Nodal Ninja 5L

Lower rotator

Standard rotator uses discs with dents and allows precise rotation on vertical axis. Standard disc, which comes with Nodal Ninja 5L, has 10 degree stops on other side and 12 degree stops on other. User can adjust the RUUVI JOKA SÄÄTÄÄ NIITÄ PYKÄLIÄ if the predetermined steps are used or not. Around the rotator there is rotation scale which has lines at 2.5 degree spacing.

Bubble level

Bubble level has proven to be enough accurate. I had first my doubts since I have had smaller bubble level in my ball head and it's not usable or helpful at all. However this bubble level has proven to be accurate tool.

Lower rail movement and scale

The upper rail moves on top of lower rail. It can be set to different distances from XX mm to YY mm. Nodal Ninja also offers PALIKKA JOKA STOPPAA LIIKKEEN which can be used to make setting up faster, which however I found not very usable since I use many cameras with the panorama head.

Upper rotator

Upper rotator is similar to lower one but doesn't provide PYKÄLIÄ. It has scale which has lines at 2.5 degree spacing.

Upper rail movement and scale

Step 1. Select scene which has near and far vertical edge and position tripod

Typically I select scene so that I will have some object with clear vertical edge about 0.5-1m from camera and then another object 3-5 meters from camera. Then I adjust the camera/tripod position so that the slid between the two vertical edges is as small as possible but still exists. Position tripod height so the vertical slid is visible without tilting camera up or down.

Step 2. Level panorama head

Use the bubble level on panorama head to level the panorama. Make sure upper rotator is at straight horizontal level, set to 0 degrees.

Step 3. Set lower rail to center the lens

Depending of lens I do this either by using live view or physically aligning the lens' center to the lower rotator center. For lenses which focus close live view can be used to determine lower slide position by targeting camera downwards and focusing to center of lower rotator, or using small aperture and depth of field preview, then use live view at maximum magnification at center of image and adjust rail until perfectly centered. The physically align method is done by adjusting the upper rail so that the lens goes to very close to the top of the lower rotator and then visually inspect which lower rail position centers the lens. Notice! This has to be done only once for each camera, not separately for each lens since the optical axis of all lenses is same.

Step 4. Set upper rail to initial position

As a starting point I adjust the upper rail so that the upper rotator's axis goes through the lens about 1/3 of the lens length length from front element of the lens.

Step 5. Compare near and far edge distance while rotating camera

Position the slit between near and far object to center of image, evaluate the slit width in maximum magnification with live view. Then rotate the camera so that the slit is on left edge of the photo and evaluate the slit width again. Then repeat on right edge of the photo.

Common problem in this step is small depth of field, which I accommodate by using smallest aperture of lens and depth of field preview. This can cause unusable dark live view screen. This I typically overcome doing parallax adjustment on sunshine outside or using 1kW halogen light indoors to light my near and far subject.

Step 6. Adjust upper rail

Based on evaluations of the slit width on previous step adjust the upper rail:
- if the slid was wider on left then adjust upper rail so that camera and lens are closer to XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Step 1. Decide composition and selecting lens

This step is very similar to normal photography. Photographer has to decide camera position, field of view, composition and depth of field. In panoramic photography photographer also needs to decide how many megapixels are needed and aspect ratio preferred. These selections are then used as a base for lens selection and other steps below. Typically I prefer to use less than 30 pictures in my panoramas in order to make the digital darkroom work easier.

Step 2. Set up the panorama head for the lens

Typically I set panorama head based on table above, not every time finding the correct settings. Therefore it's pretty fast operation in the field. In addition to that the tripod needs to be leveled so that the bubble level indicates panorama head to be straight.

Step 3. Decide horizontal and vertical turning angle between columns and rows

Based on the focal length of the lens and cropping factor of the camera the field of view of each lens changes. Typically I prefer to overlap images so that they do overlap about 1/3 of the HFOV ( Horizontal Field of View) and VFOV (Vertical Field of View). Depending on how much resulting picture has details to be used as control points between frames I may overlap the frames more. I use more overlap between images for example when I use very narrow depth of field or if photo has large areas of detail which cannot be used for control points (e.g. water). Also I prefer to use rounded numbers so the taking of photo is simplier, specially the horizontal rotation I tend to select so that it's multiple of 10 degrees in order to use the MITÄ NE PYKÄLÄT NYT SITTEN ONKAAN ENGLANNIKSI on the lower rotator.

Step 4. Decide number of rows and columns and maximum top/bottom/left/right of scene

In order to achieve the composition you decided in step 1 you need to decide where are your top and bottom row. I always take little extra in order to compensate the distortion caused by what projection you plan to use for the photo. In addition to these factors I also consider the vertical turning angle and decide the top and bottom row angle so that it's also aligned to it.

For example if I have determined that I want to use 20 degree vertical turning angle between rows and that the top of decided composition is 5 degrees up and bottom is 55 degrees down, I would most probably choose to shoot 5 rows at 5 degrees, 15 degrees down, 35 degrees down and 55 degrees down.

Then same kind of decision process have to be done to number of columns and maximum left and right turning angle.

Step 5. Shooting the photos of panorama

Typically I start to shoot from top left corner. If the horizontal turning angle between frames is multiple of 10 degrees I use the PYKÄLÄT in the lower rotator the shooting is very easy, just shoot and turn. If I shoot on other horizontal turning angle then the procedure gets more compilicated, specially in dark: shoot one frame, open the lower rotator tightening screw, adjust to next angle, tighten the lower rotator tightening screw and shoot another frame. When I have shoot whole row I advance to following row.

Panorama head can act as Wimberley head with collared lenses. This is only of course assuming panorama head is able to support the weight and is able to move smoothly under the weight. According to my experiences Nodal Ninja 5 is able to do this

Pros:

• Sturdy enough for most purposes, no flexing/pending even using 1DmkIII and 85L (about 2.3kg)
• Good scales in both rotators and rails
• PYKÄLÄT in lower rotator
• Can be used to remove parallax when photographing macro/close-up panoramas with TS-E lenses.

Cons:

• Not sturdy enough to be used with collared lenses and 1D-series cameras when set up to correct parallax.