My 2019 buying guide: panoramic heads for virtual tours

To help you choose among all spherical panoramic heads, I created several situations. Each time, I give you my recommendations to make your choice easier... These different cases are:

1 - Stitch a 360° panorama with light equipment

2 - Stitch a 360° panorama with a heavy body

3 - Stitch a gigapixel virtual tour

4 - Create a virtual tour with a pole

1 - Create a 360° panorama with light equipment

If your camera/lens is not too heavy, the only problem is choosing: almost all panoramic heads on the market are spherical now and of good value for money.

Among all spherical models on the market, I have my favorites listed below but really, almost all heads can work in this case.

Several pieces of advice about cameras...

• For all point-and-shoot cameras, bridge cameras, etc.
• For light bodies as Sony A6300, Olympus OM, etc... mounted with a fisheye. It will be more complicated, or even impossible, with certain wide-angle zoom lenses.
• Of course, wind is annoying but think about intermediate exposure times like the vicious 1/15 sec.

2 - Create a 360° panorama with heavy equipment

I find camera/lens is heavy and bulky, you only have three heads among which choose according to me, especially if you also shoot in the dark or in a dim light. You need a very robust spherical head as well as long enough stages to set the entrance pupil of your lenses and above all, zoom lenses above the rotary axis.
It is one thing to be able to set your equipment at home on your spherical head, but it's a different thing to use it in the field when it gets a little windy for instance!

A few pieces of advice about cameras...

• Heavy means to me: Canon 1DX..., Nikon D5, Leica S medium size... or also 5D Mark IV but with a grip and a wide-angle zoom lens.
• With that said, to make a virtual tour, you'll have guessed reading my other pages that I rather recommend fisheye lenses, above all full-frame because they enable to get the right ratio: number of shots/size of the panorama/zoom-in the virtual tour.

3 - Stitch a gigapixel virtual tour

Even if it's tempting to use a motorized head to shoot a gigapixel photo, it is not really adapted to shoot the zenith sometimes, and never adapted to shoot the nadir.
I would thus rather choose a robust head like the M1.

A few pieces of advice about cameras...

• If you want to make a gigapixel with a medium size camera or with a heavy pair camera/ teleobjective lens, you'd better choose heads with two arms. It will be a lot more stable.
• Among manual heads, the amazing Ultimate M-1 is also to be considered seriously even if its bulkiness won't be an asset in comparison with a Nodal Ninja 4, especially when you'll want to shoot the nadir. Weigh pros and cons...

4 - Create a virtual tour using a pole

It's not unusual anymore to see virtual tours or panoramas taken from very original points of view, meaning from a height. When I'm talking about height, I'm talking really high! If you think about balloons or drones, I suggest you also consider another option a lot cheaper and less binding: a telescopic pole. For less than $700, you can buy a giant monopod, in carbon, very convenient to use and that can reach 6 meters high!

A few pieces of advice about cameras...

• For safety reasons since the equipment is held at a height of 6 meters, favor not too heavy equipment! A Canon 5D Mark IV + zoom 8-15 mm Fisheye or Nikon D850 + Nikkor 8-15 mm Fisheye seem very honorable to me!
• If you really want to use a middle-size camera, I recommend you not to set your pole at its maximum but once again: careful!

Choose your panoramic heads and buy from this site...

	Bushman Panoramic Gobi €285,05 *

My opinion on Bushman Panoramic Gobi

This new Gobi panoramic head, by Bushman Panoramic possesses at once three obvious assets: it's very well manufactured - materials and finishing -, it's very light since it only weighs 320 grs and it's super compact since it fits in your hand! It won't take a lot of space in your photobag or even in your pocket. It's not the more stable on the market but it's not necessarily a drawback for everyone...

Warning ! The length of the rails - 8.5 cm at the upper and lower - will not allow you to place all your lenses and especially your zooms at the nodal point. With fisheye this will be perfect.

