(cheap) Options for Panoramic Photography?

[HDNitehawk]

Dr...


Reading Jan's comments got me thinking. What if the only tripod ring you could find was slightly larger? Couldn't you just shim it up, or tighten it by using a strip of neoprene to fill the void. I say this because you might want a ring for your 70-300mm, and possibly it is larger. Or perhaps you can find a cheap one that just doesn't fit but you can make it fit.


You did say "Cheap" in the title, and we have seen pic's of your garage so we know you can come up with a creative solution. Even if all that is required is a piece of Aluminum L from the local hardware store, a few screws and a good drill.....


good luck

[Dr Croubie]

Ha, you had to say that didn't you. My other solution was somewhere along the lines of one of these: www.allproducts.com/.../product1.html (Which I can't find anywhere near here, all similar products in the hardware shop are bare-metal and/or wrong shape. I still want one for my massive 2kg Jupiter 250mm f/3.5 Pentacon Six, i'm afraid it will rip my lens mount apart one day).


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And thanks Jan, that pretty much exactly what I was hoping for, no need to go nuts on the accuracy (if the canon is a bit smaller than the samyang that's good, because the main complaint about ebay knock-offs are that they're too loose). And that's a popular enough product, ebay-ripoffs are down to $7 shipped so cheap enough for experimenting. (cheap rings for the 70-300L are up at $50, it's too new a product and no competition yet, I can wait on that)


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As for the L-brackets, thanks for the Kirk/RRS suggestions too. I still plan to investigate them when I buy into a tripod system (early next year I hope, if not this year), one day i'll want to mount vertically for portraits and such, with the niftyfifty or my mum's old Takumar (or the 85/1.8 or 100/2 i'll ask her to get when she's in Hong Kong next).


Have either of you used the L-brackets you suggested, how much clearance is there around the N3 socket? The more clearance the better, my main concern is too much wear-and-tear on the rubber cover, the last thing I want is to rip it at the hingey bit and lose my watersealing. And the non-gripped Kirk is only $140, but then it says "and an (optional) camera plate is necessary", bit confused about that.


I've had a bit more reading about the Manfrotto 340/341 L-mounts, damn they make it confusing as to what plate plugs into what clamps and what doesn't. That's definitely something I'd want to see before I buy, so i'll have to sweet-talk my local camera-shop into ordering it into stock without me having to pay for it, if i can...

[Sheiky]

And thanks Jan, that pretty much exactly what I was hoping for, no need to go nuts on the accuracy (if the canon is a bit smaller than the samyang that's good, because the main complaint about ebay knock-offs are that they're too loose). And that's a popular enough product, ebay-ripoffs are down to $7 shipped so cheap enough for experimenting. (cheap rings for the 70-300L are up at $50, it's too new a product and no competition yet, I can wait on that)

No problem, I had seen the Ebay prices already. I personally would definitely try it out before buying any expensive stuff. If it works, show your work please...I just love panorama's!

[Dr Croubie]

Here's one shot that I really wish I had a good bracket for.


It was the samyang 35/1.4 around f/5-7 or so, hyperfocal, 7D, but only horizontal-mounted, on gorllapod wrapped around the top of a fence, with ballhead. Took 8 frames x3 brackets = 24 shots (1/500, 1/250, 1/125s), iso100. Also had the CPL mounted, and re-adjusted it after every pan, not sure if that was a good idea or not. The whole point was to get the thunderstorm approaching, but then it scooted off around to the north and missed us (the beach runs south-north, facing west).


This panorama is just the first 7 frames, middle-bracket-shot (left the last one out because it's just a house and didn't line up straight) of the camera-jpgs. Not sure if it looks any good shrunk this much but i'll see (original is a 28683*2893 tiff 316MB). Hate to think what'll happen if i use raw-converted-tiffs as the input, that 32GB of free space on the SSD could come in very handy...


The waves not lining up is possibly still noticeable even shrunk this much (i could try blurring more or just crop off in future). And even though I kept the shutter speeds per bracket the same the whole way, something messed up between the last few shots, you can see it on the sea (maybe that's the CPL's fault).


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And another view, the first 3 frames, all 3 brackets (9 shots), raw-converted to monochrome jpgs, stitched to an HDR tiff, my first attempts at tone-mapping to a 12646*3161 jpg (using Luminance HDR), then shrunk. The waves not lining-up is a lot more noticeable in this shot, as is the guy walking on the jetty, i masked him out in another attempt but not this one by the looks.


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And one that isn't a panorama yet, but I hope to make some very nice ones in this setting, when the mist comes into the valley in the morning it will look beautiful. View of the backyard of the place i'm house-sitting for all of next year (donkey included, as are a dozen sheep, half a dozen cows, and 2 chooks):


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