[Steve]

Final thoughts on how good the NN3 really is

All I can say is that when I first set out to do this review I intended to spend a couple of days with the NN3, lean how it worked enough to shoot a few panoramic photos to be included in this review as examples and allow me to write a informative and fair review. I didn’t expect to become so hooked on panoramic photography that I would carry all my camera equipment and tripod with me while I hiked to the summit of a mountain in The Alps. Instead of being glad that my time with the NN3 is over I feel like I am missing out on many new opportunities and that it is being taken away from me just as I was improving and beginning to get great results. So much so that I now have made a panoramic website to show my own work and I have decided to purchase my own NN3. On top of this I also have plans to change some of my other camera equipment to better enable my future panoramic photography experiences.

I will say that while the NN3 is an amazing piece of camera equipment that makes the area of panoramic photography accessible, easy and above all enjoyable, I don’t think panoramic photography is for everyone. The initial steps require you to go through a steep learning curve of technical terms and slightly unusual techniques (nadirs, zeniths, nodal points, entry pupils etc) plus choosing and learning the correct software packages to enable you to complete your works will also need to be covered and understood. Although there is a wealth of information on the Nodal Ninja website and other sites around the web, not everyone will be willing to take the time to search out and learn those techniques. For the ones that do, the rewards and enjoyment will far outweigh the disadvantages. Of course it would be very unfair of me to blame any of that on the NN3, no matter which VR head you may chose, you’ll need to know, or be prepared to learn those very same terms, principals and techniques. If you feel you are up for the challenge I would seriously advice you to look into the Nodal Ninja 3 as your panoramic head. From my experience with it over the last few weeks, it will not disappoint.

As a final alternative view you can also keep things much simpler. The NN3 is handy for taking simple 2, 3, 4, or 5+ shot multiple images as well. If you use a simple 5MP point and shoot camera and take a landscape shot composed of 5 images, this would turn your final image into a higher resolution 25MP photo. This allows for bigger print capabilities and most point and shoot cameras come with their own basic stitching software.