Samyang 7.5mm MFT | NEX-5 | Nomad Panohead | by Jaime Brotons
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Download photos (22.4mb) | Hagley Park Botanic Gardens | Samyang 7.5mm MFT | NEX-C3 | Nomad Panohead, 4@+5°, 1-nadir | by Thomas | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Download photos (23.3mb) | Hagley Park Peace Bell | Samyang 7.5mm MFT | NEX-C3 | Nomad Panohead, 4@+5°, 1-nadir | by Thomas | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Download photos (23.7mb) | Packhorse Hut to Mt Herbert | Samyang 7.5mm MFT | NEX-C3 | Nomad Panohead, 4@+5° | by Thomas Huang | ||||
Disney Store | Disney Lake | Disney Labyrinth | Samyang 7.5mm MFT | NEX-5 | by hand, 4@-10°, 1-zenith | by Jaime Brotons
Samples from Samyang | Samyang 7.5mm MFT | E-PL1 | variable tilt panohead, 6@0°, 2@+45°, 1-nadir | by Radoslaw Sobik
There are possible $8-12 volume discounts if you order more than 1 panohead at the same time, if I upload a combined model to the factory. E-mail me if you would like this and I will let you know if it's possible.
Fasteners are sold and shipped separately. You MUST purchase fasteners to operate the Nomad Panohead. Fasteners may vary from photo, depending on stock. Camera, lens mount adapter, lens, tripod, monopod, thread adapter, tape, knife, and bags in photos and videos are not included and need to be purchased on your own.
A Sony NEX gives a circular fisheye image in portrait orientation and a 185-190° circular field of view (FOV) after modification to the lens. A complete sphere is captured in 4 shots and one hand nadir with +5° or +2.5°. The Samyang lens is a bit soft, and is usually sharp 150° from center, gradually softer towards the edge. +5° gives a sharper zenith, and +2.5° gives a sharper nadir. For a pole, -9° Pole would be best, but the zenith will be very soft. A MFT to NEX E-mount adapter is required to mount the lens to a Sony NEX, which is not included and is available on ebay.
A MFT camera has 179-181° FOV corner to corner in full frame and requires more shots but needs no modification to the lens. Rotate camera diagonally to 37° to shoot 6-8 around. The divisions must be measured accurately to prevent large gaps at the nadir or zenith. Because of the narrower FOV, poor divisions may result in an unpatchable nadir or zenith. Monopod aids should be used, such as a level and a compass with a rotating bezel. Use +2.5° or +0°. A tilt of +2.5° and 6 or 8 shots around will cover the zenith, but the nadir has a 18° or 7° hole and there is a chance that the nadir is unpatchable if poorly spaced. A tilt of 0° has less chance of error and a hand zenith shot is required. For a pole, -9° Pole would be best, but the zenith hole is extremely big. For sky this is fine, but if you want to capture a detailed zenith then you many need to use -4° Pole.
| Theoretical Coverage with Fixed Tilt Panohead | ||||||
| Tilt | +5° | +2.5° | +0° | -4° Pole | -9° Pole | |
| Camera | NEX (shaved lens) | NEX (shaved lens) | NEX (shaved lens) | NEX (shaved lens) | NEX (shaved lens) | |
| Field of View | Circular 185-190° | Circular 185-190° | Circular 185-190° | Circular 185-190° | Circular 185-190° | |
| Orientation | Portrait | Portrait | Portrait | Portrait | Portrait | |
| Rotations | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| Zenith | Covered, 10° soft | Covered, 12.5° soft | Covered, 15° soft | Need, 19° soft | Need, 4° hole | |
| Nadir | Need, 20° soft | Need, 17.5° soft | Need, 15° soft | Need, 11° soft | Need, 6° soft | |
| Total Shots | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | |
| Map |  |
|||||
| Notes | Sharper zenith, Softer nadir |
Sharper nadir, Softer zenith |
Sharper nadir, Softer zenith |
For pole, soft nadir |
For pole, sharper nadir, softer zenith |
|
| Tilt | +5° | +2.5° | +0° | -4° Pole | -9° Pole | |
| Camera | MFT | MFT | MFT | MFT | ||
| Field of View | Full Diag. 180° | Full Diag. 180° | Full Diag. 180° | Full Diag. 180° | ||
| Orientation | Diagonal 37° | Diagonal 37° | Diagonal 37° | Diagonal 37° | ||
| Rotations | 6, 8 | 6 | 6, 8 | 6,8 | ||
| Zenith | Covered, 12.5° soft | Need, 2° hole | Need, 20°, 11° hole | Need, 29°, 22° hole | ||
| Nadir | Need, 18°, 7° hole | Need, 15° soft | Need, 11° soft | Need, 6° soft | ||
| Total Shots | 7, 9 | 8 | 8, 10 | 8, 10 | ||
| Map |  |
 |
||||
| Notes | Zenith covered, nadir 15-19° hole |
Less chance of nadir error |
For pole, soft nadir |
For pole, sharper nadir, big zenith hole |
||
The material is PA2200 (Nylon), which is strong. I was unable to break it with my hands. Material Data Sheet
The Nomad Panohead is designed for Sony NEX and MFT (Olympus and Panasonic) cameras for both grip up and down positions. To check clearances, download and scale the image on screen to 1:1, or print PDF full scale on A4 and align camera to the mounting position.
Compatible with all current models: Sony NEX-3, c3, 5, 5n. Olympus E-p1, p2, p3, pl1, pl2, pl3, pm1. Panasonic GF1, GF2, GF3.
NOT Compatible: Panasonic G and GH series are not compatible because of the popup flash compartment.
NEX-7 will fit in only grip up position with +5° because the grip is thick. You can use the NEX-7 in grip down using the +2.5°, +0°, -4° Pole, or -9° Pole.
It may be possible to use a Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye lens, which is cheaper than Samyang (not yet verified).
Shipping body only: The panohead body is purchased and shipped through Shapeways located in the Netherlands with UPS worldwide delivery, customs fees and taxes may apply, and PO boxes are not accepted. Once your order is submitted to Shapeways your panohead is placed in the production queue and is usually shipped to you in 8-10 days. Check Shapeway's FAQ for more information.
Shipping fasteners only: You MUST purchase fasteners separately to operate the Nomad Panohead, which are shipped by me through New Zealand Post Air Mail, which has an estimated time of 6-10 days to most locations. You may also purchase the fasteners on your own. From January, I will be hiking for several months. When you order fasteners it may take me an additional 5-8 days to ship them when I move between tracks. Discounted prototypes will be unavailable.
In the video I demonstrate how to make the coupling nut fit snugly inside the rotator. The thickness of the coupling nut and the slot in the rotator both vary by up to 0.1mm, which are the inherent tolerances of the fabrication of the metal and plastic materials. If you find your coupling nut too loose, then add a layer of tape to make it a bit thicker. If it's too tight, you can scrape the inside of the rotator with a knife; the nylon material is actually very hard to cut through, but the rough outer surface can be smoothed down to create a larger slot.
If you would like rotations other than 15°, you can flip the rotator upside down so that the teeth are disengaged. This will allow you to have smooth rotations. Nylon has very little friction so in this orientation the panohead will not lock completely.
If you have a wide tripod or monopod base you will see it in the footprint. To reduce the footprint, you can use a spigot adapter (not included) to raise the camera.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 3/18"-16 to 1/4"-20 coupling nut | 1/4"-20 thumb screw | #8-32 hex nut | #8-32 thumb screw |
| McMaster | McMaster | McMaster | McMaster |
| Grainger | Grainger | Grainger | |
| GISSN | GISSN | GISSN | |
| Drill Spot | Drill Spot | Drill Spot | |
| SDP-SI A 9T41-B8399122 |
McMaster |
If you would like to purchase the fasteners yourself I've provided a list of a few American sources. You will need one of each of the 4 parts. The first 2 are for the rotator which need to be in imperial units. The last 2 are for the bracket tightener and can be in metric units but must stay within the same dimensions.
