Pano Head Equipment

[leo]

Hi All, 

I'm looking to buy a new Pano setup o use with my NIkon D800.

What's the best available?  What are you using?  Likes? Dislikes?  

Thanks!

Leo Wesson

[Joergen Geerds]

On Friday, November 9, 2012 11:23:48 AM UTC-5, leo wrote:

I'm looking to buy a new Pano setup o use with my NIkon D800.

What's the best available?  What are you using?  Likes? Dislikes?  

depends on your projects you want to shoot:

if you are going for less work & fisheye, the NodalNinja R1 with the proper ring are great. I would suggest to buy 2 pole adaptor plates, and the 30deg pole rotator in this context, or one of the other rotators. works great on poles as well.

if you want to shoot with other lenses, go for the Nodal Ninja M1/M2, and get the RD16 rotator... if that is too big for you, the NN4 is a great alternative. the NN3 is too small for the D800.

see Nodal Ninja

360 Precision makes great pano heads as well: http://www.360precision.com/360/index.cfm?precision=home.home

RSS has also good stuff, but the lack of a clicking rotator puts them outside the field, IMO.

[Phillip Simpson]

Take a look at the GigaPan Epic series. They work very well and help ypou avoid any gaps in your photos. I use one and I love it!

 

[Joergen Geerds]

On Friday, November 9, 2012 3:52:53 PM UTC-5, Phillip Simpson wrote:

Take a look at the GigaPan Epic series. They work very well and help ypou avoid any gaps in your photos. I use one and I love it!

the gigapan isn't really considered professional grade in this context, mainly because it doesn't allow full flexibility to place the lens on the no-parallax point, and other shortcomings.

[leo wesson]

Yeah, parallax point adjustment is critical.  I'll be shooting mostly with a 14-24 Nkkor.  The Really Right Stuff equipment seems to be the most well built.

leo wesson
photographer/videographer
817.733.9157
www.leowesson.com

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[imag...@gmail.com]

Leo.

Like others have said, the GigaPan is not good for full 360's. It's also not great with big lenses as it's just not stable enough.

The real first question here is what type of pano's do you want to shoot? 360 by 180? Gigapans?  or other?

Tell us that, and then we can help you dial in what would work best

Also, key to any shooting quote is what's your budget?

You have a D800, what lenses do you plan to use?

Robert

[Hambagahle]

I have RSS and the 14-24mm f2.8.  That is a very heavy lens; with my D300 on a heavy Manfrotto there is visible flexing in the RSS as well as visible vibration after rotating the camera.  On my RSS I cannot orient the 14-24 for a zenith shot (vertical arm is too short), so if I want to use it for 360 work, I have to figure out an alternative (haven't done that yet, but RSS have a longer arm if it comes to that).  I spoke with RSS before buying the 14-24mm, and they were concerned that the (forward/backward) arm on my RSS would be too short to hold the 14-24mm at the point of no parallax; turns out it does, for all focal lengths.  My RSS (Omni-pivot Pro, if I recall correctly) works for me with the 14-24mm, but I basically do not do 360 sphericals.  I recommend you try to test-drive all candidates before you commit to buy.  The lack of detents on the rotator is of no practical consequence to me, and a rotator that restricts camera position to the selected detents would cramp my style because I quite often shoot additional, out-of-pattern shots.

Regards

[Matthew Rogers]

Well the best option for your set-up is either a 360Precision Adjuste or Absolute MK2. With our heads you wont have any of the flexing or vibrations as the strength of detenting mechanism is user adjustable.

If you want to shoot accurate, easy to stitch panoramas then some form of detenting is a massive plus. But if you want the option you can simply de-activate the ball plungers.

I guess the biggest difference is our products are designed and built from the ground up to be panoramic heads and nothing else. Our heads aren't just two rotators and some rails locked together to make a pano-head. We also have the industries best custom mounting options in the pin plates which remove the need to level the camera on the head and stop even the heaviest of camera and lenses from slipping.

We also have a full 30 day no questions asked return policy so if you aren't happy for whatever reason just return it.

We can also offer bundle deals with PTGui/Pro and are always happy to offer other discounts for PTGui users.

Matt

[ROBERT HANSEN]

I have the Nodal Ninja M1L and experienced no difficulty with my D800 and 14-24.  In the package there is one long, bottom rail and 1 short top rail.  I bought an extra long rail for the top to use with a long lens.  Also, all rails are scaled and use the Arca clamping system . 

[Joergen Geerds]

On Sunday, November 11, 2012 5:21:28 AM UTC-5, mat...@360precision.com wrote:

Well the best option for your set-up is either a 360Precision Adjuste or Absolute MK2. With our heads you wont have any of the flexing or vibrations as the strength of detenting mechanism is user adjustable.

If you want to shoot accurate, easy to stitch panoramas then some form of detenting is a massive plus. But if you want the option you can simply de-activate the ball plungers.

I guess the biggest difference is our products are designed and built from the ground up to be panoramic heads and nothing else. Our heads aren't just two rotators and some rails locked together to make a pano-head. We also have the industries best custom mounting options in the pin plates which remove the need to level the camera on the head and stop even the heaviest of camera and lenses from slipping.

We also have a full 30 day no questions asked return policy so if you aren't happy for whatever reason just return it.

That was mainly the reason why I mentioned 360 precision in my first reply... in the long run, reliable equipment/pano heads with click stops become mission critical, and having the option to disable the click stops temporarily is even better. and while hambagahle doesn't like click stops, he really represents a minority in this context. and sure, RSS makes great parts, but their pano head is more a 'yeah, we can cobble a pano head together from our parts', while Matthew and Nick/Bill actually do pano photography, and a lot of their experience shows in their products.

