Using a micrometric position plate with geared head to create simple pano setup?

[craigwashburn]

Has anyone tried putting a Manfrotto 454 micrometric position plate, usually used for macro, on a 410 geared head for pano work?  I have a 410 head and my thinking is I could put the micro plate on for making the nodal adjustment.

Manfrotto's pano kits work basically this way, using a more specific rotating base plate that costs a bit by itself.

[Ellis Vener]

Do you mean to use it as "nodal point" positioning device to get the nodal point or entrance pupil of a lens directly above the rotation point? Or to use it to displace the camera from left to right?

There's no theoretical reason it should not work. But depending on the subject matter it really will save you some grief if you are planning on swinging the camera around the nodal point to get a panning clamp or panning base to put on top of your head. Double tilt heads like your 410 are much more suited to this kind of stitched panoramic work than ball heads.

[craigwashburn]

Do you mean to use it as "nodal point" positioning device to get the nodal point or entrance pupil of a lens directly above the rotation point? Or to use it to displace the camera from left to right?

There's no theoretical reason it should not work. But depending on the subject matter it really will save you some grief if you are planning on swinging the camera around the nodal point to get a panning clamp or panning base to put on top of your head. Double tilt heads like your 410 are much more suited to this kind of stitched panoramic work than ball heads.

Right, I'd use it to move the camera fore and back to position the nodal over the center axis.  This assumes the 410 is centered when level, as well as the micrometric plate's attachment point.  I haven't found any pics of the bottom of the plate to be sure it would attach dead center, though since manfrotto's kits use it, it seems like it must.  I don't believe I'd need a left-right adjustment plate if this is the case.

I don't do a whole lot of pano work, so this simple setup should suffice I hope.  I'm all about reusing existing equipment when I can.

[Ellis Vener]

As I said earlier it should work fine as a nodal point positioning device. If you are panning at the head's base don't assume that just because it is level when the camera is pointed in one direction that it will still be level when pointing in another - hence my recommendation of a panning platform on top of the head. You use the 410 as a precision leveling device and then use the top mounted panning device (i like the RRS PCL-1 but Sunwayfoto and Novoflex also make them and I picked up a used Foba panning base  or this purpose  ( let me know if you are interested in the Foba but it only has a 3/8" tripod screw and not the more ubiquitous 1/4' 20-thread because

[elliot_n]

The 410 head, used in its intended orientation (with the bubble level facing the photographer), has the lens axis offset from the centre of panning rotation. Your sliding plate will not be helpful here (unless you also use a panning base, as suggested by Ellis). But if you rotate the camera 90 degrees from its intended orientation, your plan should work. If you don't want a panning base, get a bubble level to place on the lower, horizontal Manfrotto label, and level the rig with your tripod legs.

[craigwashburn]

The 410 head, used in its intended orientation (with the bubble level facing the photographer), has the lens axis offset from the centre of panning rotation. Your sliding plate will not be helpful here (unless you also use a panning base, as suggested by Ellis). But if you rotate the camera 90 degrees from its intended orientation, your plan should work. If you don't want a panning base, get a bubble level to place on the lower, horizontal Manfrotto label, and level the rig with your tripod legs.

Right you are!  Thank you for the suggestion.  I have a ballhead that is fairly easy to level as well, so I'll probably just end up using that, after leveling the legs.  Also going to try a 357 sliding plate instead of the micrometric.  It doesn't have the handy scale, but a paint pen will suffice with marking nodal locations. 

Now for the next trick is to locate an l-bracket that will work with all this....  Manfrotto just announced an RC4-based l-bracket that looks very nice and flexible, but so far none of the usual stores list it yet.

[theguywitha645d]

I use the Manfrotto 454 on an Arca Swiss P0 ball head with a Pentax 645D. It works very well with focal lengths up to 120mm. It is a little short for my 300mm, but I have not found it a real problem. But the 645D has two tripod sockets of vertical and horizontal orientation.