Panorama heads

[Jay Gould]

Do you use one? Full time in lieu of a standard head? Model? Great benefit? If you have used it in the past but not now, why?

[David Stephens]

Jay, my Arca-Swiss Z1 has a pano function which I've used a time or two to make a panoramic image. It was useful and simple to use, but then I thought, "My PS does such a good job of stitching together my pano shots, why don't I just shoot them handheld?" So I started shooting them handheld (in daylight with good light) and there was no difference. I'd anticipate using the pano function in low light and and stopped way down where SS falls below 1/50-sec., so I know it's there when I need it.

[John Chardine]

A "panorama head" like the one I have is no more that a slide that fits onto the Arca-Swiss clamp on the ball-head. My RRS slide, which is about 18cm long, has an Arca-Swiss clamp at one end to take a fitting like a L-bracket on the camera or plate on the lens. The slide allows backward-forward movement of the camera/lens combo so that you can locate the exit pupil of the lens over the rotational point of the head.

[Roger Clark]

Jay,
Following the tilt/shift question, I use two different panoramic setups. Lowest cost, and effective for many situations is as John describes: a simple rail and clamp. I use a winberly rail (about 6-inches, 150 cm long) with a wimberly clamp on one end. That allows rotation about the nodal point in azimuth, and I keep the camera horizontal (landscape format). As you do each row, the average landscape scene is further away so parallax is less of an issue. But if the second row has close things (e.g. trees, bushes), then one gets parallax in the vertical dimension and the images will not easily merge. Then you need a full panoramic head.

I made a full panoramic head using a wimberly sidekick and some custom made L-brackets (from a few dollars of aluminum at a local hardware store). That I use when I am doing mosaics with really close subjects.

This was done with the full head:
http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/large_mosaics/

This one was done with the simple rail and clamp setup:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.greece/web/aspaki.santorini.night.c09.13.2011.img_1750-2.d-1000.html

And beanbag works too:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.africa_2011/web/serengeti.sunrise.trees.and.birds.c02.24.2011.c45i 5745-63.d-crop2-1000.html

And hand held:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.africa_2009/web/serengeti_c01.19.2009.img_0590-3.c-1000.html

Roger