I am new to the whole tripod setup and looking for a good tripod setup to be used mainly for panormic pictures. I have a decent small portable everyday use tripod already.

You might want to include a budget, or what your looking to spend. Also, include your equipment, so people know your requirements. Also, are you looking to go to heavier equipment in the future? Tonight, I bought a Markins M20, it might be over kill for what I currently have, but I don't want to ever have to buy another one.

I bought a Manfrotto 303plus several years ago, and it works well, but is somewhat bulky. I'm now about to spring for a Nodal Ninja 5 with RD16 rotator and the NN leveling base. What I have done is mount my pano head, rotator, and leveling base on a separate short center post, which I can quickly put into my Manfrotto 3021 tripod, swapping out the regular ballhead and full length center post.

>What I have done is mount my pano head, rotator, and leveling base on a separate short center post, which I can quickly put into my Manfrotto 3021 tripod, swapping out the regular ballhead and full length center post.


I too sought a multi-configuration use for my Slik Pro 700DX tripod. Much to my surprise I found I could mount my King Pano head (with its integrated leveling base) onto a Bogen 680B monopod and swap out the top tube of the monopod for the center tube of the Slik ... thus eliminating the the entire tilt-pan head and creating a dedicated pano configuration.

In addition to what jonshonda said, are you planing on doing multirow panoramas or just single row? Are you looking for an Arcaswiss compatible set up?

Barry

I do QTVR (panos and 360's) for real estate for a living and use the Manfrotto 303Plus. It's a little big, but it's extremely adjustable and was well worth it since I can switch cameras and simply re-adjust it.

You can put it on a Manfrotto 3021 set of legs or anything heavier duty than that. I wouldn't go too much lighter, as the head is about 3 1/2 pounds itself!

You will also need a leveler, as the 303 Plus no longer comes with a built in leveler.

It's an expensive head, but for professional use, it's worth it. I'm on my second one. Still haven't sent the first one in for repair, yet. (The dedent stops wore out)

Check out Really Right Stuff. I have their pano head setup on a Gitzo and it works great! It also does not include a leveling base though. However, it is designed to be leveled using a ballhead.

Nodal Ninja offers excellent bang for the buck in a pano head:
http://www.nodalninja.com/

after trying various pano heads I went with the Really Right Stuff gear, starting with their panning clamp )PCL-1 and the longer of their two nodal slides and eventually working my way up, piece by piece to the full Ultimate Pro Panoramic kit for making multi-row ultra high resolution panoramic photos.

On of the things that appealed to me was that I can reconfigure the various components to do other jobs. I use them more macro work, for making short booms to shoot down on subjects both small and large and to hold subjects and lights. Those are things you can't do with dedicated heads like the Nodal Ninja , etc.