DIY Panoramic Head

Whilst taking stitch shots with which to construct Panoramic images is, using a digital camera, fairly easy and relatively cheap, one aspect is not. Unless you are prepared to hand hold the camera and restrict yourself to only taking certain types of stitch images, one's that do not cover a wide view or involve many images, then the use of a panoramic head that fits onto a tripod becomes a necessary purchase. Unfortunately, besides being rather expensive, in some cases these heads still do not provide all the adjustments that are required in order to take multiple row stitch images.

In order to overcome these twin problems of excessive cost and limited scope some time ago we designed and built our own panoramic head, the design and construction of which we now provide here for those of you that might wish to try making one for yourselves. [Please read the copyright appendix at the bottom of the page]

Our aims were simple. To design a head that was cheap and easy to make using parts and materials we either had to hand or were readily available, yet provided all the movements that were needed to make it's construction and use worthwhile. To this end the basic material used throughout is wood. Small section pine for the basic frame with thin ply for the horizontal and vertical camera platforms and swivel base. Bolts with wing nuts provide the pivots and adjustment/locking bolts.

Although the head is decidedly crude in construction and finish, and is not particularly small, the important point is that it does work as intended and provides all the adjustments that are needed to take multiple row stitch images if you need or want to, and at minimal cost.

We don't intend to give a blow by blow account of it's construction. What we will do is discuss the design principles, provide some simple working drawings, front, plan and side views, with an exploded diagram of the base, some basic measurements, construction notes where we think they are necessary, and some shots of our working example. The rest, as they say, is up to you.

Although we used some machine tools during it's construction for certain parts, a lathe and vertical milling/drilling machine, these are not essential. Construction can be accomplished using hand tools only, with the only difference being a modification to the way the head is fitted to your tripod.

We will point out any problems we think might arise, and the solutions available.

Whenever you are making something to which you will attach an expensive camera, the first principle must be that it will be strong and stable enough to carry the camera's weight without problem. The second is that the design dampens any vibrations that emanate from the camera's shutter action or from any other outside source.

A panoramic head is required to do just two things. To allow the camera fitted to be adjusted so that the nodal point of any lens used can be located directly at the pivot points of both horizontal and vertical movement. And to provide rotation about these pivot points, 360 degrees horizontally and about 120 degrees vertically. fig 1.

Unfortunately it seems the design of most panoramic heads puts nodal adjustment in the horizontal plane foremost, and in some cases this precludes the provision of vertical adjustment, so these heads are restricted to single row panoramic work. Some also only allow the camera to be used in the portrait position. Most commercial panoramic heads that do provide multi-row capabilities seem to do so by using the single jointed arm principle of design with multi-row vertical rotation an addition to the basic head design, and again this is often only in the portrait position. This is fine when the construction is in a material such as steel or a cast alloy that is structurally strong but we do have our reservations over vibration effects and how rigid the designs are in use.

We looked for an alternative design principle, and after some thought on the matter we based our design on that which allows ships navigational instruments to remain horizontal, whatever the inclination of the ship, by pivoting about two axis using two interconnected frames with twin pivots, Gimbals.

In our design, pivoting in both axis is primary, with nodal adjustment to suit both being independently adjustable. Nodal adjustment is crude but effective, and accomplished via slotted adjustment of both the camera, and the head frame, as some commercial designs employ. A single tightenable pivot point is provided for horizontal rotary movement through 360 degrees, and twin tightenable pivots for vertical rotary movement from about 60 degrees upwards. The camera can be mounted either horizontally or vertically, there is provision and adjustment allowance for both.

Most tripods and monopods these days are made from metal alloys, extruded sections or castings. Some are even made from carbon fibre. In the distant past however wood was often used, and this especially applied in the early days of photography. The problem is tripods don't just need to be strong, they need a certain weight - mass - to do their job effectively. A lightweight tripod may be great to carry but not of much use in a strong wind. Likewise metal and carbon fibre may have great strength, but their damping qualities, the absorption of vibrations, is often poor unless a large mass is involved. Sectional materials, particularly metal alloys, are very good at setting up vibrations - harmonics - rather like tuning forks. The same attributes apply to tripod and panoramic heads.

Designing and building a panoramic head in metal would for us have been no problem since we have a small workshop with lathe and milling machine, but most people are not so fortunate. However, the only advantage using metal would afford in this case would be the ability to incorporate engraved degree markings on the rotating base, and click stop settings on all pivot points if desired. Nice refinements, but not essential, and in some ways less flexible in use. More to the point the cost would be far greater, not so much for the flat section or drawn tube used for the basic frame, but rather for the plate metal needed for the horizontal and vertical camera bases. Additionally using metal, steel, brass, or aluminum, might well lead to a frame that tended to resonance/vibrate when the camera shutter was fired.

Wood on the other hand, because of it's grain, is quite good at vibration absorption. It's also easy to obtain, can be worked using simple hand tools if needed, and compared to metal is quite cheap. In fact the case is that it's probably a better all round material to use than metal for this particular project whether you have metal working facilities or not. Even today most artists easels are still produced in unfinished wood, usually hardwood (mostly beech), with in most cases solid or plated brass fitments.

So we used wood. Only small amounts are actually needed. Small section pine was used as we had this to hand and the size fitted the requirements. You could use hardwood if you could find some of a suitable size. However this is harder to work than softwood and you do really need to treat it like metal, pre-drilling all screw/nail holes, machining the slots etc. The advantage is that it is a bit tougher and more rigid when longer lengths are used, as in the legs of artists easels. With the head however only very short lengths are used, so the advantage is minimal. A small amount of ¼" ply is also required. This is used to make the camera mounting plates.

Besides this some M6 [¼"] bolts and wing nuts along with washers are the others parts that are needed, apart from a few screws and nails and a bit of wood glue. And a camera tripod mount retention screw to retain the camera on the horizontal/vertical plates. This is, and has historically always been, a ¼" BSW thread. [British Standard Whitworth, 20tpi (20 threads per inch)]. As a matter of interest the standard tripod head mount thread is also a BSW thread, this time 3/8" and 16tpi. No problem if you live in a country that still uses imperial measurement, but a bit of one in metric only areas. Camera tripod retaining screws and adapters are quite easy to come by however, any good camera shop should have them. Failing that www.speedgraphic.co.uk stock these items and mail worldwide at cost.

If you could find some, covering the horizontal/vertical plates where the camera is located with thin cork would be a useful refinement. Cork is used by Manfrotto on all it's heads and quick release plates. It's a very good material to use being firm but with cushioning and anti-slip properties.1/8" sheet is quite easy to find but is too thick to allow the use of the standard camera retention screw and a longer version must then be found. We used ¼" ply because the standard camera retaining screw - 11mm long - fits through and provides an adequate amount of thread with which to attach the camera and retain it securely. Hama make longer 15mm versions for use with Metz flashguns. No doubt others make longer versions too. We found that thin self adhesive cork rolls, 1/32" thick, are sold under the Fablon name for drawer lining and covering and we used this which fitted the bill perfectly.

The drawings that follow are somewhat crude but adequate, being simple working design drawings in biro

The measurements on the drawings are the main ones needed. These will allow the fitment and use of most digicams, and small DSLR's such as the Pentax *ist-D series, the Canon 350D, and others of similar size. If you have a bigger/wider camera then the width/height measurements must of course be increased to suit proportionally. The adjustment slots, shaded in the drawings, allow 40mm of movement each way for the horizontal pivot point and 50mm of vertical movement. These amounts can be altered if the builder requires, but should cover most needs, and have been designed to cope with the camera in either the horizontal or vertical position.

The minimum distance between 1/4"/M6 bolt centres is 30mm to allow for the rotation of the wing nuts without fouling each other. Each bolt centre should be at least 10mm from the wood edge and plain ½" and 1" washers should be used.

If you find that the vertical rotation is not enough to meet your needs for multi-row capabilities the solution is to increase the 125mm distance between the base frame and the vertical pivot point. As you will probably only find out you need more movement when using the head this will mean making another outer base frame section.

All fixed wood joints, as well as being screwed/pined, should ideally be glued, using PVA wood glue, indeed the vertical camera plate is intended to be of glued ply construction only. If plain cork sheet is used as a covering it can be glued down using either PVA or an impact adhesive.

Although the slots in the wood sections and the ply can be made by hand, it would be better if you could machine these, it would be easier. As we said earlier we used a milling machine, but a wood router with a standard 1/4" slot bit is all that's really required. The slots need to be centered in the middle of all the wood sections. Offset slots in any will cause distortion/twisting and mis-alignment of the unit. If needed, a slightly loose fit of the bolts in these slots is better than a tight fit in mis-aligned slots.

The main concern is ensuring that the inner and outer base frames are square and true. The uprights are at right angles and not twisted, and all pivot bolt holes are drilled straight and true.

The horizontal pivot base is made up from 4 layers of ply glued together to form two layers. Plain ply surfaces make quite good rubbing surfaces for pivot joints of this type. A minimum of 80mm diameter is needed to allow enough surface for stability when rotating the unit and the distance between the pivot and locking bolts and outer edge. We have shown the base as made from circular pieces of ply because we cut squares and then machined them to shape in the lathe. You could make them round by cutting with a jig-saw or roughly cutting to shape and sanding round.

