Rollei Pano

[Annie]

I wish to do some test panoramas in 120 format with reduced parallax so I am hoping that
someone can provide me with the offset distance of the Rolleiflex Panorama accessory. I am
planing on mounting my Rollei TLR with a 2.8 Planar to a Bogen hexplate then to a standard
pan head with a slotted screw mount..... I have about 6cm of play in this setup which I believe
should suffice... all I need is the offset distance to the nodal which can be measured from the
Panorama accessory.

Thanks!

 

[Seele]

Annie,

I have a 1951-model Rolleiflex with 75mm lens, with its original panoramic head, the offset is about 39mm. However, the perfect centre of rotation should be at the rear nodal point of the lens which varies with focussing distance; I suppose this offset for this particular camera is designed for when the distance is set to infinity.

Of course it would be better to measure it yourself, a tutorial is here

 

[Annie]

Seele... Thanks for the link! I think using your measurement plus a smidge should be close enough for my purposes.... cheers.

 

[Helen B]

'However, the perfect centre of rotation should be at the rear nodal point of the lens...'

Just a small point, but when rotating a fixed-lens camera like the Rolleiflex, the rotation should be about the front nodal point, not the rear. Cameras that have a fixed body and rotating lens should have the rotation about the rear nodal point.

Those Rollei heads are fairly cheap on eBay. I paid 12 bucks for mine.

Best,
Helen

 

[Helen B]

I wrote: 'Just a small point, but when rotating a fixed-lens camera like the Rolleiflex, the rotation should be about the front nodal point...'[/]

That's wrong. Just plain wrong. I hadn't thought it through properly. It should be rotated about the entrance pupil.

Best,
Helen

 

[Lee L]

I did the following to find the correct nodal point for several lenses.

I put the camera on a tripod with the offset mechanism (in my case a Kaidan VL adapter). Then I opened the camera and shutter (B and a cable release) and projected a laser beam through the lens center and onto a crosshair on paper taped to a wall behind the camera. I then adjusted the offset so that the laser stayed on the crosshairs as the camera was rotated in azimuth. Cheap, easy, accurate, and you know you're on the right node.

Hope this helps.
Lee