Buy the BP Gobi + Yetti head from... Bushman Panoramic Gobi Price with VAT Retailer €285.00 *   * 5% discount with your coupon code: BPAF5

	Bushman Panoramic Kalahari V2 €477,95 *

My opinion on Bushman Panoramic Kalahari V2 (Automne 2016)

The Kalahari V2 is the largest panoramic head of the Bushman Panoramic Society. This revision V2 - now tested - is to buy eyes closed as improvements and optimizations are numerous. Attention zooms 24-70 mm f2,8 can not be positioned at the nodal point because the rails are a bit too short.

Technical specifications of Kalahari V2 Bushman Panoramic Length rails: 11 cm each Numbers of stops: Yetti = 5 clicks stop, Weight: 580 grs, Kalahari V2 Prix TTC Boutique €477.95 *     * 5% discount with your coupon code: BPAF5

	New Nodal Ninja 3 and 6 From €223.26 *

My opinion on New Nodal Ninja 3 Mk3 and Nodal Ninja 6

Fairly light, the New Nodal Ninja 3 Mk3 and Nodal Ninja 6 are spherical panoramic heads. The question of stability when placing the camera cantilever therefore arises. The New Nodal Ninja 3 Mk3 (December 2017) is especially for compact cameras or light-weight models such as Canon Eos 760D, 70D or Nikon D7200 or D500. The model Nodal Ninja 6 is preferred if you with a Canon 5D Mark IV or Nikon D850. They are also particularly compact and well designed. So they really take up very little space in a camera bag. There are several rotators: Rotator Mini V2, RD-10 or RD-16.

Technical specifications of Nodal Ninja 3 Mk3 et 6 Length rails: 12 or 17 cm each Detent intervals: according to rotator, Weight : 615 et 965 grs, New Nodal Ninja 3 Mk3 Price with VAT Boutique from €223.26 * Nodal Ninja 6     from €384.60 *

	Nodal Ninja Ultimate M1-L €529.27 *

My opinion on Nodal Ninja Ultimate M1-L

These Nodal Ninja Ultimate panoramic heads are competing heads Manfrotto 303 SPH and Cambo CLH-500. I think they are spherical panoramic heads for heavy material references. Universal, very stable and very well manufactured and designed. Really very few defects or disadvantages.

Technical specifications of Nodal Ninja Ultimate M1-L Length rails: 20 cm each Numbers of stops: according to rotator, Weight : 1,650 grs, Nodal Ninja M1-L Price with VAT Retailer €529.27 *

	Gigapan Epic Pro V $949.99

My opinion on Gigapan Epic Pro motorized head

Gigapan motorized heads are among the best value for money on the market. They're quite easy to use, very pleasant and above all very powerful. Remarkable tools. The Epic Pro model comes with two vertical arms for more stability. To set up directly on a robust tripod. As for now, their main limit is the absence of radio or bluetooth remote control. But I notice that the firmware is regularly updated and available in different languages.

Buy it from... Gigapan Epic Pro V Price in € Retailer $949.95

	Nodal Ninja Ultimate R20 €322.33 *

My opinion on Nodal Ninja R20 Google GTP V2

The Google Street program or the telescopic poles need a very compact panoramic head. The R20 Nodal Ninja model has been designed for this. You buy at the same time as the lens ring that matches your fisheye lens and you get a very compact system.

Warning ! When buying a Nodal Ninja R20 panoramic head, be sure to choose the lens ring that matches your fisheye lens. There are lens ring for many fisheye lenses Canon, Nikkor or Sigma - Liste sur le site panosociety.com

Technical specifications of Nodal Ninja R20 Length Plates: 2 cm Numbers of notches: according to rotator, Weight : 400 grs, Nodal Ninja R20 Price with VAT Retailer €322.33 *

In the next page, we'll calculate the number of photos we need to shoot to realize our panorama - Preparatives

Pratical Guide N°1 : The Nodal Point $12.90 USD   My practical guides in e-books - N° 1! "Find the nodal point or no parallax point accurately in less than an hour"... whether you are photographing a simple panorama or a 360° photo - PDF of 100 pages - More information...          panosociety.com from this site !