[font color=\'#000000\']Peter makes a valid point about hand-holding. It can be done, but there are enough variables that having a tripod, in my opinion, simplifies matters greatly:
Depending on your software, frame-to-frame roll variance could be a problem.
Depending on your software, not having the horizon centered could be a problem.
Judging what is 'close to the camera' can be a problem. I have done hand held shots (with a 50mm on a D60) where objects at several tens of meters caused a problem.
Rotating a camera up and down about the nodal point by hand can be very hard on the neck.
In my experience, 99% of my stitching problems went away when I started using this.
As for Wimberly, I had read on photo.net that they offered this configuration for those folks who didn't need the landscape camera mount and also didn't want to rely on their own ball-head. When I called, I just asked for a side-mount Wimberly head. They have to make them up special, but that was no big deal for them. They seems like a great outfit.
The thing has a few advantages over the Kaidan: costs less (several hundred dollars cheaper), and weighs less (about 2/3 of Kaidan).
The only drawback is that there is one degree of freedom that it lacks versus the Kaidan. You can't see it in this photo, but there is a QR plate and receptacle on the Aluminum slide. I needed to shim between the QR receptacle and the slider in order to get the optic axis of the D60 over the Wimberly axis of rotation.
When I put the 1D on this, the extra distance from the optic axis to the bottom of the camera means a different mount from that used for the D60. All part of the fun I suppose.
Greg[/font]