Linary Loc: UK

Thank you Susan. The two bases I showed are of the type - not the brand I would buy. I have actually decided on type A but Manfrotto, not whatever brand my picture shows. The leveling plate you show, I already own but don't use. The hassle of changing the tripod legs on each of 4 tripods is monumental. I believe the bases allow 10 degrees of shift which I should be able to cope with.

Adjusting the height of all 4 tripods to match will be accomplished with the use of a laser level attached directly to the "master tripod" and moved around the circle. I probably won't bother using ball heads at all, just screw the cameras directly to the leveling bases.

What I probably should have mentioned earlier is that the cameras will be some 40 feet apart.

Linary Loc: UK

Thanks for the tip about the bubbles, I have three of the multilevel cubes and they all show slightly different variations.

Linary Loc: UK

I have now chosen type A - Manfroto version. If I was going to buy type B, it would not be a Neewer brand. I have not been impressed with my previous Neewer purchases.

Linary Loc: UK

The cubes I find perfectly adequate for most things, setting up a single camera on a ball head, but no help at all when trying to align multi-cameras.

Linary Loc: UK

I started thinking about this project months ago but could not make it work. I visited a studio which specializes in colored 3D printing and gained an insight on creating the final image, converting to 3D data and final plastic output.

Most of the equipment I have bought from Ebay but even so has cost more than I wanted to pay. At the end of the day I will have 4 D70's, 4 small ball heads, 4 Tamron 28-80mm lenses, 4 tripods etc. to put back onto Ebay and recover some of the costs.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I posted in this section because the kit I was after falls under Panoramic Tools, but it the thread disappears or is moved, that is fine by me.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

There is no reason to move it. Now, if you want it moved to get more exposure we can do that.

Linary Loc: UK

No, I just though it might not be appropriate for the section. The answers received have steered me (in a good way) to going the next step of what promises to be either a great flop or some sort of success.

Who knows, I may even shoot a few panos and post here.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Great.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Your project sounds very interesting. Hope you can make it work. It sounds like the need for precision is a major priority! Takes a lot of patience. Even though you are not specifically doing a panorama, some of the problems you are facing are fairly relevant. I hope you will come back and post a photo of the finished 3-D project!
Susan

jcboy3

I have both types. Type A setup is the same as if you were leveling with the tripod legs, so if you have difficulty leveling with tripod legs I would not recommend that style. Type B is essentially a low profile ball head; leveling is the same process. Difficult with large cameras and lenses.

I don't know what 300mm lens you are using; hopefully it has a tripod collar for a balanced mount. If not, use a nodal rail slide and Arca clamp (if your ball head isn't Arca).

The best type for leveling is a video tripod with leveling bowl. The adjustment is controlled by a column that extends below the tripod base; it is by far the easiest and fastest way to level.

What I don't understand is what you are doing with a ball head, as that just adds another variable in the leveling. Might as well just use the ball head unless you are rotating the head, and then I would use a panoramic head or pan-tilt head instead of a ball head.

If it was me, I would level the tripods, raise the columns to match height, and mount the cameras on pano rotators using nodal rail slides to balance if needed. I would use a large bubble level rather than the little levels in the tripod.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

Things just disappear when you post sometimes?

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

For the centerline of the lens and tripod head height, use a 3/8 inch clear tube of any length filled with water, the presence of small bubbles should not matter. Water will find its own level and this will give the precise measurements you need without very much expense.