Pano Heads

[LukeH]

I'm thinking about a pano head to help with my sunrise panoramics, and was looking for some advice about which ones to look at, and how easy/hard they are to use??

Any advice would be appreciated!!!

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I use RRS PCL-1, it's very good for simple panos that do not need a nodal slide. If you are using a decent stitcher there will be little need for a nodal slider in landscape shooting. If you need a nodal slider I'd consider this: http://reallyrightstuff.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=192-FAS-Pkg&type=4&eq=192-FAS-Pkg-001&desc=192-FAS-Package%3a-FAS-Clamp-%26-MPR-192&key=ait



http://echophoto.dnsalias.net/ekr/index.php/photoarticles/panorama-and-stitching

Best regards
Erik

[Rhossydd]

I use a Manfrotto 303 which I find very good. I can't imagine anything else being significantly easier to set up or use. The only downside is size and weight.

[bretedge]

The Acratech Pano Base is a great, economical way to photograph panos.  It doesn't allow you to set nodal points like some others but it also costs less than half the price.  Great piece of kit, as are their ballheads.

[LukeH]

Thanks for the info guys....
Because the horizon is key in my shots, do they help in keeping the horizon  level and straight? (of course allowing for level tripod and curvature of the earth)

[Ellis Vener]

Thanks for the info guys....
Because the horizon is key in my shots, do they help in keeping the horizon  level and straight? (of course allowing for level tripod and curvature of the earth)

that is exactly why we use a rotating platform on top of the tripod head. There are a few variations, The Really Right Stuff PCL-1 is the one I use, and it can be attached to virtually any tripod head or even directly to a tripod legset,  but there are others -- Novoflex and Sunwayfoto come immediately to mind -- and there are now a few tripod heads with a rotating platform at the top of the head (and sometimes one at the bottom as well) built in. Namely these are the Arca-Swiss p0. p1, Cube and D4 models and the Induro PHQ-1 and PHQ-3 heads.

[torger]

I'm thinking about a pano head to help with my sunrise panoramics, and was looking for some advice about which ones to look at, and how easy/hard they are to use??

Having a leveling head at the bottom can be useful to get a level surface, or else you need to precisely set the tripod leg lengths. Or you could have a geared head like arca swiss D4 with rotator on top.

I like rotators with click stops (easy to use, possible to work fast!), and then I'd recommend nodal ninja. I use a pre-production model of Nodal Ninja Ultimate "M" Series (with an EZ-leveler II at bottom), it is built around arca swiss dovetail, good price/performance (good stability, 70-200/2.8 lens no problem). The drawback with that system currently is that it is not easy to set the horizon at say 1/3 (a clickless upper rotator is coming though), I often do two-row panoramas though and then it works well. An advantage of a "true" panorama head is that you get rotation around nodal point so you can have close foreground and even make indoor panoramas without parallax errors.

If you have heavy gear (body + lens) you need really stable stuff or else you have to wait several seconds between shots for the vibrations to subside.