360 Degree Panohead V.02B – Wood Version For Workshop And Exhibition On ICC Tokyo

Prototype of The DIY 360 Degree Panohead V.02B Photography Tools
(2016)
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The wood version of Panohead V.02B is a development version of The Panohead V.02 Design that was made limited only for Workshop – GoCircle: How To Make DIY 360-Degree Picture at ICC Gallery, Tokyo.
It’s a part of The Collaboration Project ‘‘Media Conscious in Asia”: Lifepatch ‘Rumah dan Halaman’, which is an exhibition as a collaboration between Lifepatch, Japan Foundation Asia Center, and NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) that was held on ICC Gallery, Tokyo Opera City Tower, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

The Development of Panohead V.02B design was based on the test result of The Panohead V.02 Design that was used to make 360-degree photos during the environmental monitoring project called The Jogja River Project. After being tested with Nikon D90 + 18-105mm lens and Canon EOS 60D + 18-55mm lens, The test results brought several points on the Panohead V.02 or could be called the Panohead V.02A that need to be repaired, which is focusing on the base material exploration and the vertical axis rotation mechanism.

Basically, The Panohead V.02B main structure is still based on the Panohead V.02A design that could be used with various types of cameras, lenses, and tripods just like the design of a commercial panoramic picture tripod head. It’s separated became 3 parts, which are part 1 plate as the nodal point horizontal adjustment plate, part 2 plate as the structural column for supporting the camera vertical rotation, and part 3 plate as the camera mounting and nodal point adjustment. The development that is applied to the Panohead V.02B design is focusing on the part 1 model as the horizontal adjustment plate and the joint mechanism between part 2 and part 3 as the nodal point of camera vertical rotation.

The part 1 design is changed to become a static plate as a railing track for the plate 2 horizontal movement to adjust the camera nodal point position. Besides that, The design of plate 2 also slightly changed on its connector with the part 1 plate, which is equipped with a connector block that made the horizontal movement doesn’t have to disturb the connection between the part 1 plate and the tripod mounting head.

Another enhancement that was made on the Panohead V.02B design is the joint mechanism between part 2 and part 3 as the nodal point of camera vertical rotation. it is supported by a gear mechanism to make the vertical rotation position easier to lock and adjusted.

The concept of Panohead V.02B design is developed based on wood material as a workshop kit for the Workshop – GoCircle: How To Make DIY 360-Degree Picture event in ICC Gallery Tokyo. Within the development itself, I made a small collaboration with “St. Joseph – The Carpenter” to build The DIY 360-Degree Panohead Workshop Kit.

The test of Panohead V.02B with Nikon D90 + 18-105mm lens conducted on the ICC Gallery B5, which is the exhibition space for Collaboration Project ‘‘Media Conscious in Asia”: Lifepatch ‘Rumah dan Halaman’ at ICC Gallery, Tokyo.

The Exhibition of Collaboration Project ‘‘Media Conscious in Asia”: Lifepatch ‘Rumah dan Halaman’
The Exhibition of Collaboration Project ‘‘Media Conscious in Asia”: Lifepatch ‘Rumah dan Halaman’ at NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) Gallery, Tokyo Opera City Tower, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

 

360 Degree Panohead V.02A

Prototype of The DIY 360 Degree Panohead V.02A Photography Tools developed to support Lifepatch Jogja River Project (JRP)
(2014)
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Following the test of Panohead V.01 on environmental monitoring project called The Jogja River Project that was held on JRP – 2014, The Panohead V.02A was made with significant changes from the Panohead V.01 Design.

It developed based on better knowledge of nodal points and the “No-Parallax” position that could be found easily as a free source of knowledge at PanoTools.org Wiki, Beside of that, the Panohead V.02A already designed could be used for the various type or brands of cameras, lenses, and tripod just like the design of the commercial panoramic head.

 

Overall, The Panohead V.02A was made with an Aluminium plate that has 3 mm in thickness and wide around 3 cm. It separated became 3 parts, part 1 is used as a nodal point horizontal adjustment plate, part 2 is used as a structural plate, and part 3 is used as camera mounting and nodal point adjustment based on camera and lens type.

Learn from the experiences of Panohead V.01 development, the adjustment mechanism, and how it works perfectly after being tested with Nikon D90 + 18-105mm lens and Canon EOS 60D + 18-55mm lens during the Jogja River Project.

Some panorama pictures that were made with the Panohead V.02A

Schaffhausen - Switzerland
Schaffhausen – Switzerland
Suroloyo Peak - Kulon Progo
Suroloyo Peak – Kulon Progo
Wonosadi Sacred Forest - Gunungkidul
Wonosadi Sacred Forest – Gunungkidul

After the tool test with Nikon D90 + 18-105mm lens and Canon EOS 60D + 18-55mm lens, its needs to be repaired again with different materials or with different metal plate thickness. The note from the first test are:

  • the plate thickness was great, but when mounted on the tripod, the construction of the tool was a little bit shaking after being moved, particularly on the vertical structure plate. It’s might be happened because of the weight of the camera’s body and lens.
  • the circular point needs to repair or change with a different mechanism, which has grips to make it locked easier.

360 Degree Panohead V.01

Prototype of The DIY 360 Degree Panohead V.01 Photography Tools developed to support Lifepatch Jogja River Project (JRP)
(2013)
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The experiment of 360-degree Panorama Tripod Head or usually also called Panohead started in 2013 as a documentation method on a big collaboration environmental monitoring project called The Jogja River Project – 2013.

The idea of documentation methods is to make an interactive picture of the river’s environmental condition in a 360-degree view to make the river condition easier to understand. Instead of buying the 360-degree Panohead tool that is very expensive and hard to find in a common camera store, Joan Prahara Bumi and I as the member of the visual documentation team try to develop our own Panohead as an extension tool to be mounted on the tripod head.

The very first autodidact attempt is just a super simple tool, which was designed with an aluminium plate 3 cm wide and 3 mm thick. This tool is used to adjust the camera in the “No-Parallax” position when attaching to the camera tripod, even though we doing it with super less knowledge about the “No-Parallax” position itself. This tool is made based on as far as we know that the nodal point of the “No-Parallax” position is at the front lens centre, which was made ONLY for a 50mm lens with Nikon D80 and Nikon D90. Sincerely, the length between the Nodal point on the tripod circular axle and the camera’s body connector is about 10 cm.

 

The prototype, as a result, had little few changes to the aluminium width which became only 2 cm. Besides that, we made small changes by adding rubber to make the connection between the aluminium plate and the camera’s body more stiff and fit, which was also useful as the camera’s body protection from scratch that could happen because of metal friction.

Furthermore, although this prototype was very simple, it’s already been used to make a panorama picture as part of the Jogja River Project that was held during 2013 – 2014.

All of the pictures that were made with the first version of the 360-degree Panohead can be seen as part of the information on water monitoring interactive map of The Jogja River Project.

Map Interactive

Sincerely, this experiment begins with the lack of knowledge and false understanding about the mechanical movement to maintain the nodal point and decreased the treats of parallax condition. It all brought a lot of notes to develop a better tool for the next version.

This version is working perfectly to maintain the nodal point only on horizontal movement, which is making a series of photos for panorama pictures in one line or a single row. However, it failed to maintain the nodal point when the process of making a bigger panorama picture, which had to make upper and under rows from the first row of the photo series. It happens because this V.01 prototype doesn’t have its own vertical rotation mechanism and depends on tripod vertical rotation, which was made each of the photo series in a single row has its own nodal point.