Nadir Adapter

[BaltimoreBob]

Yes - I use it and am rather pleased.
What I do is when setting up I hang a *plumb-bob from the center columm then put a marker under it for the centering. Then turn the camera out on the adaptor and move the tripod to line marker up the focus box by looking thru the view finder. I may or may not remove the marker and shoot the patch. With the marker in place I've got a logo in the panorama

* Use a rubber chair leg protecter lined with a piece of elastic to get a snug fit with a hole in the bottom center, a piece of waxed cord thru the hole to which the plumb-bob is tied. The cord moves the plumb-bob up and down as needed. Its held in place by the snug fiot of the eleastic lines protector to the center column

[hindenhaag]

Hi Bob,

Thx for sharing.
Heinz

[BaltimoreBob]

Heinz
A pleasure...
Bob

[slerman]

The nadir adaptor is a great addition to the NN5. Much easier. Thanks for all of the advice and photos here. I've attached my own "cheat sheet"--maybe it will help others!

[hindenhaag]

Hi,

thx a lot for sharing. One serious comment. To take the the coin as reference and move the tripod sideways so that the lens axis is above the coin for Nadir2 Shot, does not always create enough space between the tip of the third leg of the tripod in Nadir1 and the corner of the Adapter in Nadir2. You use DPD = double pivot distance. Often you have to move the tripod further aside to create the space.



Cheers,
Heinz

[ohanlonj]

Do you then have to use "viewpoint correction" to compensate for not being above the same point?

[nick fan]

Do you then have to use "viewpoint correction" to compensate for not being above the same point?

Yes, you should use vp correction to get best result.

Nick

[Crazy360]

Hi guys, as a continuation to my questions here:

http://www.nodalninja.com/forum/show...ll=1#post37494

related to the viewpoint correction with PTGUI, what is the correct workflow?

I'm using 550D w 10-22mm and using 8 shots at 0degree, 4 shots at +/- 60 degrees and a Nadir shot (N) + Nadir Adaptor shot. (N+)
1)Is the Nadir shot necessary?
2)For viewpoint correction in PTgui, do we add N or N+? If N+, do we will need an N shot?

I tried adding N+ (without N) in PTgui but fail to stitch correctly, and so I stitched normally with N and replaced with N+ in photoshop.
(followed the tutorial steps listed here: http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pa...pano-stiching/)

It worked, but I want to know how vp correction works for a better and faster work flow =]

*Not sure if i should mask the tripod before alignment in the (-60degree shots?), or in the Nadir shot? Sorry all to new to this..are there any good resources/tutorials for stitching as well?

ps. wanna thank Heinz for his response so far =]

Jon

[hindenhaag]

Hi Jon,




Some basics about workflow: use the special Nadir set up of the tripod and panohead that lower rail is 90° to the two tripod legs and in line with leg three, EZ - Leveler II blue screws on top of legs. 0° of rotator should show towards you. Always start the shots around at 0° position. Shoot clockwise that will prevent the connections of the system to come loose. Check camera that everything is set to manual: WB, Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and Focus. Mount the rig.

Level once before the first shot. The bubble will move during your trip around but that does not matter at all.

Take your shots around and move rotator back into 0° position. Take Zenith by setting Pitch - upper rail - to +90°and take Zenith shot. Move camera down to -90° and take Nadir1 shot. Lock rotator lock that lower rail stays in place while moving your tripod sideways in direction of third leg by minimum DPD Distance. Open up Nadir adapter and turn camera into nadir2 position. Close Nadir Adapter Lock. Re level once for Nadir 2 shot. Take Nadir2 shot. Open lock, bring back camera in closed Adapter position and close lock again.

Use this always as your standard workflow. So after a while this will happen automatically without thinking about it. On sight there is enough to do and you have to think and make decisions about without thinking about basics.