As a side note, while the 14-24 is awesome, it is also extremely inefficient to use it for full spherical panos at 14mm, compared to a 15/16mm fisheye lens: you need way more tiles, and the image quality of the equirect isn't much different in the end. 

[Luc Villeneuve]

Joergen is right. Buy the right equipment first. It is way too expensive to buy a panohead that works OK to then realize that you should have bought a more precise panohead. I think that the RRS products are good but not for spherical panoramas.

I now have a few panoheads that I use according to the project. Sometimes, I have to shoot the scene quickly because it's an action shot. I do it with 6 + 1. For this kind of shot, I can do it on a pole with a R1. Sometimes, it's for a more detailed panorama so I use a 24mm lens on a D800. That's 32 shots and it's starting to be a little tricky with a manual panohead. I use a robotic head. I am sure that all shots will be done precisely. Last summer, I had to shoot panos made out of 2.5 billions pixels and I just could not do it without my robot (105 shots).

Luc

[Joao Ribeiro]

Hi,
What kind of robotic head do you recomend? I read herevearlyer that gigapan is not a good option!

[Alfred Zhao]

Depending on your application and budget. Here are some of my personal
opinion.

Gigapan: good for matrix panorama, low cost
Various kind of manual head: good for use with fisheye (different manual
heads may differ in terms of weight, usability etc)
Clauss: suitable for all, high cost
VR-drive: middle ground between Gigapan & Clauss

Alfred

-----Original Message-----
From: pt...@googlegroups.com [mailto:pt...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Joao Ribeiro
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 9:39 AM
To: pt...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [PTGui] Re: Pano Head Equipment

[Luc Villeneuve]

Hi,

I never tried a Gigapan product because to me, it was way too big to move around in the crowd

You are going to get an extensive list of products here http://wiki.panotools.org/Heads

http://www.dr-clauss.de/en/
http://www.marc-kairies.de
http://www.roundshot.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d438/d927/f1033.cfm

Because these are programmable robotic head, you should have a close look at the features, like HDR, speed, export of camera position as an XML file for a more accurate stitching. Also, do you need a motor for both axis?

Check these products and have fin.

Luc

On 11 nov. 2012, at 10:38, Joao Ribeiro wrote:

> Hi,
> What kind of robotic head do you recomend? I read herevearlyer that gigapan is not a good option!
>

[Walrus]

Hello Leo.
I thought I should jump in and stick up for the RRS (Really Right Stuff) pano gear.  I've been using it for several years doing 360 panos.  I use 2 different camera bodies and 3 different lens for pano work depending on the specific shoot and output requirements.  So I want gear to handle multiple body/lens configurations.  That said, the bulk of my sphericals are shot with a Sony A-900 with the Zeiss 16-35.  This combo weighs in at 2.0 kg exactly.  From the front of the lens to the back of the body is about 18.5 cm.  The NPP is approximately 2.5 cm back of the front of the lens.  So that's a lot of weight back behind the rotation axis which the pano gear will need to support securely.  It also means that height of the vertical arm is important to provide the clearance necessary to rotate the camera into position for a zenith shot.  Your D800 is very similar in size and weight to the Sony A-900, so you will have similar considerations, particularly if your lens is as large and heavy as the Zeiss.

The RRS pano gear is made of precision tooled parts.  The build quality is outstanding.  Sliding parts are marked in 1mm increments.  Rotating parts are marked in 2.5 deg. increments.

It's been said in this thread that the RRS is more like a bunch of bars and clamps put together to make a pano head, not really designed for 360 panos from the ground up.  I'd say that would be a very fair description of their first generation of pano heads, and there were certainly limitations on the ability of a user to torgue down the rotation clamp sufficiently for heavy cameras, and the clearance needed for a zenith shot.  However, about a year ago, they introduced a new vertical arm (PG-02) designed specifically for spherical panos, which addressed those short-comings.  They also introduced a vertical extender for use with large camera/body combos which provides a clearance of 22.5cm from the vertical rotation axis.  So I feel that the criticism is no longer valid.

They also make very well designed L-clamps for specific camera bodies.  They give an intimate fit to the body and are designed to provide access to all the controls and access covers on the camera body.  The quick-release clamp on the vertical arm, when set in the half-way position, holds the sliding bar securely in the clamp, but allows it to slide easily to your set-up point before clamping down in the full-close position - a very nice feature for set-up.

Once you calibrate each body/lens combo to its NPP, you note the scale markings to use in future set-ups for that combo.  So set-up is very fast and easy.

One feature it does NOT have is click-in-place positioning.  I don't miss it because I've never had it.  It seems to me that the big advantage would be if you could achieve repeatability between panos so that creating a template in PTGui based on one optimized pano, would work for all without having to create and align control points.  If this is your expectation, you will never get there with RRS as it is unreasonable to expect to achieve this without engineered lock-down points.  And even then, you'll have to consider more things than just the pano head.  Also,  I guess it's a matter of whether you see precise alignment as a shoot function, or a post-processing function.  For me, post-processing.  I have a PTGui template for each sensor size/focal length combo I use to put images in their approximate location to help it get started during optimization, but it would never do as a replacement for control points.

Hope that helps you understand the RRS gear.

[leo]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions and give me the benefit of all of your experience.  I decided to try out the Nodal Ninja NN4...it arrives tomorrow, can't wait to give it a spin.

Thanks again!

Leo Wesson