DIY Panorama plate/head

[wojtek]

Hopefully some of you may find this interesting.

I have recently upgraded from a sony F707 to a D70, and I thought i'd give shooting panoramas another bash. So i went out, shot a shedload of frames and came home to stitch them, boy did I struggle!

If anyone is familiar with a F707 you'll know that the tripod mount is on the lens barrel, where the D70 is on the body, so I did some reading and came accross the whole entry pupil/nodal point concept.

Having just dropped over 2 large on the camera i am in no position to run out and replace my $70 el-budget tripod and buy panoramic heads and mounts, so I knocked up a DIY panoramic plate and mount, I think the total cost was well under $20, although I did have a piece of aluminium to use as the bottom plate.

Basically all you need is a piece of steel/aluminium that is sturdy enough to hold the camera and at-least 120 mm long if you want to shoot at 18mm on the kit lens.



As you can see with mine I opted for more length and a channel so I can change the focal length and adjust the camera position.

Unfortuatley my tripod does not rotate over the mounting screw, but its a bit skewed so the numbers i give you here may vary on your tripod but my camera is mounted 70mm to the back of the plate's mounting screw.

You can quite easily add a right angle bracket (picked this one up from Mitre 10 for under $4).



Its all fairly straight forward and it fixes the dreaded movement of objects in the background when you rotate.

[Onyx]

Woah, Aussie ingenuity at it again. How well does it work? Got before and after results?

[Raydar]

Awesome stuff mate, well done

If possible can post an image with the cam mounted please, I’ve been thinking of making some scratch built stuff my self, a pan head was one of them.

Cheers
Ray

[birddog114]

Awesome stuff mate, well done

If possible can post an image with the cam mounted please, I’ve been thinking of making some scratch built stuff my self, a pan head was one of them.

Cheers
Ray

Raydar,
Go for machining and CNC, buy equipment and manufacture them, sell back to our fellows in this community intsead of buying from the Yank, stay away with hefty freight charges and other issues:lol:

[Raydar]

Mite do that mate

I have access to lathes, milling machines etc etc.
I think I will have a go at a few different things, see how I go.

There’s a few ideas running around my head as to how I would go about making an adjustable pan head.

Any ideas out there, suggestions would be good to play around with.

Cheers
Ray

[birddog114]

They call pano stuff from RRS

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/pano/index.html

Ordered this today from them
Omni-Pivot Package Optimized for Horizontal & Vertical Panoramic Photography & Pano Elements Package US$765.00 + freight

[wojtek]

Woah, Aussie ingenuity at it again. How well does it work? Got before and after results?

I havent had a chance to take it any further than my front yard since I've finished it, I'll knock up a montage of my test shots later on today and put them up here

[wojtek]

Mite do that mate

I have access to lathes, milling machines etc etc.
I think I will have a go at a few different things, see how I go.

Much better than the tools at my disposal, angle grider and a drill
I'd be really interested to see what you manage to knock up.

[Raydar]

I'd be really interested to see what you manage to knock up.

Same here mate!!!!!!

Cheers
Ray

[wojtek]

Got before and after results?

Ok here we go, the test shots i took today with and without.
Nothing exciting just the view out of my drieway, I havent applied the PT lens plugin to fix up the distortion but if you look at the with and without images and pay attention to the relative position of the volvo accross the street to my carport support you will notice the difference between the two.

Before


After


Im off to Sydney next week, hopefully I'll come back with a few panoramas to show

If possible can post an image with the cam mounted please

I'll see what i can do, dont have a 2nd camera handy though...


ps Apologies for the wide image, if i made it any smalle it would be hard to compare

[Raydar]

Thanks mate for your time
The pan head works just fine, well done

Have you found the fine tune box in Pan Factory mate?????

Cheers
Ray

[Onyx]

Awesome wojtek - looks like you've now got control over rotating at the lens' nodal point, optimising panos. I have no doubt you'll enjoy Sydney and take home many gorgeous images as memories.

Backyard job = top notch results. Gotta luv that.

[wojtek]

Some feedback from a trial run.... due to the length of the bottom panel you end up with a bit of aluminum sticking into your cheek when trying to look through the viewfinder, its a bit uncomfortable but still usable.

When using the "L bracket", the lens is not aligned over the tripod's head.. need to drill some holes tommorow.

While i was at Mitre 10 I saw a few "T joiners" that looked interesting, you could quite possibly mark out the holes for a few focal lengths and move the mounting point over the tripod head and not the camera, eliminating the whole aluminium in the cheek experience.

Thanks for the feedback guys, If i manage to shoot something decent ill be sure to brag about it here

[gecko]

Hello all

I have been dabbling with some pano photography of late - inspired by BigPix, killa koala and many others who are posting ripper images in the forum.

My ability to hand hold and get images without glaring nodal lines sucks.
So I am on the market for a pano rail.

I can't afford the Manfrotto (though if someone wants to sell me a 2nd hand one I am interested)

I thought I would ressurrect this old thread to see if anyone has experimented further with the DIY ideas presented here.

