As far as I can tell, the downside of the RRS PCL is that you can't tilt the camera up/down. For instance, suppose you're perched on top of an overlook looking down into a canyon and want to do a pano. Ideally you'd level a panning base but then be able to tilt the camera down into the canyon and compose the frame(s) the way you want. With the RRS PCL, the panning part is also the part that holds the camera/lens, so it's not possible to tilt it down. A leveling base addresses this problem.
Eric
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Eric,
Hum... there is indeed some possible advantage in this scenario, but to avoir parallax, you will then have to compute the position of your body as a function of the angle so as to position the entrance pupil node on top of the rotation point... very difficult to do IMHO.
If you only work with the "flat rotation" entrance pupil, then a quick test will show you that by tilting the lens down, you move the entrance pupil away from the vertical rotaton axis of the levelled base, which will induce parallax...
The best way to address your scenario is a true multi-row pano head (like the RRS) that makes it possible to rotate on 2 axis while maintaining the entrance pupil on top of the rotation points...
Cheers,
Bernard