DIY Panoramic Tripod Head

UPDATE: I upgraded to D700 camera with Nikon 16-35mm thus the design of this panoramic needs update. I post pictures of the new version here
I've been in love with Panoramic ever seen I hold the camera. The camera, lens limit so much once the beautiful scenery is captured. Panoramic let viewer see the whole different level of photo. It let photographers take viewer to wherever they want in a more realistic way.

Then I found out something even better than 360 pano. It's the wee planet with 360 x 180 view. Sweet! Now you can see a completed place in one picture, one kinda weird looking picture. I did an OK job on these wee planet pics. But every now and then I got a miss match pics. Which lead me to search for a solution and that is NODAL NINJA . These guys make one hell of a tripod head for pano photography with a cost of an arm if you still have any left from buying camera gears. If not, they take either left or right foot too. (or $180-$530) for this

What the heck? So I decided to build my own :) why not ?

HOW:

Material list:

+ Aluminum 1/8" x 1.5" x 36" ($9)

+ Epoxy or any metal glue ($5) (Optional)

+ 3 x 1/4" screws and 1 nut

+ Washers (metal and rubber - I cut my old belt for rubber washer)

Tool list:

+ Precision ruler

+ Marker

+ Something to cut the aluminum with. I would have use my all time favs dremel. But I decided to go "pro" and use the real tools at work.

Cutting:

Follow these cuts in the drawing for L plate and I plate. The washers are optional. If you can find some that meet your needs then save time. Be very careful bending aluminum. A sharp tight corner will crack it faster than you can blink.

Marking and get ready to cut.

Here are the parts after cut / pre-assembly:

BOM:

+ Cut Aluminum parts

+ 3 Screws: 1 cut short, 1 long, 1 with plastic head

+ Washers: 3 small, 1 large, 3 rubber, 1 retaining washer

Assembly:

I have long screw go thru small washer, bottom L plate, small washer, then retaining washer.

Rotating joint has plastic screw go thru top L plate, plastic, large, plastic washer I plate then nut.

Camera mount has short screw, small washer, I plate then another plastic washer. This screw is a little special :). It's the long screw got cut down from 2 ends. Notice that once the swing arm go all the way down, the shot screw head can go in between 3 washers gap.

Completed assembly.

Completed assembly on tripod

With my old N65 try out.

Tada. Finished this thing a little late and haven't get time to try it out. It's a fun fast, easy project.

So I just got time to try this unit out. It's wobble a little due to the hight of L plate and the material itself. The top portion of L plate and I plate can get down from 9" to about 7" (if you are not planning on using anything other than Tokina 11-16mm). Other than that, it gives a good set of pics that stitches very well in Hugin. Here's example: