[LRflex] My Pano Adapter

Dear friends,

Here are the details of my Pano Adapter that I promised.
A couple of years ago I began lusting after a Pano Adapter and after surveying the field, from $75 and up, way up, I began thinking of building my own. I did some "thought experiments" and made many sketches but none seemed feasible, until it dawned on me that all of the ones for sale were meant to accommodate ANY camera and ANY lens, but what I wanted was something that would work with MY camera and MY lens, and life suddenly became much simpler.
This picture shows two small pieces of half-inch thick scrap wood I had on hand, labeled Pano Adapter and Slider, both viewed from their under sides. The Pano Adapter will mount on my ball-head and hold the camera with the lens' nodal point over the ball-head's axis of rotation. 

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/Pano1.jpg.html
The only use for the Slider is to hold the camera while sliding it back and forth on the Pano Adapter to locate the nodal point of the lens.
Since I was going to use my ball-head to make the pano pictures, it seemed only natural to use the quick release feature. That is why I bolted a Manfrotto quick disconnect fitting, a spare I had on hand, with the attaching bolt removed, to the under side of the Pano Adapter. Simpler attachments, such as a hole for a stud on a ball-head would do as well. Here is a picture of the Pano Adapter on the ball- head. 

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/Pano2.jpg.html
I bored a 1/4 inch diameter hole in the Slider near one end so that the lens would largely overhang the end, and glued some narrow strips of fiberboard to the edges of its under side. The strips were necessary to provide room for the head of the bolt that attached the camera to the Slider.
The Slider, with the camera bolted to its upper side, was clamped atop the Pano Adapter, as shown in these pictures. 

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/Pano3.jpg.html

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/Pano4.jpg.html
You can see another reason the strips are necessary, to let the Slider slide over the nuts, if necessary, that hold the quick release fitting on the Pano Adapter. Notice the level in the camera hot shoe. I plan to glue a bullet level to the Pano Adapter later so that I won't have to remember to bring a level.
It is relatively easy to slide the Slider back and forth over the Pano Adapter until the nodal point is located but it does take a bit of time. This URL has a short summary of how to do it: 

http://www.photoshop-tutorials-plus.com/panoramas-3.html
I placed the camera on the tripod about 2 feet from a window, looking out at distant trees. I put a strip of masking tape vertically on the window just in front of the camera and then rotated the camera left and right and judged whether the edge of the tape moved relative to a particular point on the tree line, adjusting the Slider forward and backward until there was no movement as the camera was rotated from one side to the other.
The nodal point does not jump out at you and was difficult to find because you are looking at a distant point through a wide angle lens. I finally began to take pictures at both ends of the back and forth rotation and then use the magnifier function of the camera to blow up the area of interest. That worked nicely and I finally arrived at a position where the difference between the right and left pictures seemed as small as I was able to see. A magnified live viewfinder would be heavenly.
Finally, when I was satisfied with the nodal point, I marked the location of the Slider on the Pano Adapter and disassembled the rig. I then turned the Slider over, clamped it onto the upper side of the Pano Adapter in the marked position, and drilled a hole in the Pano Adapter to match the hole in the Slider that had been used to mount the camera when its lens was at its nodal point. This picture shows the final assembly, with the camera mounted on the Pano Adapter using the freshly drilled hole. 

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/Pano5.jpg.html
The net result is a Pano Adapter for MY camera and MY lens. The Slider has been put away safely for another day.
The R9 made it simple because its tripod socket is on the lens's centerline. When I try to find the nodal point of my 24mm-M lens mounted on my M8, I will have to offset the camera mounting hole on the Slider to accommodate that offset. I will end up with a Pano Adapter with two holes in it, one for each camera and lens combination, and a 1/4-20 thumbscrew to mount either camera.
I only used hand tools in this project: a pencil, a hand saw, a hand drill, a screwdriver, a square, an awl, a wrench, and a bit of sandpaper. No precision tools were harmed in this endeavor!
It's been raining and I'll be away for the rest of the week but I will try to make a few panos while I'm gone to share when I return. 

I'll be happy to answer any questions to which I know the answer!

All the best,

Bill
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