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My Nodal Ninja Journey
I expect that many of you will know of or even own the Nodal Ninja panorama brackets designed by Nick Fan and made by his company Fanotec. I bought one of his first brackets the NN sph1 in early 2005, This had come out the year before in late 2004. during the following year I exchanged it for the NN sph2 to take advantage of a number of improvements, better indent system and rotator in particular. (I still have that bracket among my odds and ends, alongside an earlier home-made wooden unit built by myself.)
In 2008 I added a NN3 mk2, Then a second NN3 m2 (converted to RS1 lens ring mount for 360x180 work) And a NN Ultimate R20 for ultra quick set up and shooting VR pans, using a replacement Fuji lens mount and foot on a Samyang 7.5mm fisheye lens. This allows taking a 360x180 in only 4 shot around.
Recently, I had the good fortune to acquire from a warehouse clearance, a brand new Nodal Ninja M2 vertical rail complete with its upper rotator and Arca Swiss style clamp. This is a rare item and not often sold separately, the individual parts are themselves on the costly side
This purchase allowed me to combine them with a NN D10 lower rotator and generic Arca Swiss style lower and upper arm with double groove rails.
This set up was then completed with two 25mm AC clamps to use as memory stops, for very rapidly setting up of the unit. (Nodal Ninja make mini 6mm stop clamps to do the same job, but they would have been much more costly though much smaller.) It all works exceedingly well but I have no actual use for it, so it will just sit in a draw or perhaps get sold on to someone who would be able to use a Pano bracket come Gimbal.
The NN M2 Panorama bracket is Nodal Ninja’s top of the range model, intended for the largest and heaviest professional cameras. And long lenses, as used for giga pixel mosaic stitched panoramas.
The M2 is also designed for use as a gimbal as the top rotator is mounted in bearings, and the tightening knob can be set from completely free movement to completely locked solid, and everything in between.
My particular set up has a 140mm upper rail, ideal for similar cameras to mine, but which would probably need a longer one, for use with longer lenses, but I have no need to do so myself, as I use neither a gimbal nor make Giga pixel pans.
Recently Nodal Ninja has withdrawn its early pre Arca Swiss compatible models, but has added a mini phone model to the current NN3 mk3, the NN6, and NN M 2, and R models. Apart from the mini model they can all be converted with NN Mecha units for full automation.
Nodal Ninja (Fanotec) are the only company making a full range of manual and Auto professional quality panorama brackets and accessories, suitable for every level of photography. They even make special adapters for taking Stereo panoramas. And for use with surveying laser units.
Saying all that, a high proportion of the single row pans that I have taken, have been shot hand held with no bracket at all. However a bracket becomes near essential when shooting complex parallax compromised multi row pans and 360x180VR pans. and especially if taking multiple shots for exposure or focus fusion, and it Is the only practical way to successfully shoot giga pixel mosaics.
The second part of the story is the Stitching software to use but that is another issue entirely. While basic pans can be easily stitched using Lightroom or Photoshop, there is no doubt at all that PTGui is the King of stitching software for all types of pans VR and mosaics. with perhaps PTAssembler as its little more limited brother.
I expect that many of you will know of or even own the Nodal Ninja panorama brackets designed by Nick Fan and made by his company Fanotec. I bought one of his first brackets the NN sph1 in early 2005, This had come out the year before in late 2004. during the following year I exchanged it for the NN sph2 to take advantage of a number of improvements, better indent system and rotator in particular. (I still have that bracket among my odds and ends, alongside an earlier home-made wooden unit built by myself.)
In 2008 I added a NN3 mk2, Then a second NN3 m2 (converted to RS1 lens ring mount for 360x180 work) And a NN Ultimate R20 for ultra quick set up and shooting VR pans, using a replacement Fuji lens mount and foot on a Samyang 7.5mm fisheye lens. This allows taking a 360x180 in only 4 shot around.
Recently, I had the good fortune to acquire from a warehouse clearance, a brand new Nodal Ninja M2 vertical rail complete with its upper rotator and Arca Swiss style clamp. This is a rare item and not often sold separately, the individual parts are themselves on the costly side
This purchase allowed me to combine them with a NN D10 lower rotator and generic Arca Swiss style lower and upper arm with double groove rails.
This set up was then completed with two 25mm AC clamps to use as memory stops, for very rapidly setting up of the unit. (Nodal Ninja make mini 6mm stop clamps to do the same job, but they would have been much more costly though much smaller.) It all works exceedingly well but I have no actual use for it, so it will just sit in a draw or perhaps get sold on to someone who would be able to use a Pano bracket come Gimbal.
The NN M2 Panorama bracket is Nodal Ninja’s top of the range model, intended for the largest and heaviest professional cameras. And long lenses, as used for giga pixel mosaic stitched panoramas.
The M2 is also designed for use as a gimbal as the top rotator is mounted in bearings, and the tightening knob can be set from completely free movement to completely locked solid, and everything in between.
My particular set up has a 140mm upper rail, ideal for similar cameras to mine, but which would probably need a longer one, for use with longer lenses, but I have no need to do so myself, as I use neither a gimbal nor make Giga pixel pans.
Recently Nodal Ninja has withdrawn its early pre Arca Swiss compatible models, but has added a mini phone model to the current NN3 mk3, the NN6, and NN M 2, and R models. Apart from the mini model they can all be converted with NN Mecha units for full automation.
Nodal Ninja (Fanotec) are the only company making a full range of manual and Auto professional quality panorama brackets and accessories, suitable for every level of photography. They even make special adapters for taking Stereo panoramas. And for use with surveying laser units.
Saying all that, a high proportion of the single row pans that I have taken, have been shot hand held with no bracket at all. However a bracket becomes near essential when shooting complex parallax compromised multi row pans and 360x180VR pans. and especially if taking multiple shots for exposure or focus fusion, and it Is the only practical way to successfully shoot giga pixel mosaics.
The second part of the story is the Stitching software to use but that is another issue entirely. While basic pans can be easily stitched using Lightroom or Photoshop, there is no doubt at all that PTGui is the King of stitching software for all types of pans VR and mosaics. with perhaps PTAssembler as its little more limited brother.
