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Using a gimbal head for panoramics
Hello,
Didn't know whether to post this here, or under landscapes where it would be used. If a mod wants to move it that's great.
Often I want to take my big lens and gimbal head when photographing, but also want to do landscapes and panos. Carrying the pano head and ballhead too gets to be too much.
Here's how to use your gimbal head to do multi-row panos.
Of note: In this example I’m using a Canon 1 series camera with an RRS L-plate and a W-II head. You will need an L-plate on whatever camera you use. I have not tried it with other gimbal heads / cameras / plates – there should be no problem, but each piece of gear has its own shape, so a little adjusting might be needed if you are using other gear.
The extra piece of equipment one needs to do this is a rail that will move the camera ‘back’ such that the entrance pupil of the lens is over the axis of rotation. The plate that I’ve used is the RRS MPR-CL. One could also use the MPR-CL II.
How to set it up.
Put the MPR-CL plate into the Wimberly II, as shown in the picture, then mount your camera in the portrait orientation in the MPR-CL. I’ve found that my system “fits” a little better if the Wimberly adjustment knobs are on the photographer’s left side when looking through the viewfinder.
The first adjustment is to slide the camera left and right, such that the center of the lens is exactly over the center of the gimbal head (its axis of rotation). A piece of thread with a small weight on the end provides a quick and easy way to make a true ‘vertical’ line to adjust this. Or if I’m in the field I’ve used a straight edge and the bubble level that goes in my hotshoe.
Next adjustment is to raise the ‘platform’ of the gimbal head such that the center of the lens is exactly level with the axis of up/down rotation of the gimbal head. Again, this can be done with a straight edge and a level.
Now to fine tune these adjustments. There are a myriad ways to do this – all you need is an object close to the camera and an object far away. What I do is get two pieces of masking tape (or some other low residue tape) and put them on a window in my living room. One is aligned horizontally and the other vertically.
Now, with the camera 1.5m or so back from the window look through the viewfinder at the edge of the vertical piece of tape. You want to move your camera such that this vertical line on the tape is close to a vertical line in the distance when viewed through the viewfinder. I’ll typically use the edge of a neighbor’s house, or a distant streetlight.
Loosen the knob on the gimbal head that allows the camera to pan left and right. Now look through the viewfinder and pan left and right, paying attention to the two vertical lines previously chosen. They should not move relative to each other when panning from the left hand side of the frame to the right. If they do, you need to move the camera slightly forward or backward. To figure out which way, move it back a little and see if the relative motion of these lines is better or worse. If better, continue – if worse you needed to move the camera the other direction.
After doing this with the vertical lines I usually check the horizontal one as well. Loosening the knob on the gimbal that allows up/down panning allows this. Move the camera such that one edge of the horizontal tape is aligned with a distant horizontal object when looking through the viewfinder and then pan up/down. The near and far edges should keep a constant space between each other. Very finely move the camera forward or backward to adjust – these movements will be very small as you should be quite close to the right spot after the vertical line adjustments.
You will need to do this for each lens that you plan to use for panoramics. You will also need to do it for different focal lengths on some zoom lenses. Not wanting to go through this each time I set up I’ve used a tough fingernail polish to mark where each lens and plate goes on my Wimberly, such that I can put together a properly aligned pano head in a matter of seconds.
When this is done you now have a spherical panoramic head – capable of making multi-row panoramic photos with ease.
Here's a quick sample - this one was 2x6 (I think - did it a while ago) frames that I did during testing of this. Not a fine pano of Glacier, but I thought the vertical and horizontal lines of this room gave a more exacting test of how well things were lining up than might be demonstrated in a typical landscape. (As an aside this was also an HDR - each of the frames is actually 3 photos blended)
Hope that's at least somewhat clear and somewhat helpful. Please feel free to ask questions if I haven't explained things adequately.
Didn't know whether to post this here, or under landscapes where it would be used. If a mod wants to move it that's great.
Often I want to take my big lens and gimbal head when photographing, but also want to do landscapes and panos. Carrying the pano head and ballhead too gets to be too much.
Here's how to use your gimbal head to do multi-row panos.
Of note: In this example I’m using a Canon 1 series camera with an RRS L-plate and a W-II head. You will need an L-plate on whatever camera you use. I have not tried it with other gimbal heads / cameras / plates – there should be no problem, but each piece of gear has its own shape, so a little adjusting might be needed if you are using other gear.
The extra piece of equipment one needs to do this is a rail that will move the camera ‘back’ such that the entrance pupil of the lens is over the axis of rotation. The plate that I’ve used is the RRS MPR-CL. One could also use the MPR-CL II.
How to set it up.
Put the MPR-CL plate into the Wimberly II, as shown in the picture, then mount your camera in the portrait orientation in the MPR-CL. I’ve found that my system “fits” a little better if the Wimberly adjustment knobs are on the photographer’s left side when looking through the viewfinder.
The first adjustment is to slide the camera left and right, such that the center of the lens is exactly over the center of the gimbal head (its axis of rotation). A piece of thread with a small weight on the end provides a quick and easy way to make a true ‘vertical’ line to adjust this. Or if I’m in the field I’ve used a straight edge and the bubble level that goes in my hotshoe.
Next adjustment is to raise the ‘platform’ of the gimbal head such that the center of the lens is exactly level with the axis of up/down rotation of the gimbal head. Again, this can be done with a straight edge and a level.
Now to fine tune these adjustments. There are a myriad ways to do this – all you need is an object close to the camera and an object far away. What I do is get two pieces of masking tape (or some other low residue tape) and put them on a window in my living room. One is aligned horizontally and the other vertically.
Now, with the camera 1.5m or so back from the window look through the viewfinder at the edge of the vertical piece of tape. You want to move your camera such that this vertical line on the tape is close to a vertical line in the distance when viewed through the viewfinder. I’ll typically use the edge of a neighbor’s house, or a distant streetlight.
Loosen the knob on the gimbal head that allows the camera to pan left and right. Now look through the viewfinder and pan left and right, paying attention to the two vertical lines previously chosen. They should not move relative to each other when panning from the left hand side of the frame to the right. If they do, you need to move the camera slightly forward or backward. To figure out which way, move it back a little and see if the relative motion of these lines is better or worse. If better, continue – if worse you needed to move the camera the other direction.
After doing this with the vertical lines I usually check the horizontal one as well. Loosening the knob on the gimbal that allows up/down panning allows this. Move the camera such that one edge of the horizontal tape is aligned with a distant horizontal object when looking through the viewfinder and then pan up/down. The near and far edges should keep a constant space between each other. Very finely move the camera forward or backward to adjust – these movements will be very small as you should be quite close to the right spot after the vertical line adjustments.
You will need to do this for each lens that you plan to use for panoramics. You will also need to do it for different focal lengths on some zoom lenses. Not wanting to go through this each time I set up I’ve used a tough fingernail polish to mark where each lens and plate goes on my Wimberly, such that I can put together a properly aligned pano head in a matter of seconds.
When this is done you now have a spherical panoramic head – capable of making multi-row panoramic photos with ease.
Here's a quick sample - this one was 2x6 (I think - did it a while ago) frames that I did during testing of this. Not a fine pano of Glacier, but I thought the vertical and horizontal lines of this room gave a more exacting test of how well things were lining up than might be demonstrated in a typical landscape. (As an aside this was also an HDR - each of the frames is actually 3 photos blended)
Hope that's at least somewhat clear and somewhat helpful. Please feel free to ask questions if I haven't explained things adequately.
Steve
www.finesart.com
www.finesart.com
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Comments
One question tho. If all you were going to do was panos, would you have
bought a Wimberly head?
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Thanks. If I was just going to do panos and did not have a long lens that needed the gimbal then I would not have gone this route. A ball head and pano head would be a better solution.
www.finesart.com
But wanted to check.