pocketPANO Extension Rod

Carbon fiber extension tube to minimize the area shaded by the tripod or tripod head.

With almost any kind of panorama, be it a whole spherical panorama or an extremely wide-angle shot with a strong downward pan, you have to deal with the problem of the "ground image" (called "nadir" in professional circles). When looking "down", the tripod is actually always disturbing!

To see little or nothing of the tripod in the finished panorama, there are several possibilities, e.g:

• Making an extra bottom picture without the tripod (freehand or with the tripod moved to the side). This works almost only with "flat" ground and requires more work.
• Use of a monopod. Good for outdoor use at sufficient height and in good light; less suitable for high-resolution indoor shots.
• Subsequent insertion of a nadir patch (e.g. a round logo of the photographer or the customer to cover the tripod in the panorama). Little effort and usually does not disturb very much.

All methods have one thing in common: The smaller the area shaded by the tripod or tripod head (the so-called footprint), the faster and easier it is to achieve a better result!

Basically, the setup below the nodal point adapter (and the nodal point adapter itself!) should have the smallest possible diameter and be as far away from the lens (or the entrance pupil) as possible. A few simple suggestions can be easily implemented:

• Use a tripod head (e.g. ball head) that has a small diameter and no widely protruding control elements. Tilt heads with long operating levers are not suitable.
• When using a tripod, the legs can be placed closer together.
• Use of a nodal point adapter with narrow base, such as our models COMPACT and VARIO.

Many photographers also prefer to use a quick-release system (e.g. Arca-Swiss), which is rather disadvantageous in terms of a small footprint due to the controls for clamping. Therefore the use of a tripod center column is of little use, because it increases the distance of the lens to the tripod legs, but not to the tripod head and clamping system.

With the pocketPANO Extension Rod, we now offer an ultra-light and highly stable extension made of high-quality carbon fiber that can be universally mounted between the tripod or tripod head and the nodal point adapter.

This automatically reduces the area shaded by the tripod or tripod head!

The following comparison clearly shows this: