This gimbal head by the way, if you can then you must a least try it. Leaves virtually no footprint but still is beyond rock solid and weighs next to nothing. – Now that is a combo!

Another industry best are the quick-lock which are indeed quick. But not only do they require a quarter of a turn they also don’t need to be tightened as much as most of the competition meaning there’s that certain safety professionals tend to like and rely on. There’s no reason to check it twice cause you know it just works, no questions asked.

Conclusion

What more can be said about one of the best if not the very best monopod money can buy. Sure it’s not as cheap as some of the competition, sure it doesn’t cater much to the video crowd and might not be the lightest and smallest on the market. But what it does it does better than everyone else.
A TRUE 30 kg max load rating, quick-locks that work even without you going full bore on the locks, a close to perfect travel length and an over the head max height. What more could you need?

Gitzo GM4552L review – What a nice leg you have there! Tobias Hjorth.

The Red-necked phalarope is this ever-so charming wader with a highly developed swimming ability it uses to full potential when foraging. The female is surprisingly more colorful than the male. I eagerly hoped this very specimen would swim into the very spot just for a second or two and despite the size on the pond I was extremely lucky

Captured with: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x, Canon Extender EF 1.4x III, Handheld

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Exposure bias: -1/3EV
• Focal length: 560mm
• ISO: 1000
• Shutter speed: 1/1250s

Red-necked phalarope 1 Tobias Hjorth.

The Snow bunting is a regular winter guest from the rocky shores of Greenland. Here’s in a play with colors, pinch your eye’s and perhaps you too can see the national flag of a distant country.

Captured with: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM, Canon Extender EF 2x III – Handheld

• Aperture: ƒ/8
• Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• Exposure bias: +1/3EV
• Focal length: 800mm
• ISO: 1000
• Shutter speed: 1/1000s

Snow bunting 4 Tobias Hjorth.