360 Precision Mark II (my version)

After being sick and tired of what this head doesn’t have I decided to make a few modifications to suite my style of shooting. Welcome to the Precision Absolute Head Mark II. If you have the head (this is an achievement already as you might not get one after you pay or one that works) you will know the head has no way of adjustment in between -45, 90 and 45 degrees.

So a specially crafted piece of plank works a treat. Then there is the technical placement of the canon filter cap to adjust / refine the composition. In my extensive trial and error I have found the B&W cases for my ND filters also work well.

If you are wishing to point the lens down ward …. wait for it… YES… your piece of plank can be turned vertically. Awesome hey.  Or if you are “without plank” a pro pack of Velvia 50 film also works a treat. For adjustment just remove a roll from inside the box so it collapses a little. Sorry no picture available. If you don’t shoot film, then maybe try your shoe. I have not tested this as yet.

Moving on… now after each rotation of the head to take the next pic the dents are so severe you have to wait for your tripod to stop wobbling or the whole tripod pushes into the sand a little each time, thus hurting your stitch. Solution…. get rid of the dent ring all together and save yourself valuable seconds in between shooting. It’s not like you know which ring is for what as the thing comes with no instructions anyway.

For my Mark III version I am looking at removing / grinding off the lug off that inserts into the back of the 1ds Mark II. This will allow me to then move the camera up or down and I can then put my plank into retirement. Maybe it can keep open a door or something.

Also my head is set up for the 24-70mm lens. If you want to use other lenses on the head you are meant to buy additional arms. In the shots you can see my 70-200mm f2.8 is on and it works perfectly when stitching. My image titled Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb two posts ago was taken with this set up.

These images can be clicked on to view the technical placement of the plank and lens cap in better detail.

For those interested the plank was bought from Bunnings to make my chicken coop. Was about $3.40 from memory. I’d say each plank could make about 6 Mark II adjustment pieces. Or you could even make lengths of different size. Wow ! I just thought of that then, I may have to check my wood scrap heap for more piece.

Oh the world of professional photography is a fun one.