McMaster is the cheapest and fastest, but does not ship internationally. I have listed a black 1/4"-20 thumb screw which is not available from Grainger, GISSN, or Drill Spot but you may substitute it for stainless steel or black oxide, although stainless steel is reflective and black oxide may be the flaky type.
The Nomad Panohead is made with Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), which is a method of producing a physical duplicate of a 3D model by using a laser to fuse together plastic, sand, or metal particles in layered slices until the full physical model is formed. Several material options are available from Shapeways including stainless steel, silver, and glass. The material which the Nomad Panohead is designed for is Black, Strong and Flexible which is a Polyamide 12 nylon (PA2200). It's first produced in white, and then dyed in color options of black, red, gray, or indigo. Black has a slightly blue hue. The built up layers may be visible as linear paterns in the product, with most smoothed with a light sand blasting.
To use the Samyang 7.5mm MFT fisheye lens with a Sony NEX camera you will need to shave the lens hood, remove shims, and attach a MFT to Sony E-mount adapter.
Remove the black metallic label ring to reveal three screws which attach the hood to the lens. The ring is backed with adhesive tape, pry gently. Remove the three screws and detach the hood. You need to completely remove the short shades of the lens hood, and shave about 3mm off the top and 1.5mm off the sides of the large shades. Draw a line along the intended cuts, clamp ($3) the hood, and use a hack saw ($4) to cut a little bit less than intended. Use a nail file ($1) to remove the rest. You should check intermittently with your camera to see if you have shaved enough of the hood so that you no longer see it in the image, making sure to clean off the dust every time before reattaching.
Unscrew and detach the mounting plate on the back of the lens. Inside you will find multiple adjustment shims which vary for each lens. Mine has one brass shim 0.3mm thick and one metallic shim 0.06mm thick. You may find more in your lens. Remove as many as required to achieve focus to infinity. I found that removing both shims worked best for me. Best focus was between f11 and f8, with f11 sharper at the edges and f8 sharper in the center. I found f22-f11 too soft in the center and f8-3.5 too soft at the edges. Best focus with shims removed was just a bit below the infinity mark.
You need an adapter to attach the MFT lens to the Sony NEX. The adapters from ebay seem to be machined slightly wider than necessary and the lens sits loosely inside the adapter. To make a tighter fit insert the end of a screw driver into the slot inside the adapter mounting teeth to widen it. Do it slowly and in increments, checking constantly if you are getting just enough tightness. It is possible to make it too tight and then you'll have to press them back down. You can also drill holes into the adapter and screw it directly onto the lens mount, but you would have to unscrew the adapter if you want to remove the lens from the panohead. I eventually did this because the pin on the adapter wore out and the lens frequently unintentionally detached itself from the camera.
 |
| 1/4"-20 to 3/8"-16 Thread Adapter |
| find on ebay |
 |
| MFT to Sony E-mount Adapter |
| find on ebay |
 |
| Sony E-mount Rear Lens Cap |
| find on ebay |
 |
| Samyang 7.5mm MFT Fisheye Lens |
| Samyang |
 |
| Rokinon 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (unverified) |
| Rokinon |
 |
| Compare Sony NEX Cameras |
| dpreview.com |
 |
| Velbon Ultra Stick L50 Monopod |
| find on ebay |
| Velbon |
 |
| Manfrotto Autopole Spirit Level 032SPL |
 |
| Spigot Adapter |
| find on ebay |
 |
| Bophoto Brackets |
| Bophoto |
The following prototypes are in working and accurate condition, and are for sale at a reduced price. If removing more than 2 shims, there may not be clearance for the screws on E-mount adapter pin if screws left attached. NEX-7 does not fit in grip down position. Footprint is 12° radius.All issues are solved in the current version of the Nomad Panohead. Each one has a slightly different ergonomic design. INCLUDES fasteners. From January, I will be hiking for several months and discounted prototypes will be unavailable.
Products are copyright of Thomas Huang, all rights reserved. 2/2012 |