Any tips would be appreciated...

Thanks
Gerard

[big pix]

Hello all



I can't afford the Manfrotto (though if someone wants to sell me a 2nd hand one I am interested)

I thought I would ressurrect this old thread to see if anyone has experimented further with the DIY ideas presented here.

Thanks
Gerard

Gerard ,......have a look at the KINGPANO site, he makes a cheep pano head that works, yes it is a bit bulky but very solid, I have one it cost around & delivered to au $230.00au

cheers
bp

[gecko]

Hi Big pix
Any chance of you bringing the king pano head to the zoo with you?

Cheers
Gecko

[big pix]

I can do that.........

cheers
bp

[BBJ]

Maybe Bigpix can start producing some of these, i am sure members would buy. LOL

[Dougie]

If anyone has access to autocad 2005 I can send them some cad drawings I did for a pan head that I haven't got around to making yet. The hardest part is getting a hold of some aluminum billet to make the thing.
Just pm or email me

Doug

[birddog114]

If anyone has access to autocad 2005 I can send them some cad drawings I did for a pan head that I haven't got around to making yet. The hardest part is getting a hold of some aluminum billet to make the thing.
Just pm or email me

Doug

We had some guys tried all these inventions and ventures on this board not long ago same as few folks tried to make for themselves a"Homemade" pano heads, but then the invention are dead or never surface or never succeed.
Cost for single "Homemade" and working as we wish is dearer than we buy it off from the existing manufacturers and the quality same as design is not equal.
Why should we bother?

[Dougie]

I am in a good position of being an engineer for a big company with an excellent machine shop. It has just been to busy for me of late to go down and make the thing. Design was taken from a commercially available PH but modified slightly for ease of manufacture. I have just had the prod in the backside I need to get motivated now and make it. Will post picks when done.

[DaveB]

Looking forward to it Dougie!

For a few years now I've been taking panos with a setup with a horrible misalignment, and while I've got fairly nice results, it's always meant a fair amount of Photoshop work cleaning things up. All my gear has Arca-Swiss mounting plates, and the RRS pano gear looks really nice and convenient. But given the price I'd have to get a lot of use from it to make it worthwhile! So any cheaper alternative will be welcomed, especially if supports Arca-Swiss mounting.

At least now that I've finally invested in L-plates for my cameras I'll be at a better position than I have been so things should be easier, but the key is still moving the camera back so the entrance pupil is over the rotation axis (and working for vertical panos, which is where the RRS panning clamp is nice).

[kipper]

Nothing would beat the RRS Complete Pano Setup with a PCL-DVTL adapter.
Why bother spending all of your time (time = money), plus materials (you won't get it right the first go so you'll waste some) on something that has been already made, perfected with plenty of R&D and with better build quality.

[birddog114]

I'm not promoting any manufacturers nor bashing anyone get the ideas to have a homemade toy.
There're few guys out there wants to have a venture in doing these things, even you have all equipments or tools to make one for yourself, it's not cheap and precisely as other existing manufacturers has been done this for years with their experiences + their investment in R&D.
I don't spend my time in making for myself some items already available in the market with very good reputations, my time will be enjoying in doing some other bits and go shooting.

[phillipb]

Birddog, sometimes there's a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in doing something yourself. It's the same as saying that you can buy a postcard of the harbour bridge but you get satisfaction from photographing it yourself.

[birddog114]

Birddog, sometimes there's a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in doing something yourself. It's the same as saying that you can buy a postcard of the harbour bridge but you get satisfaction from photographing it yourself.

Yes, I agreed with your expression but not in the way of making pano head or any precisely equipments.
I knew you have done yourself a bubble level as fun, but again the ready made bubble level is still lot better than the one you made + your time and resources.

[phillipb]

Some people are a lot better then me at making things, still it was fun. BTW, you haven't seen my version of the flash diffuser have you. I may post a picture of it soon.

[birddog114]

Some people are a lot better then me at making things, still it was fun. BTW, you haven't seen my version of the flash diffuser have you. I may post a picture of it soon.

No, I haven't!
Maybe that made your other half seraching all her missing Tupperware

[phillipb]

Here it is Birdie, no tupperware was harmed in the process.

Excuse the bad photo, taken quickly with a P&S. camera.

[Cyrus]

Interesting contraption, what was it before it became a diffuser? Can't recognise it.. perhaps a light globe cover of something?

Cyrus

[birddog114]

Phillipb,
Is it for sale? have you named it yet? and have it in mass production, I have the market for it buy OZ instead of the LSII

[phillipb]

The main body was a $2.00 garden spray bottle from bunnings and the front cap came from a $2.50 battery powered night-light thingy from my local supermarket.

[budzz89]

If anyone has access to autocad 2005 I can send them some cad drawings I did for a pan head that I haven't got around to making yet. The hardest part is getting a hold of some aluminum billet to make the thing.
Just pm or email me

Doug

this actually right especially the autocad 2005 , that its the hardest thing to me