Spherical panorama tripod head

[CaptainObvious]

Here's something I've been working on this week, it's a spherical panorama tripod head that fits my Sigma 10-20 lens.
The principle of the thing is that it rotates the camera around the lens focal point (pretty far forward in the lens) so that there is no perspective shift between the many exposures necessary to create a spherical panorama; also it has a snap mechanism every 30 degrees both for the panning (horizontal rotation) and the tilt (vertical), horizontally it can of course turn around 360 degrees, but tilt is limited to -30 to +60 degrees, which is fine because normally I do the exposures at -30 and +30 degrees.

After printing and assembling I noticed a few areas for improvement, after I work on that I'll publish the STL files for the design.

IMG_7064.jpg
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IMG_7081.jpg


This is an HDRI spherical panorama I took with a similar tripod head (one we use at work), I haven't tested this one yet but I'm going on holidays in 10 days so I'll have plenty of time for that.
IMG_6039_40_41HDRI%u00252520Panorama_LittlePlanet3_lo.jpg

[CaptainObvious]

I changed the design a little and uploaded the STL files to Thingiverse.

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PanoCam_01.jpg

[CaptainObvious]

I took this to my holidays and had the chance of making a few panoramas with it, it works just right.

Here's one I took at Poon Hill in Nepal, in "little planet" form:



This is a link to the same panorama but interactive, so you can look around, zoom in and out:

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613

[curious aardvark]

the interactive one is seriously cool :-)

Nice design !

[CaptainObvious]

A couple more interactive panoramas:

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613

[bshadown]

Ok i have to admit, thats so damn cool, but one sugestión why dont you make it a moré universal grip, that way you dont have to modified the desing for other brand of lens,(canon/nikon/sigma, etc.) cheers

[CaptainObvious]

Ok i have to admit, thats so damn cool, but one sugestión why dont you make it a moré universal grip, that way you dont have to modified the desing for other brand of lens,(canon/nikon/sigma, etc.) cheers

A more universal grip would be much more complex, different lenses have not only different diameters, but their focal point is also at different distances so the design would have to accommodate for both; the result would be something more cumbersome to set up.
The usual method for pano heads is to hold the camera by the tripod screw mount under the camera body, using a two or three adjustable arms to position the focal point at the right place, this takes time to prepare and the camera tends to rotate around the screw throwing it out of alignment. We use a pano head like that at work, it was precisely how cumbersome and time consuming to use it is that led me to make this mount.

So, in short... I'm exchanging versatility for simplicity.
After all, the beauty of 3D printing is that allows people to make custom objects rather than going to the shop to get a one-size-fits-all one.

By the way, I've been putting together some other panoramas I shot with this over the New Year holidays, the link under the image is for the interactive panorama:


https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613


https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613


https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613


https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613


https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_expl...c&user=8522613