Is the LensPen Panamatic useful for shooting panoramas?
Asked 11/25/2010
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2 answers
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I'm considering the LensPen Panamatic for panorama photography. Is it genuinely useful, or is it mostly unnecessary? I'm interested in when a simple leveling/indexing accessory helps, and what its limitations are compared with a proper panoramic head.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
16y ago
2 Answers
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I've never used one, but as far as I can tell it's just a bubble level combined with a device to click through increments of 15 degrees or so.
If my job was shooting panoramas all day long then it might make the process a little less laborious, but if you're taking time of the composition, lighting and camera settings for your panorama then lining the shots up shouldn't take too much effort.
I normally line up landmarks against the focus points to ensure a consistent overlap. Spirit levels can be useful, but if you don't have one shoot the first and last image of the panorama as a test to check your tripod is level.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
16y ago
0
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The Panamatic seems best thought of as a basic pano aid, not a full panoramic head. From the answers, it mainly helps with leveling the camera and rotating in fixed increments, which can make overlap more consistent and speed up simple panoramas.
It may be useful if you mostly shoot straightforward single-row panoramas, especially outdoors, where parallax is less of a problem. If you shoot only occasional panos, you can often manage without it by leveling your tripod carefully and using landmarks or focus points to maintain overlap.
Its main limitation is that it does not rotate around the lens’s no-parallax point, so it’s not ideal for indoor or close-subject panoramas where stitching errors from parallax are more likely. It also doesn’t offer pitch movement for multi-row, 360x180, zenith/nadir, or gigapixel-style panoramas.
So: not a waste of money if you want a low-cost tool for simple panos, but not the right choice if you need more advanced panoramic work.
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