Would this work??

[rpcrowe]

Now that I have caught your attention!

I am wondering if a jury-rigged plate could not substitute for an expensive pano head for making a panoramic series of photos.

The problem with a standard tripod head is that the tripod screw is not at the nodal point of the lens, but rather beneath the camera and even at times offset from the exact center of the camera.

If you took some 3/8" or so aluminum plating and drilled and tapped a quarter/twenty screw hole and passed a quarter/twenty screw through to mount the camera body to the plate.

Then measure where the nodal point of the lens is and drill/tap another quarter/twenty screw hole to mount the plate and camera to the tripod head.*

Then it seems, as you rotate the tripod head, the camera/lens would be rotating around the nodal point of the lens.*

Am I out in left field, or would this work

[mikej]

I have never used a panohead to do my panoramics. The cheap ones won't hold the weight of my camera and lens (I shoot with a 70-200 2.8L IS lens a lot) with any kind of stability and the better made ones cost more than I'm willing to pay. I either shoot handheld or with my tripod leveled. The time that the nodal point becomes an issue is when you have close forground objects as well as distant objects. Most of the panoramas I do are of scenic views with little or no close foreground objects to worry about distortion. The times I have shot this way, the distortion really wasn't noticable unless you knew where to look.

My biggest panorama was 72 images... but my computer was strong enough to process the whole thing. My biggest completed panorama was 19 images I believe. I've not done any multi-level panoramas yet, although I hope to find a subject one of these days that will be worth doing that.

Have you tried doing panoramas with your tripod or handheld or have you just heard you need a pano head to get good panos?

Mike

[Mr. Pickles]

The problem with a standard tripod head is that the tripod screw is not at the nodal point of the lens, but rather beneath the camera

I'm confused by what you mean with this statement. Are you shooting images vertically? Most of the tripod heads I have seen or used have a 1/4" screw for the camera, vertically above the 3/8" screw that connects the tripod to the head. As long as the tripod is level and camera is level, it ought to be as squared up. Then you use the pan part to rotate.

I know there are quite a few cameras where the tripod screw is not centered along the lens axis, so yup, your plate idea would work. There are cameras that also have the tripod screw not centered (inline) with the sensor, whcih is nother issue, and you plate idea should work there too.

[mikej]

The nodal point of a lens is the point between the backplane (filmplane) and the front of the lens where the light paths cross. This is going to be at some point in front of where the tripod screw point is but it depends on the lens and how long it is. The longer the lens, the further forward it is. Most cameras do have the tripod screw positioned so it's in the center of the lens rather than off set to one side.

The nodal point is important because if you rotate around that point, then close and distance objects will stay the same relative distance from each other as you rotate the camera for each image. This is important for when you merge the images together so that everything lines up and you don't get distortion. It really becomes important when you have very close objects and distant objects and you have multiple images both vertical and horiztonal.

Mike

[scoundrel1728]

Originally Posted by rpcrowe

Now that I have caught your attention!

I am wondering if a jury-rigged plate could not substitute for an expensive pano head for making a panoramic series of photos.

The problem with a standard tripod head is that the tripod screw is not at the nodal point of the lens, but rather beneath the camera and even at times offset from the exact center of the camera.

Homebrew jury rigs abound and a few inexpensive pano heads have even gone commercial, such as the Panosaurus.* This particular model isn't sturdy enough for Mike Jordan's camera and lens, but if you are shooting with a 200 mm lens, you probably aren't close enough to your foreground for parallax errors to be much of a problem even if you don't use a pano head. Incidentally, here is a review of the Panasaurus. Despite the conflict of interest from the cross-promotion, the review appears to be honest.

[fuentes]

check this thread out: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=15536538