In commercial panoramic heads a ¼" BSW thread tapped hole is provided, identical to those in camera bodies, and the head is attached to the tripod using it in the same way as a camera. We realize that most of you won't be able to do what we did, which was to machined a shouldered nut tapped ¼" BSW from 16mm square steel. This was inserted into the two bottom base layers, and so we can attach our head in the same way.

The best answer we have been able to come up with is to use an ordinary bolt and nut instead, so the base drawing shows an ordinary bolt instead, and the shank of this you would pass through the tripod head screw retention hole/slot and secure with a nut/wing nut. You'd probably have to remove the camera retention screw to do this. We can't be specific about this simply because most tripod head designs seems to vary quite a bit in this respect. We placed the position to one side to provide an access hole for the bolt head so a screwdriver can be used to stop it revolving whilst tightening it up.

All the bolt holes, and recesses for bolt heads or nuts should be drilled/cut out before gluing the respective layers together. As we are not sure if the drawings make the construction and working of the base entirely clear we've drawn a separate exploded diagram of this which is reproduced below. Again this is just a crude sketch in biro. Please use it in conjunction with the other drawings We've also included a sketch of the machined nut and it's fitment for those who are interested.

As the base dis-assembles we altered our base and tried the bolt and nut system. We can confirm it does work. At least it does with our Manfrotto hexagonal quick release plates where the ¼" BSW bolt can be removed.

The best finish you can give the wood is none at all. It doesn't look as good as putting on a coat of clear varnish or a stain but the thing is the unit will work better this way, which is the main consideration. Once again if you look at artist's easels you notice none are given a finish, they are left plain wood. Coating wood with a finish is just that, a coating. This coating, even if you thin it so it sinks into the top grain layers, hardens the top into a solid surface rather than one that gives. This actually makes it rougher and more abrasive, although the finish makes it look smoother. You often see varnished wood products where the varnish has rubbed off where the parts rub against each other as a result.

Here are two views of the head. One showing the pivot lines with which the lens centre line should match and the cross point where the lens nodal point should lie. This also shows the vertical mount plate fitted. The other with our Pentax *ist-D SLR mounted on this plate in the vertical position.

Having some fun making a panoramic head is all well and good but the whole point of the exercise is of course to use it.

The first task, after fitting it onto your tripod, is to make sure it's level. The easiest way to do this is simply by eye, using the bottom strut as the guide against the view in front of it. Turn it through 90° at a time to check it's level horizontally all around. Next make sure the camera platform is level with the base frame. Loosen all the side wing nuts and tighten when it is flat, level and true.

Now attach the camera making sure it's aligned squarely, the lens being at 90° to the frame. If your using the camera in the vertical position, then of course you must fit and bolt the vertical base in place first, the position of which does not matter at this time, adjustment comes later.

Adjust the base frame sideways so that the lens axis is in line with the base pivot bolt centre by loosening both the pivot bolt and locking bolt wing nuts. When it's in the right position tighten the locking bolt and then the pivot bolt. From this point on revolving the head horizontally only needs loosening and tightening of the pivot bolt wing nut. Leave the lock bolt wing nut firmly tightened or the lens alignment will shift.

Having now set the horizontal lens alignment the vertical alignment is next. Loosen the wings nuts on both sides, locking and pivot, and raise the platform until the lens axis is aligned with the pivot bolt centres. Tighten all four wing nuts. Make sure during this operation that the vertical posts remain upright and in line with the base uprights. As with the base rotation the lock wing nuts must remain fully tightened, only the pivot wing nuts needing to be loosened for rotation. These must be tightened once the new position has been found, to hold the platform at it's new orientation.

When the lens axis has been aligned vertically and horizontally with the pivot points all that remains is to find the nodal point of the lens used. As with all other panoramic heads this is done simply by trial and error. Adjustment is simply a case of sliding the camera, or the vertical base, backwards and forwards, and locking the camera or vertical base in position when the nodal point is found. If you use the focal length a lot then perhaps you can make some mark so that you can re-set the camera in this position again.

As you can no doubt see the level of construction is very basic and somewhat crude, but we saw little point in spending a lot of time on something that might not work. Designing something is one thing, but getting a prototype to work correctly as envisaged first time is not always possible. We were lucky here in that it did. When you get to the stage that something works as intended, and does the job required, looks become cosmetic.

It's rather large and bulky, just as the commercial heads are, but not we think as heavy, and just slightly cheaper. It helped us no end in evaluating the concept of Panoramic and Stitch imaging and it's worth, which we have concluded is considerable. It also proved that multiple row stitches are feasible over wide angles of degree so long as you have equipment such as this to assist you.

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