Panoramic Head for Tripod

karloznz

I have been using a tilt - swivel head on my tripod. Is it worth the investment of a specialized Panoramic head if so can you recommend one perhaps a couple representing different price brackets ??

ziggy53

Yes, a true panoramic head helps tremendously with "stitched" panoramas which contain foreground elements. For panoramics which only contain distant elements, a conventional head does nicely.

1) At the least, the Panosaurus Tripod Head, both the original (black and white colored) and the updated (all black) are often available as used heads. They can handle camera-lens combinations to 3 lbs. The combination of wood parts, used for the base and arms construction, and light-weight designation is misunderstood to mean "poor quality", but they are precision crafted and work nicely. Often available for less than $60USD. I use an updated Panosaurus..

Here is a nice review: http://www.tawbaware.com/panosaurus_review.htm

2) The Panosaurus 2.0 uses mostly machined aluminum parts and holds up to 10 lbs or 4.5 kg. At $99.95 (plus shipping) it is still the least expensive, high-quality, true panoramic head on the market. The complete assembly weighs just under 2 lbs.
http://gregwired.com/Pano/pano.htm

3) The Nodal Ninja series are very popular, very well made, and moderately priced. Current models range from the NN3, with basic movements and $209.95USD price, to the modular Ultimate M1, starting at $575.00.

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From here you can also find very cheap EBay sets, which I cannot recommend, to very expensive and extremely high quality systems (including motorized heads). Notable units:

Really Right Stuff (RRS)
Manfrotto
Novoflex

For a more complete listing of panoramic heads and systems: http://wiki.panotools.org/Heads

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Good software includes Autopano Pro (possibly the best overall choice) and, if you use Windows, freeware combinations like Autopano-SIFT and Hugin. While the latter is freeware the resulting quality can be very nice, but it is largely manual control and time consuming.

For Windows users there is also a Microsoft freeware called "Image Composite Editor" or "ICE" for short. It requires XP and above. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/

Using manual exposure is absolutely vital and if the lighting changes between image acquision, you might have to start over. Blending dissimilar exposures is frustrating.

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Do check out the best panoramic thread ever:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=101529

Results:

http://dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=990541&postcount=274
http://dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=994328&postcount=293

Be sure to see what Baldy did here:

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1039964&postcount=362
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1039966&postcount=363

karloznz

Excellent reply - Thanks so much for your time !!