G2's OFF Center Tripod Mount !

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page 210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be concerned about with the G2?
Thanks.

• Scotty

http://pbase.com/scottyee

Scottyee said:

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page
210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the
rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that
you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can
someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be
concerned about with the G2?

Click to expand...

Depends on what you're expecting I guess. I took a half-way decent panoramic by just standing with the camera level as I could and turning around. Not anywhere near like using a tripod, even if it is off-axis from the "nodal point". For my old Casio I printed out a sliced pie drawing of 8 lines and glued it to the top of the tripod so I could get a 360 degree panorama as easy as possible by equalizing the photos; I aligned each line with a mark on the non-turning part. Back then I only guessed about the apparent location of the CCD. Still had troubles since the lens was fixed and I don't believe the software was up to the task.

I think if you were to use a tripod head with universal mount (as I had then, a T shaped mounting hole) and get as close to the nodal point for pivoting the panorama it would be very good indeed. I haven't had such a tripod head in a long time so I don't know how good it can be. Also, since I haven't tried that yet, I'm still unaware of what focal length (zoom) is best. Maybe someone knows.

I've read reviews where people complain about the tripod mount not being directly in line under the lens. I never understood why it had to be. It wouldn't have anything to do with a 'leveling' thing would it?

Scottyee said:

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page
210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the
rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that
you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can
someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be
concerned about with the G2?
Thanks.

• Scotty

http://pbase.com/scottyee

Click to expand...

Scottyee said:

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page
210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the
rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that
you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can
someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be
concerned about with the G2?
Thanks.

• Scotty

http://pbase.com/scottyee

Click to expand...

it's something to do with the nodal point of the camera. since the center of the pod doesn't line up with the lens (it's off set like that so you can remove batteries whern attached to the pod).

i think someone online made a special mount made for this. i thought i had a link but i don't. look it up using the keywords, panorama nodal point and i guess digital camera.

i don't think it's a real worry since the camera has the abilty to help line up the picture.

---Mike Savad

There are very few digital cameras with tripods mounts which are in line with the lens, and fewer yet (perhaps none?) with tripod mounts that are at the nodal point. This is to maintain the rotation about the nodal plane of the camera during panorama rotations. Most panoramas are distant shots and I have found this alignment is not so critical. Thats why you see many great panos that are hand held. I believe that as you move to macro panos the angle of rotation will become much larger and this may be an issue.

I think something that is far more important for the average phototgarpher is that the tripod mounting thread is metal and not plastic! Yes! I have never heard on this forum anyones G-1/2 developing near the tripod mount an ummmm... crack! I have a sony camcorder that developed a crack near the tripod housing due to rough treatment.

Scotty you really have an unusual amount of (well considered) concerns!
Mike K

Scottyee said:

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page
210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the
rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that
you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can
someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be
concerned about with the G2?
Thanks.

• Scotty

http://pbase.com/scottyee

Click to expand...

The reason you need the camera to rotate around the nodal point of the lens when stitching panoramas is because of parallax distortion. For an example of this, hold your finger out infront of you and alternate opening and closing each of your eyes. See how your finger jumps from side to side in relation to the background? This makes for some real problems when trying to do panoramas where there is a mixture of near and far objects as things don't quite line up it the camera shifts from side to side between shots. This is more important when there are things close to the camera and far, like in the interior of a home and shouldn't really affect open landscape shots too much.

I've had a simple panoramic L-bracket head made up out of aluminum and it works great. See my old post here, including a diagram of what it looks like and a sample 360 degree panorama of a tricky scene: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=2254481

There's no sense IMO to spend $240CDN or more on one of those Kiwi panoramic heads when you can have a custom one made for a few bucks.

Michael

Scottyee said:

I read, in Ben Long's book "Complete Digital Photography" (page
210), that if your camera's tripod mount is off axis from the
rotational center of the lens (which is the case on the G2), that
you'll have a hard time shooting panaramas from a tripod. Can
someone please comment on this. Is this really something to be
concerned about with the G2?
Thanks.

• Scotty

http://pbase.com/scottyee

Click to expand...

I have an AGFA 1680 where the tripod socket is centered under the lens. Haven't done any close panos to check for errors. Do mostly scenery stuff.

Macroman-

Mike K said:

There are very few digital cameras with tripods mounts which are in
line with the lens, and fewer yet (perhaps none?) with tripod
mounts that are at the nodal point. This is to maintain the
rotation about the nodal plane of the camera during panorama
rotations.

Click to expand...