Closed Account Registered: March, 2008 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Posts: 415 | | Review Date: November 30, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great price; great for lightweight camera | | Cons: | not sturdy enough; slight flexing noticed. | |
I would recommend this head for those who want to get into panos at a good price. It will cover 75% of situations. It could benefit from some bracing feature which would make it more rock stable. Right now it should only be used with mirror lock-up firing. I would strongly recommend this pano head for beginners who are keen on developing this amazing technique: get it and keep on truckin'...
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Veteran Member Registered: December, 2011 Location: Lewes DE USA Posts: 1,780 | | Review Date: May 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Excellent for lighter weight configurations | | Cons: | Multi-row panos with heavy camera/lens | |
* ManuH's review reflects my feelings. I've been using the Panosaurus heads for years and the Panosaurus 2 is significantly improved from the original.
My latestatest project was an HDR multi-row panorama of a cathedral interior with 4 rows using a K-5 and DA*16-50 set at 35mm. The result was so good for my eye I had a 30 by 40 inch aluminum print made.
My only concern was the weight of the combination of the K-5 and DA* 16-50 lens. I just acquired a 35mm K f3.5 lens for future panoramas of this type to provide lower weight plus a closer positioning of the lens nodal point and the total center of gravity (haven't had a chance to use the lens for panos yet.)
I highly recommend this head when used within common sense limitations of weight. The cost to upgrade to a pano head capable of significantly more weight is very expensive in comparison.
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Site Supporter Registered: December, 2007 Location: Montreal Posts: 1,249 | | Review Date: September 21, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very cheap, well built, simple to use and set-up | | Cons: | Not Arca compatible, may not work with grip, supports only 4.5kg/10lbs | |
It has to be the cheapest panoramic head around. There exist many other competitors (Nodal Ninja, Gigapan, etc). I didn't compare directly to them but Panoramic is a small part of my shooting and for 100$ the Panosaurus (v2.0) works well enough, multirow panos included.
The build quality is very good, parts are made of metal and are smooth enough in their movements.
With the included instructions finding the nodal point (the point around which you can pivot without parallax errors) for a lens is not too difficult. The graduated parts allow you to keep note of the correct points for later use.
My only real gripe is that there's no quick release plate. I may work around that with an Arca Swiss type clamp that I can fix onto the sliding plate.
My first test was a pano of 24 shots (3 rows x 8 shots ) with the DA 40mm on the K-5 for a total of about 400 megapixels. It tooks about 5 minutes to accomplish the shooting. I didn't have to even look at the viewfinder, the graduated mark on the rotating plate and the numbers on the arm let me adjust each shot quickly and accurately. The stitching (with Autopano) was flawless.
For simple row panorama, it may be a bit overkill and for high gigapixels with long focal lengths it may be a tad too flimsy but otherwise it does the job without too much fuss.
Highly recommended.
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