Tripod Heads for Panorama Photography

To take photographs suitable for stitching in panorama photography, a firm and accurate tripod rotating head is essential. Use the best panoramic tripod head you can afford. The more accurate the equipment, the better will be the parallax control. This will make the later job of stitching the images much easier and more successful.

A true panoramic head will rotate the camera around the lens's nodal point and give a more accurate image with the minimum of distortion. There is plenty of choice on the market and a range of prices.

Precision made, compact and strong, they are easy to set up and use. One model is ideal for the bigger Nikons and Canons. Click stops simplifies the panning process.
The price is modest compared with some makes.
www.nodalninja.com


Kaidan supply tripod heads panoramas at an affordable price.
www.kaidan.com


360 Precision tripod heads are for those who can afford the best. They are top quality and top price. Strong enough to hold medium format cameras and coming with built in settings, no complicated setting up needs to be done. There is a lighter version for travelling.

Their site also contains video tutorials on using the major stitching programs.
www.360precision.com


Quality gear comes from Really Right Stuff. Their range includes basic items to the simpler panoramas and items to take the more complicated images.

The site has thorough explanations on the subject as well as describing verticle and horizontal, single and multi-row shots.
http://reallyrightstuff.com/pano/


Ipix.com supply rotating kits for a large range of film and digital cameras.
Kits can include rotating bases, brackets, supports
and a full frame fish-eye lens.

Manfrotto also make suitable devices. www.manfrotto.com


Novoflex make panoramic heads for horizontal and vertical use. They are high-precision with fine tuning, but aren't cheap. It should be possible to make one unit which performs both functions but I haven't seen one yet.

Speedgraphic.co.uk stock them. Britain is not the cheapest place to buy anything so a net search might find chepaer supplies elsewhere.
The Panosaurus on the same site is worth a look - not as sophisticated but a reasonable price.

Want to experiment without buying an expensive tripod head first?
Some who is handy with DIY tools, wood and or metal can make a serviceable head fairly easily. The horizontal version is easier than the vertical.
Follow the principles on the nodal point and see how the bought units look. My first panorama tripod head was made this way; none of the fine-tuning refinements of the real thing but it worked.

Where the gadget attaches to the tripod, it needs to have a slot to allow it and the camera to be moved backwards and forwards.
If your are always using the same camera then a simple hole is enough to attach the camera to the gadget. It needs to be positioned so that the central line of the lens will always be over the tripod screw.

If you are going to use different cameras then this hole under the camera should be a slot to allow movement from side to side in order to find the accurate position.
That's all there is to it.


Unfortunately there are some restrictions in what Photomerge can achieve when tackling more complicated panoramas, even with the improvements found in CS4. Images taken with extreme wide-angles or fish-eye lenses , for examples, will really tax your ingenuity.

There is a good choice of specialist software on the market which can tackle such problems and anyone who gets more involved in making panoramas should look at these.

One very good programme is FREE. Some are outlined in the next of the panorama tutorials.



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The Nodal Point
Panorama Software
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