Can I make a simple panorama mount for occasional use?
Asked 7/15/2011
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I only shoot panoramas a few times a year for personal use. So far I’ve used a monopod, my Pentax DAL 18-55, and Hugin. I’m considering buying a Samyang 8mm fisheye and wondered whether it makes sense to build a simple DIY panoramic mount instead of buying an expensive dedicated pano head.
My understanding is that for better stitching, the camera should rotate around the lens’s entrance pupil (often called the nodal point), rather than around the tripod socket on the camera body. Could a simple bracket or rail with an adjustable mounting point work well enough, especially with the fixed 8mm lens? Would that give noticeably better results than using a standard mount or monopod?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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Yes, you can do it. I know some people that have, one friend made one out of wood because it was easier than metal. If you intend to do it for your 8mm, it will be relatively easy since there is ONE fixed nodal point, contrarily to the zoom.
You said you do not do panoramas often but do you do Macro? If so, a macro rail is sufficient to work for a DSLR with a short lens and it will work for the 8mm and your zoom at all focal-lengths.
Included in my How To Make a Panorama tutorial are instructions with an example on how to find the nodal point (technically entrance pupil).
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — a simple DIY pano mount can work well for occasional panoramas, especially with a fixed focal length lens like an 8mm fisheye.
The key is to let the camera rotate around the lens’s entrance pupil rather than the camera’s tripod socket. That reduces parallax errors and makes stitching easier. For a fixed lens, you only need to find that position once. With a zoom, the correct position changes with focal length, so it’s more complicated.
A basic bracket, rail, or even a homemade wood/aluminum setup can be enough if it lets you slide the camera to the right point and rotate consistently. A macro rail can also work for this purpose.
To find the correct position, place two objects in line with each other at different distances, then rotate the camera slightly left and right. If the rear object appears to shift relative to the front one, the rotation axis is wrong. Adjust the camera position and repeat until that relative movement disappears.
So yes, building a simple mount makes sense and should give better results than a standard mount when nearby objects are in the scene.
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