[adwb]

Since she who must be obeyed has asked what I wanted for Christmas, I thought what little things could I ask for that would not break her bank and one of the things was /is/ a hotshoe level, but that took me to a site about panorama heads and nodal positioning arms. Nodal Ninja NN3 MK II Panoramic VR Tripod head. Red Door VR UK.
Now before some one goes to all the trouble of posting info I don't need let me say right now I fully understand what the kit does and having watched their set up video I understand the parallax error effect and how this kit gets rid of it.

So then it occurred to me since I have a manfrotto sliding plate http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/product/0/454/_/Micro-positioning_Sliding_Plate
that would also allow moving the camera position to find the correct lens position to remove parallax, and given their method of adjusting it indeed does the job.

What is I cannot find out is what benefit is to be had from buying this kind of equipment, given that any of the stitching software around never mentions parallax and some ask for reference points and some don't even want that ?

What is the differnce in taking a panorama on a tripod [given the mount is in the centre of the lens] and the camera level via bubble, and setting up and removing the parrallex?

So with out taking a series of shots and testing please can some one tell me why you need it.

[Wheatfield]

I've done many, many panoramics off a regular pan/tilt head with no problems. To a certain extent, the specialized pan heads are a solution to a non existent problem in that to work properly, you still need to find the rear nodal point on the lens and set the pivot point on it.
A sliding plate (Arca Swiss) works as well for this as anything else.
Also, you won't notice parallax at all unless the scene has objects quite close to the camera.
If you have Photoshop CS5, it's pano stitch script will remove ghosting, which will take care of any problems caused by slight paralax issues (which you will get with a panoramic head the same as a regular 3-way pan/tilt head if you don't have things set up correctly).
For myself, I'd buy a good pan/tilt head instead of a specialized panoramic head.

[bimjo]

For a single row pano what you have will work fine, assuming you can get the lens centered over the sliding plate. For multi row panos… not so much.

Have fun, post the results.

[falconeye]

Nodal Ninja NN3 MK II Panoramic VR Tripod head. Red Door VR UK.

I have the NN3.

As has been said, it removes the parallax error when pitching the camera too.

Parallax is only a problem when having close foreground objects (which every pano should have though). Often enough, panos from free-hand shots turn out great. Where it is essential is in buildings with a tiled floor.

OTOH, the NN3 makes shooting of multirow panos with their many shots more convenient. It has a ball plate with notches for a given number of shots per sweep. That's something I wouldn't like to miss because I do not look thru the VF when doing a large pano. That's the next best thing to a motorized pano head.

Things to consider: The NN3 can be too small for some lenses. It then wouldn't reach a complete compensation of the parallax error. That's an issue with my Sigma 12-24 full frame lens which does just fit.

Moreover, the NN3 is bulky when not folded and mounting it is not exactly instantaneous. So, I don't carry it if I don't plan to do a pano. OTOH, then I don't typically carry a tripod either (my table-top tripod doesn't count, does it? )

[adwb]

Thank Guys for the 3 replies, one more thing, I have a pan and tilt head what now occurs to me is that if I open up or tilt the mounting plate to fit the camera in portrait position it is no longer over the central pivot point of the tripod, is this when you need this tripod head and nodal [entry point] arm so you can [A]set the camera lens over the pivot point and [B] adjust for parallax ?

[falconeye]

Thank Guys for the 3 replies, one more thing, I have a pan and tilt head what now occurs to me is that if I open up or tilt the mounting plate to fit the camera in portrait position it is no longer over the central pivot point of the tripod, is this when you need this tripod head and nodal [entry point] arm so you can [A]set the camera lens over the pivot point and [B] adjust for parallax ?

If your sliding plate only slides one way and you don't own the 645D, then yes. But as I said, the rotational stops do matter too.

[adwb]

Falk, I have a one way because I bought a expensive one rather than a cheaper "no name brand " two axis from ebay as I reckoned to be accurate the machining needed to be spot on.
I actually bought it to take images of Orchids so as to stack the images and get the whole flower head in focus , which has been very successful.
I suppose a two way might be a cheaper solution than a proper head and nodal arm.
Manfrotto Micro-positioning Sliding Plate - Plates

[boriscleto]

Nodal Ninja 3 vs Panosaurus

The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head Home Page