Panoramic Heads vs regular ball heads for tripod shooting and eventual photo stitching.

[ellisson]

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I'm planning a photo trip to Scotland, several areas including the Isle of Skye region and the Hebrides in late July this year, bringing my tripod and RRS BH-40 ball head along with my SL3 camera and several lenses.  I'm wondering if it's worth adding a dedicated panning clamp that fits atop the ball head via arca Swiss dovetail for making excellent panorama images, one of goals on this trip.   Most regular ball heads have leveling bubbles and can rotate over wide angles, but if these were enough to get photos sufficiently aligned to stitch together, what does a dedicated panorama clamp offer?   Does it make that much easier to make great panoramic images?    

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[FrozenInTime]

Even though I have a Novoflex panoramic rig bought in the mid-2000s with nodal slide, L-arm, horizontal and vertical axis bases, and ArcaTech levelling base, they are rarely needed ( and hence stay at home ). 

For most landscapes with a horizontal rotation of three frames, the full panoramic hardware rig is really not needed, as software for frame to frame alignment and projection is now very good ( even handheld ).

They may still be merit in the tripod, nodal slide and L-bracket if you want to stitch images that feature close foreground objects e.g. building interiors and cloisters with pillars, standing stones, within a forrest etc. That could stretch to dual axis and nodal slide if you want to shoot such a wide vertical and horizontal view,  think cathedral interior, or use a long lens for giga-pixel level panoramas.

Edited 5 hours ago by FrozenInTime

[250swb]

It's easier in the horizontal position to get the images aligned so just go by eye and note what's at the edge of the frame and have a lens that can give you enough leeway. With digital you can rehearse the shoot a few times before you get fed up. 

[pgk]

2 hours ago, ellisson said:

..... bringing my tripod and RRS BH-40 ball head ..... I'm wondering if it's worth adding a dedicated panning clamp that fits atop the ball head via arca Swiss dovetail for making excellent panorama images .....

I think that you can get rotating clamps which fit directly onto your BH-40 - RRS sell them and there are plenty of cheaper ones on ebay too. I'd go for one of these which is a cheap enough option and very useful - worth getting one with a bubble level fitted though, especially for seascape panos. I use Arca heads with rotating top clamps which are great for general use and allow for panoramas too. If you aren't including too much close foreground then rotating about the fronto nodal point of the lens in use is not so critical in my experience, so you probably don't need an adjustable section to enable this unless you are really into panos.

[Topsy]

I just do panoramic stitches hand held and they work fine, it's rare I bother setting up a tripod.

[spydrxx]

Although most ball heads work well, I found that a pano head which rotates around the len's nodal point to deliver the most critical results. I purchased a well engineered one years ago, made by Jasper Engineering in California, but honestly I've rarely used it, mostly because I didn't really get into serious landscape photography, and in order to get superb results one not only has to determine the horizontal or vertical intervals between shots (and this one has lots which just click into place), but you also have to determine the rear nodal point for each lens and adjust it accordingly. It was  so much of a pita that I mostly reverted to hand held pano shots. But if you want professional results, especially with a high res digital body, or to use with a medium format sized camera, you might want to check something like this out. If you Google it you can see pictures and reviews.