I'm new to shooting Panos. I am interested in the Manfrotto heads but what is the main difference between the 303 and 303Plus? Is the difference worth the price?
Are there other Pano heads that are a good choice as well?
I have researched this previously. The difference between the 303 and the 303Plus is the adjustment of the camera on the rails. In the 303 you move the camera on the rail by hand (push or pull). In the 303Plus the camera is moved back and forth by a geared micrometer. I would personally go for the 303Plus. It is more accurate and the setting are repeatable.
Andy, I have used the Manfrotto Panoheads. They will do the job, however they are heavy & cumbersome and slow to used (old technology).
What Camera and Lens combo do you want to use?
mthouston wrote:
Andy, I have used the Manfrotto Panoheads. They will do the job, however they are heavy & cumbersome and slow to used (old technology).
What Camera and Lens combo do you want to use?
+1! Started with a 303SPH...very heavy and klunky, scales are almost impossible to read due to placement so repeatability is virtually nonexistent. Each setup needs to be carefully checked for nodal point, so it's time consuming. Partial solution was to leave my old D70s set up on it, making the contraption very large to transport.
have not once used a nodal plate for my panos. with the most modern software such as APP, i cant see the need for one in general landscape use that i do. if however real estate is your thing you may well need it. for everything else, theres master card
all panos on my site are without any nodal gear, just a tripod and ball head. www.sussexlandscapephotography.co.uk
parsons wrote:
have not once used a nodal plate for my panos. with the most modern software such as APP, i cant see the need for one in general landscape use that i do. if however real estate is your thing you may well need it. for everything else, theres master card
all panos on my site are without any nodal gear, just a tripod and ball head. www.sussexlandscapephotography.co.uk
simon
+1
If you are new to panoramic photography it may be better to try first using what you`ve got rather than spend time and money on something you might not need. The Manfrotto set-up looks like it has been thrown together by a farmer, the other ones I`ve seen are far more elegant and user-friendly.
parsons wrote:
have not once used a nodal plate for my panos. with the most modern software such as APP, i cant see the need for one in general landscape use that i do. if however real estate is your thing you may well need it. for everything else, theres master card
all panos on my site are without any nodal gear, just a tripod and ball head. www.sussexlandscapephotography.co.uk
simon
Nodal adjustment is so that near objects will align properly with distant objects. You can see this if you set up your camera on a tripod with a vertical rod near the camera. Pan the camera so the rod is near the left edge of the frame. Note where it aligns with the background. Pan the camera so the rod is in near the right edge of the frame. Does it align in exactly the same place with the background? If not, the camera is not rotating around the nodal point of the lens.
You have some very nice panos on your site, but I don't see many with near objects. Most everything is distant.
I've not tried to stitch a pano that was shot without a centering the nodal point. Can the latest software really compensate for this when there are very close objects against distant backrounds in the shots?
There's no true fix possible for panoramas that have parallax error, since the source images themselves contain information about the subjects taken from two different locations. No software con truly reconcile that and synthesize a view that truly represents the view from a single location. However, good blending software can effectively mask the error by blending parts of adjacent images to disquise the eccentic junctions between near and far objects. This is most effective when the foreground object is in front of a relatively uniform surface -- a bush in front of water or the sky, for instance. It gets much harder when a complex foreground objects overlaps a complex background. As long as the panorama can be arranged to be either long distance, to minimize the error, or with a simple background to allow for masking, non-calibrated capture can work out fine. For everything else, use the Master Card to get a pano bracket.
Having said all that, I'd note that Max Lyons has been working on algorithms for use in his PTAssembler to merge images purposely taken from greatly different locations. It evidently works quite well for some subjects, even though it still requires manual intervention. See http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr_help_camera_position.htm And I note that some people are quite good at the gymnastics needed to rotate themselves around the entrance pupil while shooting handheld (I do not have that talent!) However, for general applications, it is still necessary to use a calibrated pano rig to be assured that parallax won't mess up an otherwise great pano.
