I pretty much always shoot from the tripod so I’m attentive to tripod and ball head quality. I use the excellent Acratech Ultimate ball head at this point – it is a fine piece of equipment and has proven reliable through several years of substantial use including a lot of backpacking. (One reason I got it was the light weight for such a solid head.)
Today I say a video demonstration of a new ball head from Induro. While its larger size and bulk might make it less than ideal for my backpacking photography, this unit looks quite powerful and I’ll have to take closer look for use in other types of landscape and similar work. It looks like it would be especially useful for stitched panoramas, especially in that it allows for shots in which the horizon is not in the center of the frame.
If you haven’t heard of Induro, they are worth considering. I’ve been using their large C313 carbon-fiber tripod for several years now, and it has been solid and reliable through a lot of shooting in conditions ranging from the Sierra to Death Valley to the Pacific coastline.
Dan,
I watched the video, but I’m puzzled. I can’t conceptualize how this head would be any better than adding a panorama panning clamp, such as the one from Really Right Stuff?
Secondarily, I’ve shot a bunch of panoramics out in the field only using the Acratech, even with the horizon not centered. Photoshop CS4 (and presumably, CS5) does just fine with them… Give it a try some time! You’ll lose a lot of the frame near the corners, but if you shoot with that in mind, it’s better than giving up on the image.
Now, if Induro can figure out a way to change the geometry of how the lens and sensor plane interact along an arc, I’ll buy one the day it comes out…
Thanks,
Mark.
Thanks for visiting and posting, Mark.
First, I’m in agreement with you that most panoramic images – especially landscapes – don’t require any special equipment at all. Like you, I just use an Acratech ball head (in my case the “ultimate ball head”) and a tripod, simply being careful to level everything and to make the shots carefully. I also am fine with the stitching capabilities within Photoshop – I use CS4 right now, but I’m sure CS5 will be just as good. Although I’ve tried some third-party stitching apps in the past, I discovered that I really don’t need them. (BTW, I’m also a happy user of RSS L brackets.)
However there are a couple things about this unit that attract me – one a convenience and the other a real assist for dealing with an optical issue. The convenience would be in having an ability to more easily level the camera on top of the tripod. You can do that now by carefully leveling the tripod itself and/or by placing a leveling unit between the head and the tripod. But that capability seems to be built in to this unit. The other feature that looked quite interesting is the ability to, essentially, move the platform out of level in such a way as to compensate for some of the field curvature that results when the horizon is not in the center of the frame. (This is hard for me to explain here, but part of the video includes a great demonstration of just this ability.)
Of course, until I get my hands on one and actually use it, much of this is theoretical…
Dan