Loose ends

One of the things I decided I had to finish up in 2010 was my panorama head for taking large panorama photographs.  I "featured" the prototype in my January 3 blog, and had made only a few minor modifications since then.  I have used it off and on during the year and finally figured out what modifications were needed to make it easy to use and a bit more reliable.  I spent two days this week rebuilding some of the parts and finally came up with the following.

The view above shows how the camera mount attaches to the theodolite base.  The "platform" that was present in the earlier version is now gone, so it is easy to level the platform and to read the angle.  In addition, the camera itself has been raised so that one can get a view looking straight up, and one can look through the viewfinder when the camera points down to insure the lens is properly centered on the main axis.



Another improvement is to increase the travel distance available for the camera so that different lens settings can be used.  The precision dial system has been eliminated in this version in favor of a simple single rotation axis with multiple lock screws.  Provisions have been made to allow a counterweight (the slotted arm to the left in the photo) so that there is less danger of the camera shifting during a session.

The carillon image above was made using three rows of ten images using a telephoto lens on my D80.  While the image shown has been reduced to 2000 pixels in width, the finished panorama is 13,000 x 10,000 pixels.

The only remaining problem is the weight, and there is unfortunately no solution to this problem!  The theodolite base is cast brass and probably weighs about 15 pounds!