FC-E8 + P5100 on a NN3 Lower rail

[etegration]

I am using this light weight setup and am wonder is this happening to others. My UR-E20 is touching the knob.



I can adjust it to be like the following, just missing both ends...



but the 2nd settings will take a picture with the lower rail in it., yes yes a nadir will remove it but am wondering the setup for now first. I tried using the full NN3 setup:



and it's hellava lighter (of course) compared to my usual 40D + 10-22mm setup. Do you use your setup with the UR-E20 touching the knob?

[nick fan]

We are introducing the new Nodal Ninja 180 this month. It will work with lens for dual shot stitching. NN3/5 lower rail is not designed for use with fisheye lens. You need the upper assembly. But a portion of the view will be blocked by the upper arms for fisheye with 180 deg view. We can make an adapter to overcome this problem by extending the lower rotator to the front. I hope you understand what I mean.


nick

[etegration]

There is no way you would be anywhere near the NPP as the lens needs to be over the centerline of the tripod and this is where the tension knob is. This makes your lens around 2 1/2" too far forward.
You will "always" capture the panohead in the nadir area because it is the location you must rotate NPP of the lens around. Better you rethink what you are doing, because everything you are showing is wrong.

Aussie Ninja

I do not get you. That setting allow me to stitch perfectly just that the touching of the lens onto the knob is having me worries about scratches.

i manage to stitch this using the above "touching" settings http://tinyurl.com/5mtzz5 where the UR-E20 is touching the knob.

[etegration]

We are introducing the new Nodal Ninja 180 this month. It will work with lens for dual shot stitching. NN3/5 lower rail is not designed for use with fisheye lens. You need the upper assembly. But a portion of the view will be blocked by the upper arms for fisheye with 180 deg view. We can make an adapter to overcome this problem by extending the lower rotator to the front. I hope you understand what I mean.


nick

Hi Nick, yes, i saw the NN 180 and provided a link from my site.

I understand that the NN3 lower rail may not have been designed for this lens, camera or converter but it sure works even using having to shoot with a little of the lower rail in view on all 4 shots (90 degrees per shot, 4 shots total) since i take one last nadir anyways. I'll stick to upper and lower rails setup for now and like i say, it's still lighter than a dslr mounted but i am finding the limitation the P5100 is having on things like simple lighting control i can do with my 40D. That's the trade off i guess.

I am using both the upper and lower rails NN3 for now and nothing seems to be blocking with the fisheye lens with the settings of

Lower Rail - 4
Upper Rail - 81 with T Adapter markings.

It works perfectly.

[nick fan]

you can raise up the camera by using a QR system which is tipically >20mm thick.


nick

[etegration]

you can raise up the camera by using a QR system which is tipically >20mm thick.


nick

thank you for the suggestions.

Nodal Ninja SPH-1 (very old) fitted with Nikon Coolpix 5000 and Nikon FC-E8 Fisheye Lens with correct lens position for rotating around the Entrance Pupil (EP) No Parallax Point (NPP)
Yes, you do capture some of the panohead (to the right) but it is of no consequence (because of image overlap) if you shoot 3 photos at 120 degrees.

Aussie Ninja

A picture really tell a thousand words. Thank you aussieninja.

[etegration]

You are welcome

Aussie Ninja

I managed to do it!

[nick fan]

I managed to do it!

I guess you should mount the QR on the T-adapter instead. This will give you reproducible positioning of camera.


nick

[etegration]

Very good, it looks a little like a NN180

I assume you now stitch these shots with a lot more accuracy?

Aussie Ninja

It's a lot more accurate but the bubble level keeps appearing on the nadir shot even on the final pano no matter where I try to stand to take the nadir. See http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa...ens/temp/2.jpg

and yes, I was watching CSI Miami.

[etegration]

I guess you should mount the QR on the T-adapter instead. This will give you reproducible positioning of camera.


nick

Another problem i wish to overcome and maybe with the NN 180 it could be done is accessing the battery and SD card compartment without having to dismantle the whole setup. That was one big advantage for the NN3 on my 350D then my 40D all along. I can remove the battery for charging without having to remove/ unscrew anything.

With the NN T-Adaptor, it does not block out the whole compartment on the P5100 but accessing it is not possible as the hinge is blocked halfway while opening it. It could well snap it off if i force and with the above image, i have to remove the T-Adaptor then the Velbon quick release plate before i can take out the battery and/ or SD card.

