Which rail for panoramics

Hi all,

I'm hoping to buy myself an RSS rail to help to some quality panoramics. RSS offer two possibilities, the MPR-CL (6" slide) or the MPR-CL II (7.44" slide). The site states:

Note: The MPR-CL is only 6 inches long. Unfortunately, this is not long enough to properly position the camera when shooting panos with some zoom lenses. The MPR-CL is long enough if the front nodal point is less than 110mm from the film plane. If shooting panos with a zoom lens, please roughly estimate the nodal point on your lens first before choosing.

Well, that's fair enough, however it raises two questions:

1) Is there a database of of nodal points somewhere so that I can check which one I need?
2) Will the longer rail cause problems with wide lenses. If I put my 10-22mm on the camera, will I see the 7.44" rail? Have any of you tried this (a long shot, I know).

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim,

My rail is 18cm, (7"), long. I use this for the 70-20 IS. I have to teat it on the wide angle later as I was up till 6am (after my OS X hard drive was updated with the latest Apple software update and then vanished)! I have had only 2 hours and 20 minutes sleep. So I'm about to go back to bed.

It's a Mannfrotto Art. 3419. It sits on a RRS plate and on top is the RRS plate that hold the camera at 90 degrees to the length of the Manfrotto rail.

The Manfrotto plate has both quick slide release and also fine micrometer screw to position of the camera along the length of the Manfrotto rail.

I use a RRS L bracket to mount the camera to this!

Today, the software is so good that the nodal point doesn't have to be perfect unless this is for an engineering or architectural company or for close objects.

Let me know what wide angle lens you are planning to use. In any case, with a wide angle lens one would loosen the RRS plate below the Manfrotto rail and move the rail forward so that the optical nodal center of the lens lies over the rotational axis of the tripod head. So it should work then easily. If I know what WA lens you are using and I have it, I can check.

I hope this is helpful.

Asher

Thanks for the offer.

After speaking to RSS I decided that the best bet would be to get the MPR 92. This allows the camera to slide along the bar and is therefore a more flexible solution. It also has applications in macro photopgraphy since I don't have a dedicated focussing rail.

Tim