Review of the Panosaurus

[shiosaki]

Intro

A brief intro to Panosaurus 2.0 – it is a panoramic head with three arms and a round base.
The arms are constructed out of aluminum and the round base from expanded PVC, for shock absorption.
Other parts included are the screws to joint the arms and a small driver to mount your camera.

Assembly

Assembly takes about 1 minute after you get used to it. I have made a video on how to assemble it.
Note: I have not included the part on finding the nodal point. I believe the video can be found online.

[video=youtube;aYifBURADCI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYifBURADCI&list=HL1370158838[/video]​

 

[shiosaki]

Usage

The panosaurus is an easy to use device.

First, you attach the tripod release plate on the round base arm, and attach the whole setup to your tripod ballhead. I am personally using a Sirui C-10 ballhead with a Pentax K-01. I find that the ballhead is able to hold up the weight quite well. People with larger cameras would need stronger ballheads to secure.

A leveling spirit is provided on one of the arms. Then, you level the whole setup with the leveling spirit by adjusting the ballhead.

Then, you mount your camera with the screw provided, and ta-da all ready to go.

The round base plate has markings for accurate amounts of overlapping per frame.

Numbers are also provided for multi row panorama. You loosen the screw to shift the upper arm till you see the number you want.

 

[shiosaki]

Personal Review

Pros:
- Value for money panoramic head
- Easy usage after a few rounds of getting used
- Able to support up to 10 pounds (as per website)
- Stable

Cons
- Require two free hands to assemble
- Screws and driver may get lost (loose pieces)
- May fumble if setting up in a rush

I personally feel that the design of this pano head is well thought out. I have never used any other pano heads before, so I cannot make any comparison in that terms. However, the Panosaurus gives me a peace of mind knowing that images will definitely stitch up well in softwares. I have done panoramas with my normal ballhead before and had wasted these photos in many occasions where they failed to stitch, or stitched up badly.

Ending Notes

Thanks to the Photosphere team for lending me the set to test. I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to attend one of their testing sessions to get a feel of the Panosaurus.

I hope I have covered enough and will be happy to entertain any questions

Some examples from using the Panosaurus

 

[catchlights]

thanks for the review.

may I ask, is the enough room to attach a Acra Swiss clamp on the camera arm? so that photographers can use camera with Acra Swiss plate on this Pano Head?

 

[shiosaki]

thanks for the review.

may I ask, is the enough room to attach a Acra Swiss clamp on the camera arm? so that photographers can use camera with Acra Swiss plate on this Pano Head?

hey, you can check out here : http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/phot...erical-panoramic-tripod-head.html#post8477682

 

[catchlights]

hey, you can check out here : http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/phot...erical-panoramic-tripod-head.html#post8477682

thanks.