I do not move tripod with open Nadir Adapter and I always lock the rotator before moving it. Why, it happened to me that without closed locks the whole panohead with camera on top suddenly turned around. Lucky me that it did not fall on the ground.

Now, this is basic workflow for one row and Zenith plus Nadir1 and Nadir2 shot with Nadir Adapter on NN3, NN4, NN5, M1.

Once you tested your camera lens combination, you will know if you can shoot without an extra Zenith shot for example by tilting up +5° for example. This is everyones one choice to do it. But always think about that using the outer circle of the lens does not use the best region of the lens, which is the center. Think about distortion etc etc.

One last important point: Take the Zenith and Nadir shot in 0° Rotator position just moving the camera up and down without changing direction of view. This is important specially for handheld Nadir Shots. Keeping the direction of view will help stitching programs a lot. Compared to our body, just move your head up to sky, via looking straight forward move the head down to look at your feet. This will give PTGui a nice pictures film, sky, horizon, ground. This will stitch easier specially in the area of horizontal overlap.

Taking some more overlap will often take time to shoot. But saves a lot of time on PC.

You have to use the view point tab in PTGui Pro >optimizer > advanced only for Nadir2 shot or handheld ones.

I'll place some more pics this evening.

Feel free to ask.
Heinz

[burake]

Hi,

I have set up a panorama with D200, Nikkor 10.5, NN3 and Nadir Adaptor. The set includes 2 videos, one about preparing, alpha mask nadir and stitching the panorama with PTGuiPro and PS CS4. The second one explains the set up of the rig and shows the effect of the nadir adaptor.

Two maps include the pics of the pano - for those who want to play around on their own - and the pics of the D200, 10.5, NN3, Ez-LevellerII Gitzo GT 1541T

The workflow in the video shows my own decision to create a panorama, there are many ways to Rome and might be that others do it in another way. Same with using the EZ-LevellerII, I can do it as well without it and use the tripod legs to adjust, I simply prefer to use the leveller instead of adjusting tripods legs.

I have set this up cause there have been questions around the nadir adaptor, stitching, and alpha masks. Just to try to give "newbies" a help to start up. Not to start a lot of threads with those who know how to do it. Camera orientation "on'' "off" etc.

http://web.me.com/hindenhaag/filechu...aptorVideo.zip Video

http://web.me.com/hindenhaag/filechute/D200_10.zip Pics of pano

http://web.me.com/hindenhaag/filechu...dirAdaptor.zip Video

http://web.me.com/hindenhaag/filechu...dirAdaptor.zip Pics of Set Up

Think it helps a little bit,

regards

Heinz

Hi eveyrone,

I am using NN5 with EZ leveler 2 on Manfrotto 055x ProB with a full frame camera and a fisheye lens (Canon 5d mark2; Canon Ef 8-15)...I am shooting very often indoors in low light conditions...I want to avoid raising ISO for higher shutter speeds so I ordered the nadir adapter which came today...I cannot access the videos Heinz provided and I have no idea how to use the nadir adapter...Any help will be highly appreciated...

Burak

[DennisS]

Burak,

Read this entire thread from the beginning. There is a ton of information already posted.

Dennis

[burake]

Dennis thank you very much...Actually I did...But there is (was) so much that I don't understand...There are (were) details that don't mean much to someone who's holding the adapter for the first time in his hands...But after 2 days working, experimeting with the adapter, rereading the thread; now I understand a lot more...
Burak

[burake]

After having spent some time with the adapter I find it very useful...I want to thank everybody for their contribution to this thread - it was very helpful...

[Metroruss]

I would also like to say thank you to everyone who posted in this thread, it is a wonderful source of information and it is very greatly appreciated!!

I also hope to be able to see your videos Heinz :)

Have a great day everyone.

[Metroruss]

I would also like to say thank you to everyone who posted in this thread, it is a wonderful source of information and it is very greatly appreciated!!

I also hope to be able to see your videos Heinz :)

Have a great day everyone.