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By: Justin Serpico
In the modern age of digital cameras and panoramic software, creating a panorama is almost as easy as taking a normal photo. I've seen and created some very good handheld shots. I even have a 20x30 on my wall, taken with a 4MP digital compact which was hand held.
Some would argue that a tripod and specialized head isn't necessary because the software can correct many problems. To a point this is true, the level of accuracy needed to stitch panoramas on a computer is pretty generous.
However, when you combine all the factors that weigh in against creating a high quality, a large print panorama a tripod mounted head removes almost all of them.
What a tripod and panoramic head does, among other things, but most importantly, is allow you to eliminate a phenomenon known as parallax error. This is where the no-parallax point of the lens doesn't line up with the rotation axis of the head, such as the photo below where distortion combined with parallax creates a curved building!
To understand parallax in its most simple form, put your thumb in front of your face with an object behind it, now move your head (but not your thumb) to the left and right. Notice how your thumb no longer is lined up with the object as it was before you moved your head? That is called parallax
With a very good distortion free lens, and a distant landscape with no foreground, parallax can be a relative non issue with some care, especially for small prints. However, if your goal is to create high quality panoramic views for large prints, the only way to assure perfect image alignment is with a panoramic head.
Another major advantage of a panoramic head is the ability to use wider angled lenses. The more distortion prone a lens the more parallax and other errors play a role in the final image.
Nodal point calibrated panoramic heads are most useful in complex panoramas that include both a foreground and background. City scenes with layers of straight lines, or natural scenes with foreground trees, flowers or boulders. Not to mention if you ever want to try QTVR or multi row panoramic photography having a nodal point calibrated head is nearly essential.
The panoramic head I decided upon for use in the field (aka, while on mountain tops, or traveling with gear on my shoulders), is the Fanotec Nodal Ninja 3 MII -known as the NN3 or NN3II throughout the rest of this article. This head is extremely light, it's well built, and it has reasonably high tolerances. It's also under $225 direct from Fanotec.
Most of my photographic gear is centered around compact light weight equipment and the Nodal Ninja 3 MII is precisely the right size, you can even leave it in your camera bag in the supplied case. If you’re someone toting an $8000 DSLR that weighs more than my entire travel/backcountry kit, the cost and weight of a higher end head will probably not bother you.
Fanotec also has a generous upgrade program where you essentially sell back your old Nodal Ninja when a new model comes out. Since the systems are to a point modular, even an old Nodal Ninja can be upgraded to some degree in many cases. So often Nodal Ninja has used trade in models for sale at a sharp discount.
Fanotec is a customer service oriented company focused on creating quality panoramic tools at a fair price. Ask a question and they will get back to you usually within hours, send in some feedback and they will take note of it. If you lose a part, or need another piece of the puzzle to make your system work, it will arrive quickly.
Now bear in mind that while the Nodal Ninja is a high quality piece of machinery, it’s not quite on par with a significantly higher cost head, which are also significantly bigger and heavier. Those heads have better rotators and more precise settings, but as I noted above with digital image stitching 110% accuracy at time of capture isn't needed anymore. And the settings on the NN3/NN5 are precise enough to be accurate within a 1mm or so! So the question is, with advanced software, do you need a head that cost 3-5X as much, and weights 2-3X as much when your final results will be the same?
Of course, Fanotec didn’t completely abandon precision; it just dumbed it down to the point where it was acceptable in the digital era. The dumbed down precision means stout build quality at a price that is more acceptable to most photographers not making a serious living off panoramic imagery. So while those other brands do offer more precision, they also weigh more, cost more, and are essentially overbuilt for modern panoramic photography.
For larger cameras, like medium format or some very large DSLR models, like the Canon 1D or Nikon D1/2/3 series, Fanotec makes a larger head, the NN5 MII. Along with the larger head, Fanotec also makes high precision upgrade rotators that can be used on either model Nodal Ninja. Bearing in mind these upgrade rotators cost almost as much as the base NN3, while the stock rotator is pretty decent with many high quality detent rings to allow precise rotations! Most people using a light camera setup will get by just fine with the stock setup which offers quite a bit of precision and adjustability.
For the money the Nodal Ninja is the best value in panoramic heads, and with the company’s easy customer loyalty upgrade path, along with a wide selection of accessories, I can't see any reason you'd need or want another head!
Stay tuned for part two of this series where we calibrate the NN3 to locate the nodal points of individual K mount lenses!
Thank you for reading,
Justin Serpico
7 comments:
Justin,
Great photos and great tutorial. Your site, Mountain Visions, is also excellent. I enjoyed reading it and have suscribed to it.
great to see an article about panoramic photography.
however, i can't help but point out some important errors, that should not be spread:
paragraph 4 (after the first sentence) is not accurate, sorry. let me re-write it for you: "this is where the no-parallax point of the lens doesn't line up with the rotation axis of the head."
the photo below par.4, at least in the size i can see it at, does not display this phenomenon. what i think you are unhappy with is that barrel distortion is over-corrected, and it is a cylindrical projection instead of rectilinear (that's why the building in the foreground curves), and also the horizon is warped maybe.
also, the only reason i see why a wide-angle lens causes more problems is because it increases the likelihood of having foreground and distant objects in a picture (which is an issue if parallax is uncorrected), not that i have the final word about these things.
hope i don't sound too harsh, just wanted to straighten things out (pun!).
i hope in the following parts you will mention Hugin: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
Scott,
Good points.
I see the error on the first point, we'll correct that.
The photo below p4, I believe had several errors which compounded all the issues. Distortion, hand holding and not rotated over the nodal point, among other things. However, it serves the purpose of illustrating that software cannot fix all issues, hence the article, and the head!
Ultimately, that is the purpose of the article, to illustrate that while software can create some nice looking panoramics, it sometimes can be defeated, especially in more complex situations.
Not sure I see the difference in the second point on wide angles. Unless I'm misreading my own wording, I think that is was I am saying?
i agree i may have gotten carried away with the critiquing on the last point, i think we meant the same thing, just wasn't sure.
i heartily agree with your overall point, but about the photo, i don't have the original, but what i am trying to say, without burning any bridges, is i think that it could come out perfectly fine with some more tweaking in software. a quick demonstration:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3253066963_ff0e63a3eb_o.jpg
Scott,
The picture with the curved buildings is a great picture. When you straignten the buildings, it becomes just an ordinary photograph. I use the DA 10-17mm all the times because it does exegarate the perspective, and sometimes that gives the picture an edge. Creating the same effect with pano is also great as it renders a big file that can be printed poster size. In the end, the composition always wins over the technical aspect of a photograph.
Scott,
That isn't bad, I probably ended up with the same result at some point, but ultimately I lost too much of the buildings/street/frame with that much correction. I already lost quite a bit with the image I posted, but was happy with the failure, and definitely used it as motivation. Of course, like I said, shooting a panorama of a complex scene from your hotel balcony hand held with a distortion prone lens is kinda stacking the deck against yourself!!
But like Yvon noted, sometimes even a failed photo can be pretty decent. Eventually, the curved building won out because the composition was far better than the skyline shot without the foreground.
Justin
Thanks Justin,
As you know I am a huge fan of your work and have been a huge blessing in my quest to learn the art of Landscape photography. So far far I am finding it the most challenging.
As for your blog, it is cool that yahoo has it available as a module, so I now have it on my front page every time I open my browser. Quite cool actually.
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