Automatic 360 Pano head

[benique]

Hallo,

I'm planning to do 360° x 180° panoramas for businesses. I currently have a Canon EOS R with an EF 24-70 2.8 and some other longer lenses.

What is the best automatic 360° panorama head? I want to be able to take photos very efficiently and with high quality.

 

[Photorex]

For your kind of Equipment the Nodal Ninja 6 E2 Mecha with Nadir Adapter would be suitable -> https://panosociety.com/collections...adir-adapter-automatic-robotic-panoramic-head

This system is very versatile in function the firmware is constantly improved. But it is a bit complicated to understand and script to get the results you want. But there is a forum where you'll get the needed support -> https://forum.nodalninja.com/.

Once you have prepared your setups and scripts for each focal length you only need to load the script and start the sequence. I am using the smaller version of the Mecha E1 together with the NN 3 MK3 with APS-C EOS M5. Recently I did a panorama with the 40mm lens attached (more than 140 shots were necessacry for a 360 sphere. It resultet in a 2GigaPixel Image which was very demanding for my PC. Lightroom is not able to handle files bigger than 65.000 pixels and 512 Megabyte filesize. If you want to do HDR you have to multiply the count of pictures by the count of brackets.

I think 70mm will be the longest focal length with respect to the count of shots to be taken and the resulting file size.

A second possibility would be the Pine R controller together with two stepper motors and the appropriate cables from https://blackforestmotion.com/
At least this system seems not to be as complicated in use as the NodalNinja stuff.

Or the very expensive Seitz Roundshot VR system -> https://www.roundshot.com/

Frank

 

[benique]

Thanks a lot. I will look into those.

This one seams to be very convenient as well but I'm not sure if my EOS R is compatible.

CLAUSS | piXplorer

The RODEON piXplorer is an automatic 2-axis panoramic head with nodal point adjustment for quick and precise panorama recording. Handy but also strong complete solution for professional use with all usual cameras.

pixplorer.net

I saw it for about EUR 1600.

 

[benique]

CLAUSS piXplorer is compatible with the Canon EOS R according to the manufacturer.

Do you know how many photos will be needed with a 50mm lens and how big is the panorama going to be?

 

[Halfrack]

There's a number of options. First off though you need a wider lens - unless you're planning on showing gigapixel images (no one will look). Next, you want a fully automated head.

- Gigapan Epic - http://www.omegabrandess.com/Gigapan
- Syrp Genie II Pan Tilt - https://syrp.co/us-en/genie-ii-pan-tilt-sy0031-0001/
- iOptron iPano - https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/3600.htm

If you're going light weight you can do a pair of Genie Mini II's and the Pan Tilt brackets

Genie Mini II

Motion Control in your pocket. The Genie Mini II is an extremely easy-to-use, portable device to create smooth panning motion time-lapse or video. Going beyond the basics, the Genie Mini II is highly versatile and packed with many other powerful features including: Keyframe motion control, 360°...

syrp.co

For stitching software like PTGui or Hugin will work better than Photoshop.

A stong tripod with a really small footprint is huge - you don't want to remove legs if you can help it. That and make sure the head is level before starting.

The size of the room / business is really important. If you're going the path of doing a virtual tour, go for something like a MatterPort or a 360 camera like the Insta360 Pro2 or Kandao Qoocam 8k. Building virtual tours manually sucks, so something like Pano2VR helps.