On 1/30/2003 6:26 PM, George H. Thomas wrote:
>>(Scott Highton)
>> Unfortunately, most commercial pan heads don't have this
>> capability, as the manufacturers seem to assume that all panoramas will
>> be shot with the camera rotating around a vertical axis. This is an
>> unfortunate oversight in my opinion, but it probably isn't a pressing
>> concern for the average photographer.
>
>> To solve this problem, we simply drilled a small hole through the
>> rotation collar of the pan head and then drilled matching interior holes
>> for every detent position we needed. Then, we slipped a small steel pin
>> through the aligned holes to lock the head in each position as we shot.
>> The pin kept the head from rotating, even with the off-axis weight of the
>> camera pulling against it.
>
><snip>
>
>The Peace River 3Sixty Pan Head can do this :^)
>
>Add more pressure to the adjustable clutch which regulates the detent
>rotation. Basically you are locking down the head rotation. The camera
>can also be positioned in portrait or landscape with nodal point
>adjusted.
>
>(* Full Disclosure: I am a Peace River Reseller)
George,
I have one of the Peace River 3Sixty heads here, and while you can
increase the tension on the detent spring by locking it to the far end of
the arm, it does not have enough pressure to consistently hold a full
size 35mm camera and lens (such as my F3 or F5 w/Nikkor 18mm, 15mm or 8mm
lens) in every detent angle when mounted on a horizontal rotation axis.
It *might* work for a smaller prosumer digital camera, however, but I
don't usually shoot with such equipment. I hate to interfere with your
sales efforts <grin>.
John Borden designed a very good head with the Peace River 3Sixty, as has
Jim Anders at Kaidan, along with the folks at Manfrotto/Bogen. Each
design has its own strengths and one must remember that no tool is
usually perfect for everything. This is why I often find myself doing
custom modifications of existing hardware. These modifications are
probably not needed by most photographers, particularly if they're not
pushing things the way I sometimes do.
Besides, even adding something as seemingly simple as a detent locking
mechanism winds up adding significant design, engineering and production
costs to a commercial product. As consumers, we tend to focus heavily on
lower product pricing, so manufacturers need to look at the bigger
picture when designing their products. I, as an individual, can modify a
piece of equipment to meet my needs, and if I compromise the integrity of
the original design in the process, my loss is usually only that single
piece of equipment. However, if the manufacturer does so and runs into
the same problem, they can lose sales of a whole product line.
Therefore, I respect that a "missing" feature on a commercial product may
in fact be absent by intent, rather than oversight. Additional
capability often adds complexity, and makes the product less intuitive to
use. This also influences a manufacturer's design decisions. Therefore,
I don't usually complain (at least openly) about products produced by the
VR community, but am always happy to offer input when asked. Besides, I
know most of the producers personally, and I like to keep them as my
friends <grin>.
Regards,
Scott Highton
Author, Virtual Reality Photography
E-mail: email@hidden
Web: http://www.vrphotography.comhttp://www.highton.com
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