This was an interesting experience.
For panoramic 360 degree photos the centre of the lens must rotate over the tripods central axis. If this is not the case then images will not overlay during the computer “stitching” process. The resulting photo will have unaligned edges, which of course is not good as it looks incredibly out of place.
After much hunting around it became evident that there was no data available to set the base and vertical distances on the nodal ninja 3 when mounting the camera.
Two methods were employed:
• A plum bob. A small length of cotton tied to a needle hanging from the top of the fish eye lens over the centre of the front of the lens. This centers the lens on the RD8 rotator’s central axis point.
• The no parallax. This is when you put a thin rod in front of the camera and look at a far edge aligning it with the thin rod. Swing the camera slowly left and right. If the edges do not move relative to one another then you are on the nodal point. If they do alter the camera mounting distances on the RD8 rotator.
The final callibration is with the no parallax method so rely on this for accuracy. However the proof will be in the results. Check the photo that is produced at the top of the tripod. Is the the tripod’s image circular and not warped?
Youtube has some interesting and somewhat helpful videos.
