Hello Hudson, Your so right about thoughs leveling adaptors making life so much simpler. I am now using them with both Arca-Swiss Cube and Nodal rails. Its just a dream to use.
I ordered parts from Hudson and used his instructions (ATS 208) to build my own, except I used the fluid head on the medium size tripod to save a little weight and size. I am 6’2” and the medium Leophoto tripod is just about perfect height for me. Probably go with the large tripod if you have LARGE lenses or shoot on steep hillsides etc. But this “combo build” works great for me. It was really cool of him to share how he builds them for DIYers. Will order the new nodal rail. Just took my tripod to Costa Rica, and although I only used it a couple times, it worked great when I did….
You are absolutely correct about the current versions of Photoshop and Lightroom rendering panoramas. Unless I am doing a multirow panorama or something with very close linear lines I just hand hold my camera in portrait mode and shoot away, as you demonstrated. On a recent trip I only had one panorama out of about 20 show parallax. Now my RRS multirow panorama gear stays in the car (or at home) unless I know I will need it. Saves the back. Enjoying your videos. Thanks.
This video came at the perfect time as I’m on a trip headed to the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon this weekend. Great info and you saved me some money as I was close to buying the gear for the complex panoramas. Thanks for the great videos and information
For those of us without the $250 for the Acratech adjustable nodal rail, there's a $35 Koolhaoda 240mm rail available that's functionally equivalent. I've been using one for years. Far from Acratech qualiity but does the job.
There are lots of lower quality rails that don't allow you to adjust the clamp position for different lens/body combos. I used to carry three different sizes for that reason and worked first with Kirk and now Acratech to design these adjustable versions that will work with any lens/body combo. The precision scaling, light weight and unreal locking lever clamp set this one apart. It's not cheap, but it's the best you'll ever use. If you're like me... You'll be grateful for it every time you flip that lever to lock onto your tripod. :)
@@HudsonHenryPhoto I appreciate the reply, Hudson. Just to clarify, the Koolhaoda rail I mentioned does allow repositioning of the clamp on the rail which is what makes it so useful. No argument about the beauty of the Acratech lever clamps, though. Alas, if you can't afford filet, you make do with Spam :-(
Wow- times do change. I'm known as Mr. Tripod at my camera club thanks to all the nodal rails and fluid heads I have purchased over the years, thanks to your videos. Like you, the RRS pg-01, I seldom use, and don't know what I will do with it? Does anyone ever bring one to your workshop?
I've seen only a couple PG-01s in the last few years of workshops. Even when people are doing multi row panos, they're not that complicated that you need the more complicated gear. I stopped bringing it in my standard workshop kit.
Great info Hudson. Have you looked at the Platyball by Platypod? I is an inverted ball head that rotates on top and may provide a relatively light weigh head option and provide pano use. I just received mine and am trying it out now.
The GXP-SS head from Acratech that I show inverts and pans at the top if desired the exact same way. The clamp threads off, you screw it to the panning base and mount it ballup with the clamp on the panning base at the top. It's a fine idea in theory, but in practice it's more limiting than a leveling adapter beneath and a level check on the top clamp. Why? You can only pan perfectly level with it. No tilted panning at all or you pan like a rainbow. When you try it, you'll see what I mean. Ballheads, just generally suck for most applications. The best you can do with one for panos is a leveling adapter beneath the pan mechanism, but it remains frustratingly imprecise as compared to a pan and tilt or fluid head. I do love the straight Platypod though. I've used them many times in applications where I tripod can't reach. :-)
Thanks for this update. Now I don't feel so bad about not paying a lot of attention to nodal point concerns, even though I bought the gear to handle them. :-) It sounds like you use just LR and PS for your panorama work. I bought PTGui Pro a while back but haven't had time to focus on learning it. Maybe it's not even necessary after all at this point?
It's good to have PTGui in your back pocket if you ever have a real problem with a very important pano. You can specify control points and it will really work to fit thing with localized warping. I haven't had to use it in years though. ;-)
If you are going to use the Acratech nodal rail all the time will it go straight on to the Manfrotto MV500AH or do you still need swap out the top plate for the Kirk bridge Part # : MVH500-BQRV2?
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Thanks for replying. After a bit more research I see that I either need a Manfroto to Arca adapter or I could screw an Arca clamp to the existing Manfrotto plate. (49 mm vs 38 mm widths). The Kirk bridge looks like a solid option though. The new nodal rail looks great with the locking clamp. Thanks for all you do, it is very helpful to me. I'm "following Hudson Henry" too!!
Do you remove the long handle from the fluid head? I love my acratech Pano head, but need a second head, since I use the acratech for my star tracker base.
I only use the handle for video movements. The ultimate head from acratech is amazing atop the star tracker. It's uniquely well suited to that. A fluid head or pano head would not be. The ultimate in my links under lighting and night photography: Www.hudsonhenry.com/atslinks
The majority of my photos are panoramic landscapes. I use the gimbal nodal slider and never had a problem with uploading images for printing. I have stitched a 15 single image of a landscape that includes a winding road. When I upload the lines in the road become spaced dashes. My camera is Nikon d850. I have tried several photo shops and they all get the same results. Do you have an idea what may be causing this?
It's fine. You can see that in this video when I demo the pg01 pano setup on the ball head. I clamp the new rail into one of those levers. I think you'll see fast why I vastly prefer the acratech clamps though. Thier heads too by a lot. ;)
I'm not a fan of geared heads. They just slow me down too much. Fluid is far more enjoyable to work with and so fabulous for long lens and video work to boot. :-)
There is nothing wrong with the LRP-3. I had a hand in getting it made too years ago. It's bigger, heavier and marked in an engineering scale instead of metric. I deal with a lot of people cofused that the LRP-3's scale starts at 1 not zero on it too. This Acratech version fixes a lot of issues I didn't love and it has my favorite lever clamp ever made to boot. My nodal rail lives on my fluid and panorama heads so it's the clamp I use 95% of the time and I LOVE having it be this lever one. :-)