[etegration]

Nodal Ninja SPH-1 (very old) fitted with Nikon Coolpix 5000 and Nikon FC-E8 Fisheye Lens with correct lens position for rotating around the Entrance Pupil (EP) No Parallax Point (NPP)
Yes, you do capture some of the panohead (to the right) but it is of no consequence (because of image overlap) if you shoot 3 photos at 120 degrees.

Aussie Ninja

Hi Aussie Ninja, this settings seems to be getting awkard. You have a similiar setup to assit? I am using a P5100, UR-E20 and a FC-E8 with a Nodal Ninja 3. i still getting parallax error, or is it something else?

Please see http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa.../entrance.html

and http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa...chen/kit1.html

The above are having some levelling issues too i understand, could be the effects of me removing the ballhead and mounting the NN3 directly on my tripod to save more weight but i think i need help eliminating the parallax errors first.

[John Houghton]

The above are having some levelling issues too i understand, could be the effects of me removing the ballhead and mounting the NN3 directly on my tripod to save more weight

There are certainly levelling issues, but if you have adjusted the tripod legs to get the NN3 level, then you should be ok. The panorama may have become unlevel during the PTGui processing. It takes about 40 secs to accurately level it using vertical line (t1) control points. See levelling tutorial.

John

[etegration]

The settings I have displayed are not going to be good for your set up because of a number of reasons.

1) Different camera model
2) Different lens adapter
3) To some degree different modal NN panohead

But yes, same lens so my illustration was to give you an understanding of where the (NPP) of this lens was (roughly) and an idea on how to set your camera up on the Nodal Ninja 3 Panohead.

The very first thing you need to do is "prove" the camera is correctly centered on the panohead. As a starting point this can be roughly aligned by looking through your view finder or LCD display and making sure the centerline of the panohead is central on the screen and then this can be seen again by looking at the tripod/panohead in the Nadir position of the stitched panorama image. You will see examples of this in the NN180 thread on this forum. I'm not sure if the Nikon P5100 has the mounting hole in line with the centre of the lens (if not) you will need to use the NN T-30 adapter to reposition the offset difference. It is also VERY IMPORTANT to make sure the T-30 Adapter is square and true to the camera before tightening and should be rechecked after tightening.

Once you have the centerline exact you can then move on to setting the correct (NPP) on the upper rail and this can be confirmed again by looking at the nadir footprint of the stitched panorama image and from these results you can tell if the camera needs to move forward or backwards on the upper rail. The other way of proving parallax errors are eliminated by following a good tutorial like the one John Houghton website offers or the version offered on Rosauro's website both of which offer good solutions and really if you take your time are easy to understand and complete.

For me or others to offer you better support you need to offer up "un-edited" panoramas with the tripod in place in the panorama image.

I do not have the exact set up you have so I cannot do this set up work for you. I suggest you follow the above and post examples as you progress and then people will assist you to get it correct.

Aussie Ninja

Hi AN, thank you for taking the time to reply.

I'll go about taking a look at the P5100 again this weekend. Here's the unedited images.

http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa...help/entrance/
http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa...orumshelp/kit/

I am using the T-30 adaptor as you have guessed right, the P5100 lens barrel is offset from the camera's mounting hole. Heading over the the NN180 forum after this. THanks!

[nick fan]

Another problem i wish to overcome and maybe with the NN 180 it could be done is accessing the battery and SD card compartment without having to dismantle the whole setup. That was one big advantage for the NN3 on my 350D then my 40D all along. I can remove the battery for charging without having to remove/ unscrew anything.

With the NN T-Adaptor, it does not block out the whole compartment on the P5100 but accessing it is not possible as the hinge is blocked halfway while opening it. It could well snap it off if i force and with the above image, i have to remove the T-Adaptor then the Velbon quick release plate before i can take out the battery and/ or SD card.

this is very difficult without customization for your camera. Some cameras have tripod socket very close to the battery door.


nick

[John Houghton]

I stitched the entrance panorama with PTGui, but noticed something odd about the nadir image. The image circle was offset from the other images - and the image was not just rotated by 180 degrees either, as sometimes happens due to the autorotation sensor. So when the crop is applied to all images, it is in the wrong position for the nadir. That means the warping is wrong. I used viewpoint correction after fixing the crop and got this result: http://www.johnhpanos.com/entrance.mov

John