Making a Panorama Head with a Difference.

[Frank Fremerey]

300 years ago an English priest invented the steam engine. The world did change big time from there.

The steam engine enabled humanity to pump the water from the coal pits, tapping into the carbon stored by animals and plants millions of years ago.

No Smartphones and internet today without the English man of god diversifying into engineering three centuries ago!

Obviosly you and your mate continue the glorios tradition on English Engineering!!!!

[Seapy]

Obviosly you and your mate continue the glorios tradition on English Engineering!!!!

In a nutshell!

My last big project:

Marlin kitcar with Rover V8 engine, Ford Cortina running gear.



Made all the bare bodywork and more besides myself on the English wheel I made from scrap.



I have decided to concentrate on smaller projects from now on, mainly photography and the kids.  I don't have the space for big stuff now.

This another little project I did, for the kids... Built on a invalid car chassis.  I made the entire body from exactly one 8' x 4'  0.8mm aluminium sheet I bought by mistake!

[Bent Hjarbo]

Impressive 

[Matthew Currie]

The little winch on the Land Rover is a grand touch.

[richardHaw]

that's so cute! I always wanted to build a Kubelwagen for myself a long time ago it's just that I don't have the time and resources to do it 

[Frank Fremerey]

you got four kids?

[Seapy]

you got four kids?

  LOL,  no just three, the little mischievous one sat next to the girl, Christopher and Michael who's sat behind pushing!  The other two are neighbours kids.  My daughter is 23 and not interested in Land Rovers! 

Here the the boys are together at a car show with the Land Rover a bit more finished.



This is my daughter Louise, while she was staying with me during the summer on a walk down the pier.

[Seapy]

The little winch on the Land Rover is a grand touch.

There's a big towing hitch on the back too.  They use the winch to pull it around and onto their grandads truck to take it to shows.

that's so cute! I always wanted to build a Kubelwagen for myself a long time ago it's just that I don't have the time and resources to do it 

It was very interesting to build, the outer corners of the front wings and the bonnet were the most difficult to make.  All solid rivets off eBay.  Not expensive, just time consuming and fiddly.

It has all the running gear but as of yet it doesn't drive under it's own power.  Maybe this year, before the showing season?  Needs glass in the windscreen too.  It gives them free entry into the shows so they get to meet people and see other things for themselves, without dad hovering over them.

[Seapy]

Back to my Panorama Head...

My new 200mm Arca Swiss nodal rails have arrived from eBay.  This has helped me judge the scale of what I am making.  I have decided to scale it back to 150mm radius to the outside of the curved rail.  My original intention was to make it 200mm to the centre of the curved rail.  This will make it lighter and stiffer.

Another reason is that it will be much easier (and safer) to work on in the lathe.

Here are three diagrams of what I am making.  I have roughly plotted the visible frame of the lens I am intending to use mainly with this head, although I also intend to use other lenses in the future. Probably the  300mm f2.8.







I have ordered a 100mm nodal rail because I believe that will do the job with the 16mm lens. 

[Thomas G]

I admit that besides the impressive panorama head I‘m quite interested in the Morgan Threewheeler pics. Go on, love the techie stuff.

[Seapy]

OMG!  OK 

First off my father during WW2 ~ 1942? in his Morgan with Zella his Dalmation at his diggs, Daisy Nook farm near Manchester. Taken with box brownie.





This is probably the most competitive Morgan three wheeler still running, here driven by Bill Tuer at Croft Circuit, his wife, Maggie is curled up out of sight, almost!  D1x, 80-200 f2.8



Same car, different day, different weather too... Bills son-in-law, Hamish at the wheel in the wet at Cadwell Park.



One of my favourites, Hamish and Sid my friend with the lathe, who is driving the white three wheel Berkley behind Hamish, not for long as Sid passed on the next straight just before the finish at Three Sisters, Wigan.

The Morgan was running on methanol, which produces a lot of power, also gets sprayed out of the carbs on the overrun right into the face of any following driver.  Not nice, need good goggles.



A little more sedate, a couple of water cooled Morgans, think they have Morris 8 engines?  Still fairly quick but not in the same league as the twins.



Speaking of which I spotted this at an auto jumble.  Makes our hobby look cheap.



Finally, a couple of three wheel racers, sidecars.  First at Cadwell Park, Titch  a Triumph outfit ridden by Steve Wheatley and Graham Keymer. D200, 80-200 f2.8



Last a photo taken by my son, Michael at Three Sisters, Wigan. D1, 80-200 f2.8



Hope you enjoyed looking as much as I enjoyed being there and taking them.

[Akira]

Robert, I'd like to make sure what "object" you are trying to make.

So, you are aiming at extracting the arc shape thingie outlined in blue from this huge disc?!

[Jakov Minić]

Dear Robert, I am in awe reading this thread.
Thank you so much!

[Seapy]

Robert, I'd like to make sure what "object" you are trying to make.

So, you are aiming at extracting the arc shape thingie outlined in blue from this huge disc?!

Yes, originally I had tried to make it as large as I could... But sense and reason are prevailing, it will mounted on end as an arc to attach a nodal plate to, it will be mounted on a rotating head, which I have yet to make, at the appropriate distance so all the axes align to provide a parallax free, rotating mount which will allow me to use repeatable settings so I can use templates for 360-180º panoramas.  Other lenses will be able to fit but it's primarily for the 16mm fisheye.

Most of the design is in my head because I can't use my CAD software anymore, it's way too old and flaky to use.  I have tried to find affordable CAD software, 2D but it's either overly simplistic or way too complex and expensive.  An up to date version of Mac Draft would be ideal but I can't find it.  I need snap to point, dimensions and scales, I spent days searching but no luck.

I will try to draw something in Powerpoint if I can find it!

Initially I will turn a ring 1½" wide with a dovetail matching the Arca Swiss design, the dovetail will be at both sides so I can clamp a rail at either side of the curved rail Then I will cut the ring into two larger sectors about the size of the blue outline and the remainder will be waste.  A nodal rail can be clamped to the sector of the ring, the arm of the nodal rain will always be pointed to align with the axis of zero parallax.  All one has to do is set the camera on the arm at the right length and the rest just happens.  Once I have arrived at a good workable setting I may create my own nodal arm with a fixed position for the camera.

Originally I had intended using a piece of aluminium strip and curving it but that's harder than cutting it from plate.

My idea comes from the vision that with the massive film tripod head I showed in picture four of post one, if the lens nodal point were central at the notional centre of the tilt motion it would make for zero parallax movement of the camera tilt it would also be aligned with the pan motion. This is simply a development of that principle to allow a minimum 60 tilt with a very wide angle lens, 170º or thereabouts.  If the mechanism does intrude into the image it won't matter because it will be offset from the vertical axis and each exposure will contain the image data to fill the gap for the zenith, the nadir will need a fill in shot anyway because of the tripod, so no worries there.

[Seapy]

Dear Robert, I am in awe reading this thread.
Thank you so much!

My pleasure Jakov, helps me to focus my mind and adds to the fun!