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ideas for ensuring nodal point rotation without tripod (laser, plum bob etc)

I am experimenting with various types of panorama configuration and have very successfully created some cylindrical type pans with the lens set at 50mm, however I would love a bit more detail in the foreground so have decided to try with the lens at its widest which is 28mm. This is good because it means I can do 360{ in 6 shots instead of 13/14. However I seem to be having problems with parallax (not sure if that is right word for the problem) issues now. Basically Im getting very inaccurate stitches as I am setting control points both in the foreground and in the distance and due to this parallax error the control points are not relative to each other, which is confusing PTMac.

So I have set out to try and come up with a cheep alternative to an expensive pan head that will ensure the camera rotates around the lenses nodal point. (For info on finding this there are some excellent tutorials at kekus.com, the maker of PTMac. I have seen a tutorial which shows how to use a plum bob hanging from the camera under its nodal point, and you simply alight the weight with a spot on the ground and you can be sure its rotating around the nodal point. The length of the string also ensures that you keep the camera at the same hight. You can then use a small spirit level to keep the camera flat.

However, I think they set up may prove fairly troublesome in windy weather, I have visions of the string flying around all over the place and I would never be able to keep it steady. So this has made me try and think of an alternative. I thought perhaps a laser pointer fixed to the camera pointing at a spot at the ground would be quite cool, the problem would be that you would have to keep the laser directly vertical so another spirit level on the laser itself would be necessary. If the laser was in a fixed position to the camera this would work quite well I think, the only disadvantage would be that you wouldn't have an accurate way of ensuring the altitude of the camera is kept the same. I have seen architects and such like using an infra red or radar type distance meter, one of these next to the laser pointing down from the camera would do the trick but would probably cost more than a custom tripod! Also it would be quite easy to take multiple rows of shots with the laser idea because you cold move the laser to an angle from the camera so when the laser is pointing directly down the camera is pointing at your desired angle, then you can just rotate around checking the dot on the ground.

So the point of my post is to see if anyone has any experience using the above methods or has any alternative, inexpspensive, methods to ensure nodal point rotation.

Thanks for taking the time to read this if you've got this far!  Cheers!


Ben. _______________________________________________
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