I would recommend it even though I have never used one..

If it is fast VR spheres you want Morgan, let me give you a piece of sound advice. Do not use a motorised mount at all. Just use a small and relatively cheap mechanical head (does not matter which one, since even a lowly Panosaurus 2.0 will do the trick). Set the camera on HDR if you need to and use Bulb mode on the remote to do the shooting. Without HDR with a Panosaurus I can do a full 360/180 sphere in under 7 seconds. Want prove?

Try this with a Rodeon (maybe in speedmode it could sort of do it) or VR Drive or Panoneed or any motorised head:

http://stomoxys.home.xs4all.nl/MM/Porque%20No.html

Reminder: this is not posed so people are moving all around during my shots.

Head on tripod, camera on head, place, balance, shoot, turn (repeat 6 times), drop vertical, shoot Zenith.....NEXT. Now this may not look WOW, but it sure goes like STONK. In total a 70 Mpixel sphere (with a 16 Mpixel camera a D800 would get about 150 (right Des?). More then big enough for architecture, where downloadtimes need to be short and serverspace usaually is at a premium.

Now you could invest in motorised mounts of course. But remember, profit = money earned - money invested. A Panosaurus will set you back 100 dollars (American made). A Seitz will look cool but it will set you back around 3400 dollars at least a Rodeon will be more expensive. Now when do you profit from these machines. If you like for instance Klaus Esser create high def tours for museums and public institutions.

The accuracy and quality of the stitching are governed not by the precision of the head, but solely by the precision of the placing in relation to the NPP (No Parralax Point) of the camera on the crossbeam. A 1.000.000 dollar head that is precise up to 1/1.000.000 of a degree is useless if the camera is placed .5 mm short of it's NPP, however a 100 dollar head will perform brilliantly if the camera is so that the NPP is exactly in the middle of the sphere. Got that?

Morgan, you sound like you are a little short on experience here, but for people like you I would suggest the following combination:

1) Camera should be the best in the business and the best in the business is undoubtetly a Phase one connected to a IQ180 back.
2) Head should be the best in business and the best in the business is a Clauss no doubt about it, build like a tank and in speedmode blistering fast because is uses it outstanding stability to shoot while moving......great stuff

That will impress every client of yours....but take care of the NPP my boy since even if you have all that #### THAT IS WHAT GOVERNS the quality of your endproduct even a IQ180 can't beat physics (nor can a deep wallet as some people seam to think).

Greets, Ed.

Shooting in a very crowded place where people move fast it´s clever to use a manual head. No doubt at all.

But using a motorized head featuring a single-shot mode ist almost the same - one push, one shot - and you can watch and wait for the best time to do the next shot.
The advantage over the manual head: you get xml files for positioning the shots in the editor (even when you use a fisheye you can have issues placing the Zenith correctly)-

Speed-mode on motorized heads in my eyes is pure nonsense - unless you live in AbuDabi or Timbuktu and can use times starting at 1/2000sec and shorter @f8 or 11 for getting pixel-sharp images. You can calculate it easily.
And to be honest: it makes no sense at all buying a camera with 21-36mpx when you´re NOT heading for pixelsharp images . .

The "accuracy and quality of stitching" bases on a combination of perfectly aligned npp AND high precision in moving and positioning the camera - preferably assisted by xml.
"Accuracy and quality" also mean excellent exposed images featuring a wide dynamic-range.

A IQ180 back is a very ice gadget. But it doen´t give you any advantage in terms of panoramashooting justifying it´s enormous price compared to top Nikon- and Canon cameras.

MF is optimal for single shots when you need first-class images which can be done ony by a single shot/exposure.

For people-, fashionshots i almost exclusively use MF. But not for panos.

best, Klaus

As Einstein said "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

P.S. stop bickering on poor, ol' Des .....she means well indeed.

I doubt Einstein did say that about panorama-heads . . . :cool:

As a matter of fact they NEED to be heavy and big. Heavy for avoiding vibrations and instability and big for having the vertical arm of a certain length to provide a small Nadir and for providing strong motors and gears - and accus providing reliably about 3000 moves and shots with one charge.

Of course that is related to multi-row heads and for being able to use heavy lenses/cameras on them.

Beyond that there are some extremely helpful features which you suprisingly can´t find in *most* of the available heads actually . . . :cool:

Like vibration-sensors (which avoids blurred images caused by vibrations from tripod, ground, mirror-shake and so. The sensors let the camera only shoot when the vibration is gone.
Like synchronizing camera and controller in a way the camera tells the controller when it finished a sequence so that the controller can move to the next position.
This is compatible with PromoteControl´s and MagicLantern´s widely expanded bracketing and time-lapse features.
Some folks from the US and from Australia as well as from Norway ordered a special, individual adapted version of the . . . . head and the controller recently - and are very excited having got it fast and reliably from the developer.
Another very helpful item is the electronic leveller on the controller´s touch-screen - imagine you have the head some meters high on a pole: how would you level the head when you can´t see the bubble-leveller on it?
Having the controller on the ground and seeing the "bubble" on the screen you can level it from there.

This are features born from practical use during all developing stages - i tested all features in REAL production situations. That´s a bit different from "knowing" features from the papers or from the manufacturer´s site . . . but never having used them in real at all.

:cool:

best, Klaus

All excellent features.

So why after all this time is there still not a good web site to explain and promote the Panoneed and its feature set?

By the way Klaus, vibration and weight are not neccesarily related.

What you need is a well balanced machine.

The trick is to control the acceleration and the decelleration of the robot (that is old skool robotics Klaus).

. . or you since Sketch is no rocket sience . . . . could write a custom program for each camera and lens combination.

Ah Klaus,
I don't believe you, in your heart you'r also a hidden tinkerer (arn't all panorama dudes and dudesses tinkerers at heart)

By the way in my experience even manuals head can do great stitches if you invest in rigourous work ethics (keep in control all the time)

Autopano Pro has some build in tollerances Klaus.

Rome wasn't build on a day . . .

A IQ180 back is a very ice gadget. But it doen´t give you any advantage in terms of panoramashooting justifying it´s enormous price compared to top Nikon- and Canon cameras.

MF is optimal for single shots when you need first-class images which can be done ony by a single shot/exposure.

For people-, fashionshots i almost exclusively use MF. But not for panos.

Medium format is optimal when you want first-class images. Period.