Mack
Mu-43 Hall of Famer
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And its FREEWARE! Hugin Panorama Photo Stitcher
I tried it on the cliffs at Red Rock State Park in in CA along Hwy 14. I took 13 shots in portrait mode using some home made nodal rail thign I made in the garage, aside from the Neewer Nodal Rail here.
A couple of things I discovered were if I angled the nodal rail upwards, maybe 30 degrees, that parallax was far off than when I adjusted it being level. I had to slide the nodal rail back quite a bit so the lens front was more over the axis of the tripod center line. I took a light stand with me and set it about 5-6 feet in front of the camera and watched the tip of it against one of the cliff sides for movement as I swung it left and right. Most of that is discussed in "nodal point calibrations" in Youtube online, but they never mention tilting the camera up or downwards and if it affects the nodal rail positioning - and it does! The cliffs are quite tall and I needed a lot more tilt than I expected with the Pentax K3 Monochrome APS-C using a 16mm lens (A Pentax 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom actually.).
I took a 13 shot panorama and used the Hugin software to stitch them together. I just rotated the tripod in 5 degree increments off it base markings with camera in manual setup along with the focus locked to manual as well. I had issues determining exposure as I used a B+W 040 Orange filter which darkened the sky while lightening the reds and yellows of the cliff.
I didn't realize how small a panorama makes the cliffs appear compared to standing near them. Wasn't too crazy about that part and unsure as what to do about it either as I had expected to make the B&W into a metallic-looking silver print.
Below is the Hugin made B&W panorama, and below that is the color shot of a man using his cellphone camera (ahem!) and his son (In lower right side section.) who was chasing a lizard under some bush for sake of the cliff's perspective. Personally, I think it lost something in the persepctive in the panoramic image.
I also learned trying to focus "Manually" is a big PITA in the bright sunlight. I brought a 4x5 camera drape which helped (It needs to be weighted for the wind.), but still my eyes were blinded underneath it looking at the screen along with a Hoodman magnifier. I had to guessitmate using the green focus dot in the viewfinder and hope it had achieved the right focus spot. The bright parking lot didn't help either. Maybe a super-bright 7" HDMI monitor next time.
Bit of an aside, I did find carrying the camera locked down onto the wooden Ries tripod (Now out of business I think?) by hand was easier than carrying the carbon-fiber RRS TVC-33 tripod even though the CF tripod was lighter. Go figger! The Ries legs lock down quite solid at any angle, moreso than most tripods, and do not splay open as does the CF ones, which if carried by one leg begins to unfold and open even though I've tightened the legs in the yokes with the hex wrenches. The wooden legs, by the way they were designed and milled, are more pleasing to the hand to grip onto and do not get as hot as does the black CF legs in the desert sunlight and heat. I have a 3rd party foam sleeve on the CF leg to grab its legs for comfort and for heat protection/minimization, but it is sort of an annoyance in use as some others have pointed out as it slips and rotates a lot. Even with the foam sleeve on it, the milled shape of the wooden leg wins out, imho.
I tried it on the cliffs at Red Rock State Park in in CA along Hwy 14. I took 13 shots in portrait mode using some home made nodal rail thign I made in the garage, aside from the Neewer Nodal Rail here.
A couple of things I discovered were if I angled the nodal rail upwards, maybe 30 degrees, that parallax was far off than when I adjusted it being level. I had to slide the nodal rail back quite a bit so the lens front was more over the axis of the tripod center line. I took a light stand with me and set it about 5-6 feet in front of the camera and watched the tip of it against one of the cliff sides for movement as I swung it left and right. Most of that is discussed in "nodal point calibrations" in Youtube online, but they never mention tilting the camera up or downwards and if it affects the nodal rail positioning - and it does! The cliffs are quite tall and I needed a lot more tilt than I expected with the Pentax K3 Monochrome APS-C using a 16mm lens (A Pentax 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom actually.).
I took a 13 shot panorama and used the Hugin software to stitch them together. I just rotated the tripod in 5 degree increments off it base markings with camera in manual setup along with the focus locked to manual as well. I had issues determining exposure as I used a B+W 040 Orange filter which darkened the sky while lightening the reds and yellows of the cliff.
I didn't realize how small a panorama makes the cliffs appear compared to standing near them. Wasn't too crazy about that part and unsure as what to do about it either as I had expected to make the B&W into a metallic-looking silver print.
Below is the Hugin made B&W panorama, and below that is the color shot of a man using his cellphone camera (ahem!) and his son (In lower right side section.) who was chasing a lizard under some bush for sake of the cliff's perspective. Personally, I think it lost something in the persepctive in the panoramic image.
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I also learned trying to focus "Manually" is a big PITA in the bright sunlight. I brought a 4x5 camera drape which helped (It needs to be weighted for the wind.), but still my eyes were blinded underneath it looking at the screen along with a Hoodman magnifier. I had to guessitmate using the green focus dot in the viewfinder and hope it had achieved the right focus spot. The bright parking lot didn't help either. Maybe a super-bright 7" HDMI monitor next time.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bit of an aside, I did find carrying the camera locked down onto the wooden Ries tripod (Now out of business I think?) by hand was easier than carrying the carbon-fiber RRS TVC-33 tripod even though the CF tripod was lighter. Go figger! The Ries legs lock down quite solid at any angle, moreso than most tripods, and do not splay open as does the CF ones, which if carried by one leg begins to unfold and open even though I've tightened the legs in the yokes with the hex wrenches. The wooden legs, by the way they were designed and milled, are more pleasing to the hand to grip onto and do not get as hot as does the black CF legs in the desert sunlight and heat. I have a 3rd party foam sleeve on the CF leg to grab its legs for comfort and for heat protection/minimization, but it is sort of an annoyance in use as some others have pointed out as it slips and rotates a lot. Even with the foam sleeve on it, the milled shape of the wooden leg wins out, imho.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
