Multi-Row Panos

[StarScapes]

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/Be-a-Gear-Expert/Panoramas-Made-Simple_2/Shooting-Multi-Row-Panos.html

The setup at that link looks awesome but somewhat larger than I want for longer hikes. Has anyone found other options or techniques that work well?

[NancyP]

I suppose that you could eliminate one of the two panning clamps if you had one of the "upside down" ball heads such as the Arca-Swiss p0 or an invertable Acratech that would have the panning function above the ball, not below the ball. I do only single row panos at the moment, and have the p0 and a "nodal rail" (rail with crosswise arca-swiss-type QR clamp at end).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_tripod_head                    try some links here?


If you were going to use the same camera and the same lens all the time, it could be feasible to build your own rig that, instead of infinitely variable panning clamps, had indexing clamps. The tilting rail only needs to be indexed to maybe three positions. For the horizontal rail, there are commercial indexing rotators, some of which would be lighter than others. All you have to do is provide a way to level the head.

http://www.peterloud.co.uk/nodalsamurai/nodalsamurai.html          2 bucks and change (assumes simple metalworking skills) - this looks lightweight

[MattBurt]

I think as software continues to improve, you may not need all this precision to get a decent multi row pano at capture time.

I shoot single row panos hand held quite a bit and while not ideal if I overlap by 1/3 of the frame they seem to come out looking pretty good to me.
It will depend on the scene but just like my "freehand" single row panos, if you use landscape features to know where your frame needs to be I suspect it could be done with a pretty ordinary pano head. Maybe I will see if I can pull one off soon as a test...