Hi guys,


So i've recently been playing around with Hugin, the
image stitching program for linux. Made a few nice ones so far,
single-shot and 3-shot HDRs, and i'm slowly learning some good tips
whilst practising.


Main problem i'm having so far is with parallax
errors, which stems from not having the right equipment. So far my kit
is simple, a gorillapod and simple ballhead for on the go, and i've got
another tripod with inbuilt-head I can borrow, although it's only 120cm
high and i'm 183cm; a) I hate stooping, b) if i see a good potential
shot, it's from eye level.


Anyway, a good tripod is definitely on
my list to buy eventually (like when I get a job), but for now I can
suffice on the borrowed one if I can get something to tide me over to
fix this problem:


.


I want to make panoramic photos, but
they're too long horizontally for their height. I could easily take,
say, 2-rows high worth of shots, but I'd rather take the shots in
portrait (less shots means less parallax, less cloud/tree/people
movement, less lighting changes which stuff the whole thing up).


With
the borrowed tripod, I can easily flip the plate so it hangs off the
side of the post, but then when I pan around, it's not panning around
the centre of the lens. Ditto the ballhead on the gorillapod, with the
added bonus that the weight of the lens on the front drags the camera
around the screw-thread, and it unscrews itself.


So, i've come up with a few potential solutions, if anyone can help me with any questions, much appreciated.


.


Tripod-ring:


Obviously
the easiest way to ensure the system is rotating around the centre of
the lens. Main problem is that I want to take the photos with my Samyang
35/1.4, which isn't made to have one.


But, there is certainly
space for one if i can find one that fits. Unfortunately the camera
shops around here don't even carry the genuine ones. And even on ebay,
all the 3rd-party ones just say 'made for 70-200' or whatever. So my
idea is that if i can find a lens that happens to have the same size, i
can get by with that.


The samyang has space for a tripod ring,
69mm diameter, up to 20mm wide. By comparison, the 70-300L has space for
a ring 81mm diameter, 18.5mm wide. So that's no good.


Can anyone
else, with lenses that are built for tripod rings smaller (like
70-200/4, 100 macros, maybe 135/2? Even any nikons/other brands, as long
as it has a tripod ring) please measure the diameter where the tripod
ring goes? maybe there'll be something similar to the samyang in there.


.


L-bracket.


I
really like the RRS L-bracket style. But main problem is, How do i plug
in my remote control? I've tried using the RC6, which nicely takes a
3-shot bracket for one button click, but there will be future
applications where I want to use the timer functions of my TC-80N3 in
portrait-mode.


Manfrotto 340/341 L-brackets. Anyone ever used
these? I've read on adorama reviews that the 341 give 1" of clearance
around a 40D, but not sure how much that give me with a 7 (and eventual
5d/5d2). The 340 looks bigger, but has the hexagonal-plate. Whilst I
don't mind that, seeing as I have no other plates to be incompatible
with, I would rather have a long-plate I can slide horizontally to
position the lens dead-centre (like the Manfrotto 357 or 454)


Anyone know any other brands/makes like this? Manfrotto seems to
be the only brand stocked by camera shops around here, although the
parts i want would be special-order anyway, so no
inspect-before-purchase no matter what brand i get.


.


Proper Panoramic heads:


Yes,
that would be nice. like the 303SPH that I got quoted over $500. And
it's 2.4kg, which defeats the purpose of hiking with it (yes, I know
Ansell Adams hiked with much more Large-Format gear. I am not he.)


My
long-term wish-list includes a dual-90degree-rail geared
macro-positioning head, like the nice Velban one in my local shop, for
$250 that I don't have (or two Manfrotto 454s). But for now I can't
afford that precision. So if I can't get a nice-fitting tripod ring,
it'll have to be the L-bracket.


Anyone else have any ideas/suggestions?