How do I PAN on a Ball-head

R

rabaroo

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I've just got my RedSnapper tripod - very impressed! - I went for the TB-12 ballhead in the end

I tried to do a panorama at the weekend; turned out OK once I'd cropped it a bit; but I'm not sure technically how to do it.

Heres what I did.

Attached the ballhead to the Legs
Attached the camera; then dropped it so that the pics were taken portrait
Took numerous pics; twisting the shaft of the ball-head as I went.

.... When I came to create the pano in CS2; the pics werent perfectly aligned; so I had to crop a bit off the top and bottom - not sure if that is a generic problem!?

However it was manipulating the ball-head/camera that I had most problem with - there didnt/doesnt seem to be a sure-fire way of panning round with the ballhead.....

unless I am missing something!?

.... So, am I doing something wrong? - is there a better way to do this? :shrug:
 
Don't you have a separate thumb screw for swiveling the whole head on the central shaft? If you have the shaft at it's lowest position you can use that for turning.
 
My ball head has a separate control knob for the panorama type action with some graduations marked for accuracy.
Not sure if yours is similar, but a lot do seem to have the three knobs on them
 
I've wondered about the knobs on the ball head. I know one locks the pan swivel on the base but why are there two locking knobs on the ball itself?
 
chameleon said:
but why are there two locking knobs on the ball itself?
Click to expand...

If it's anything like mine, one locks the ball completely. The other is used to 'adjust friction' so that you can move your camera around without it being floppy as a floppy thing. You then just lock it when you're happy with the composition. :)
 
my manfrotto 488rc2 has a knob to lock the ball head, but a separate knob for panning around the horizontal plane.

Not all ball heads have this and as its so easy to knock it out of adjustment, many prefer a pan and tilt head for this sort of work.
 
2 screws hold the ball - from what I figured ones a big kinda rough clamp and the other is tigher closer adjustment.

The 3rd one holds the rotating part, its smaller and lower down the head. I found that the head is so well made to such tight tolerances that the rotating part is quite stiff, even when completely unclamped.

Just give it a bit of time to loosen off.
 
Not sure if i'm talking out of my arris here, to get a perfect pano the focal plane must be over or parallel with the centre column and perfectly level, i'm not sure if tilting the camera over to portrait on a ball head throws things out. :thinking:
 
you're right Mitch - to do it strictly by the book the camera needs to be turned about an axis that is at the front of the lens rather than the tripod mount point. There are special tripod heads that allow you to do just that. Having said that I'm not sure just how much difference that would make since you're going to be stitching anyway.
 
AndyB said:
you're right Mitch - to do it strictly by the book the camera needs to be turned about an axis that is at the front of the lens rather than the tripod mount point. There are special tripod heads that allow you to do just that. Having said that I'm not sure just how much difference that would make since you're going to be stitching anyway.
Click to expand...

Not strictly true.
The camera needs to be swivelled around the nodal point of the lens not the front. Only the nodal point can provide true parralax free panormaic stitches.
 
Depending on the tripod, can you not just slacken off the tripod's centre column and turn that?
 
How is the nodal point defined Richard?
 
That suggests the nodal point can move depending on the lens configuration. On a zoom it will move unles I am mistaken. So in that case it's going to be dificult to tell where the nodal point is.
 
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