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Subject Topic: Nodal Ninja 3 Post Reply Post New Topic
Message posted by Rob63 on July-22-2007 at 10:12am
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Rob63
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January-30-2007
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I'm currently trying to create panos with a Nodal Ninja 3, Canon 5D & Sigma 8mm 3.5 EX DG.  I shoot three around, every 120 degrees, and then use Panoweaver 5.0 to stitch.

I have yet to achieve a perfect stitch.  Most notable problem is if there is intricate ceiling detail, i.e. ceiling fan, light fixture, etc...  I also get a small black triangle at the top of the image - sometimes - even though this is supposed to be a full frame sensor.

I noticed on the Nodal Ninja website that there are no settings for this camera and lens combination.  Also part of the Nodal Ninja appears in each image, but I thought the image overlap would take care of this problem.

Has anyone successfully used this camera and lens with the Nodal Ninja?  Or, should I go ahead and move up to the Agnos Mrotator TCP Short?

Thanks for any insight.

Robert


Message posted by smooth on July-22-2007 at 11:02am
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smooth
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November-23-2002
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Hi Robert,

Mate, it makes little difference to the panohead shooting with the equipment you have. Shooting 3 shots at 120 degrees with the Canon 5D and Sigma 8mm is correct and enough to complete a full 360x180 image "apart" from the tripod region.

If you are getting the "black triangle" at the zenith when the camera/lens is perfectly level you should tilt your camera up around 4 to 7 degrees until this area closes. Using "Smartblend" plug-in will deal with all the blending necessary for a good Zenith so long as you are set perfectly on the NPP lens entrance pupil.

You cannot under any circumstance not include the tripod/panorama head, all you can do is minimize it and then either clone & heal it out of the image or shoot a down/bottom (Nadir) shot and stitch or patch it in. This because the lens is 180 degrees and will always capture part of this area in the photograph. Tilting the camera/lens up the 4 to 7 degrees to cover the Zenith fully will also open up the tripod/pano head hole. This is normal.

So what is the advantage of the Agnos MrotatorTCPS and the Nodal Ninja 3 panorama heads? Quite simply the Agnos will allow a Battery Grip and is a more sturdy unit with far more options. But when it comes to shooting nothing much is different.

Setting the NPP on either panohead is the same. You need to adjust over the X & Y axis until you have minimized error. Getting a perfectly round circle when looking down upon the tripod/panohead in a panorama is the fast guide and if you want to take it further you should publish to .psd layers and crop out and part of the overlap join area and using the two layers of that seem move one layer and count the pixels to make it perfect (could be in X & Y) directions. Keep adjusting on the panohead taking notes until such time you have it perfected. (well as close as you can) I got mine down to (2) horizontal pixels and that for me is close enough.

All this and you will still need to do some small Photoshop editing to produce a final finished panorama close to perfection.

There is no magic bullet.

Regards, Smooth


Message posted by Rob63 on July-22-2007 at 11:49am
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Thanks for your advice Smooth.

The part of the Nodal Ninja that is in my images, is the point where the verticle and horizontal arms come together - on the right side of each image.  I thought that might be causing Panoweaver 5.0 some problems.

I'll keep trying to tweak the camera position on the Nodal Ninja.

If I have a straight line in the ceiling, like a ceiling beam, it is a bit off - slightly. Do you think this is a right/left adjustment? Or, a forward/backward adjusment, of the camera?

Here is an example image:  www.360digitalpics.com/Deck.jpg

Also, here is how an image from the Sigma appears with the 5D.  It looks like the left side is much closer to the edge than the right side - is this normal?

www.360digitalpics.com/Test.jpg

Thanks for looking.

Robert


Message posted by smooth on July-22-2007 at 12:20pm
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smooth
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Looking at your images I would suggest that you need to move your camera forward slightly and also to the the right slightly.

Yes, with the Nodal Ninja you will get a small amount of the panohead at the joining arms but not enough to worry the stitcher (but not as much as your image is showing) This is NOT the case with the Agnos MrotatorTCPS.

As for the left being closer than the right on the sensor, that is just small misalignment of the sensor when fitted to the camera. Not a big deal and it varies camera to camera. 

All that said, the image you have just shown is very usable and would only require minimal time in Photoshop to correct so it was not noticeable. I have taught people who haven't got that close to the NPP.

Regards, Smooth


Message posted by Rob63 on July-22-2007 at 3:33pm
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Rob63
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Thanks for your advice Smooth.  I'm going to try to tweak the camera postion a bit to see if I can get closer to the NPP.

Robert


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