Again: you really take advantages from a programmable head only for doing hires. For doing spheres using a fisheye i´d take a manual head.

any maybe its also preferable to use motorized head with fisheyes if using focus stacking, bracketing, timelapse projects etc.
Georg

Last edited by gkaefer (2012-03-14 17:40:26)

a a gruntpuddock wrote:

Building your own kit takes a bit longer, but you have complete control and can change things if they do not work the way you want.  You can also repair it yourself, unlike a factory-built unit.

And it is  MUCH cheaper.  EOR (end of rant).

Update, forgot to say the if you are looking for a 2-camera setup then it would probably look something like this - http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p61 … tereom.jpg

2-camera rig from Dr. Clauss: http://www.dr-clauss.de/VRstation_DE.htm Rather expensive but perfectly working. They also have a "cage"/frame like you drew.
The problem is: building it yourself bears issues you can´t even by far know yet . .
I learned a lot from Josef´s developing the Panoneed head. Took him nearly 2 years getting it to the point it works perfectly - as i does now.
So it sometimes looks you can do it for little money - but you can´t do it really cheap aiming for high quality.

http://www.dr-clauss.de/res/Downloads/p … atalog.pdf  look at 1.12

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser (2012-03-14 23:12:01)

Thanks Klauss, George and Leif, and a a..... :-)

I am unable to build or i am not wanting to build one, it's not where I want to use my energy ATM.
But I can see advantages in building yourself, you can make all of items on my wish list.

I am concluding for myself, that though a dual rig could be fun and have potential, it will also
be very expensive to fit out, so I am going to shelf that one. I do however prefer the U-shape craddle/bracket to hold the camera.

I definately think, that a good moterised head can open up new opportunities.

Thanks very much for all the informative replies

Henrik

sanje wrote:

Klauss and Leif and everyone else,
I'm completely new to making panoramas.
you guys seem very knowledgeable on the subject though it's open to everyone. I want to make 360x180 hdri's for use in 3d software.
I am happy with a resultion of 10,000 pixels in the longer dimension.. although bigger is not a problem. I am using a Nikon D 800 which gives a 7360 x 4912 pixels file. I am thinking of getting the Samyang 8mm lens
I am considering buying the panogear motorized head to do this. With manual heads I am afraid of making mistakes and accidentally moving the tripod or camera..
so would prefer to use an automated system and cant afford the more expensive systems. Will Panogear do what i need? Thanks for your help
Sanje ( Shanghai )

Hi!

I´m afraid using the 8mm on fullframe you´ll face the problem of the Merlin´s (Panogear) very big footprint. Btw.: why would you anyway use an 8mm on fullframe?
I definitely suggest to use Nikon´s 16mm fisheye for that. It´s one of the best fisheyes around.

But here you also have the issue of a big footprint because of the Merlin´s big base.

An 8mm lens covers only the center-part of your frame - you loose the rest and with that you loose resolution. So an D800´s resolution will be "degraded".
You only save about two shots with 8mm fe compared to 16mm fe.

I wouldn´t suggest the Merlin for the use with fisheyes. If you don´t want to buy something more expensive - Panoneed is 2000.-€, Seitz VR2 is about 2800.€, Rodeon is about 4000.-€ - you´d be better off with a good manual head for the use with fisheyes.

But first hand i suggest to learn more about making panos - and THEN decide about which hardware suits you!

If - IF - you do panos ONLY for HDR spheres as IBL in 3D applications you don´t really need a Nadir. Under this aspect a Merlin works well - but better don´t take an 8mm lens!
But this is restricted only to the use for IBL spheres without a Nadir.

best, Klaus

P.S.

another option IF you definitly prefer to use the 8mm or a 10,5mm (circular) on your D800: use an Agnos Ring or NN Ring and a Seztz VR 1. You can mount the camera in a way that the diagonal of the frame is set vertical. This way you cover the Zenith with the horizontal shots. Seitz VR 1 only moves horizontally (1 row) - but that´s all you need then - it´s very small, fast and less expensive than multirows.
Because of the D800´s high resolution you´ll get a sphere which easily suits the needs for IBL.

As i mentioned before: first get used to this all! You can´t buy a car, step into it and drive away before havíng learned how to drive if you want to drive without having a crash . .

Last edited by klausesser (2012-08-10 12:31:45)