Anyone had problems using a mark 1 1ds with a PSA. I've seen over at 16-9.net that using a 5d is fine but does the battery grip on the 1ds get in the way.

I used a PSA with MK1 for years, no problem. Now it works great on a 1dsMK3.
Dennis

cheers i plan to use it mostly with the camera vertical to stitch three or more frames for a landscape, do you find that you need an L bracket like the RSS one.

You need an L bracket and yes the Zork adapter will interfere with the grip. To mount the adapter, you need to rotate it slightly before putting it on the camera.

Also, depending on your tripod head, the L bracket might not let the camera clear the edges of the head. It's been tricky. Get a nice long L bracket.

PS for stitching, the Pentax 35mmFA is fantastic.

The Zoerk PSA for both Mamiya or Pentax 645, will fit your 1ds with no problem. The issue is when you shift, it's always best to shift the camera, not the lens. Thus you need an L bracket, to mount to the foot of the Zoerk PSA. Use the RRS generic bracket it will work fine.

I shift for resolution, not as much true pano's

In my work, I shift with the camera in the Portrait mode, across the frame. This will give you 3 portrait images, which you then combine for a high res landscape image. You can get this to work on the 1ds, with the RRS L bracket.

If you want to shift with the camera in the landscape position, up and down to create a portrait orientation image, you will need another adapter to allow this type of shifting as you can't mount the Zoerk on your tripod.

For true pano's, where you are going to shift the camera body in the landscape position, across the subject, you will need the same 2nd adapter I referred to above.

Net, it's not as easy as it sounds on the 1ds, but it works and can create some amazing final images.

Paul C

Paul:

I’d like to ask your advice about stitching landscapes. Resolution is major consideration for me. I’m considering using the Zoerk PSA adapter with some of my Pentax 645 and 67 lenses (including the 645 35mm). I have no great investment in a DSLR system so which body to get is open (although I do have some good Pentax K mount and M42 lenses). The 1Ds is hard for me to justify on a cost basis and I don’t need many of its features. The 5D seems like a good choice, but the new Pentax K20D would offer superior resolution at half the cost. So the question: is it possible to stitch 6 frames from APS-C sensor as two horizontal rows of three exposures, one above the other using the Zoerk PSA.?

Regards,

Tom

Some people are stitching hundreds of frames. Take a look at http://reallyrightstuff.com/pano/index.html Using Photoshop CS3 you can do 6 frames with very little problems just by finding the nodal point of your lenses.
Dennis

Hello Dennis.

Let me answer from my workpoint. Stitching for me was a way to get 27mp images from a 1ds. (three frames 11 x 3 then take out for the overlap). You can try and find the nodal point, (good luck) and work it that way. I tried this and never was able to get it to work very well with wide angle lenses. Instead I started to work with standard shift lenses, which offer on average 10mm of shift. Jack Flesher wrote an excellent article on using this type of lens on www.outbackphoto.com a few years ago but it might still be on the site.

The problem with 10mm of shift IMO was that you didn't get enough new material. So I tried the Zoerk. Zoerk give you a full 20mm of shift to each side. You can most times use up to 18mm of it depending on the lens being shifted. I found the best lens to shift was the Pentax 35mm FA F3.5. Mark Welsh on his site also worked with most of the Hassy glass and wrote articles on which ones he found to be the best.

In relation to stitching multipes, say 9 shots. 3 across x 3. You will need to hand hold that type of work. Personally I never found this to work very well in my use. The software you use didn't convert the borders of the stitches very well. Any IMO it wasn't that easy to use. I am sure that is just me. You have so many issues to consider, clouds, motion, light, WB in landscape work. Many times I will have to wait to get 4 frames with all the same lighting when the sun goes behind a cloud or when the wind picks up.

I Still stitch manually, 3, 4 or 5 images in CS3. The Zoerk will give you 3 good frames to work with on any camera. The 5D will do IMO as good or better than a 1DS. Both I believe are 11mp and you have a much better higher end ISO on the 5D. The Zoerk should have no problems on the 5D either. I can't tell you how it will rotate etc on the 5D body as I have never used a 5D, but I believe you will still have a grip issue.

The adatper itself is well made and will give you many years of good service.

Paul Caldwell

Dennis:

Thanks for the link, RRS has an amazingly extensive offering for that application. I tried pans around the nodal point of a lens a year ago. I used a macro slider to position the lens so that the vertical axis of my tripod went through the nodal point of the lens. It worked, but I want to use a variety of focal lengths, so its somewhat of a hassle to make adjustments for each lens (besides a have a better selection of MF lenses than 35mm). That's why the Zoerk seems attractive: no need to find the nodal point or make any adjustments when changing lenses.

Paul:

If I understand what you wrote correctly, the Zoerk will only shift in one direction, i.e. horizontal or vertical but not both, is that the case?

Tom

The Zoerk will rotate around 360 degrees, just like a Canon shift lens. So you can shift in any direction. The problem comes in with the camera grip which can hit the foot the adapter has. But you can only shift it in one plane at a time, horizontal, vertical etc.

There are some other solutions: here is link

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_48/essay.html


Paul C

Hi Tom and Paul,
Paul was one of the people who introduced me to the Zork system and thanks to him helped with the mounting system. I have been using the Zork with my 1dsMk3 for a couple of months now. The results are so amazing that all I can say is if you can afford it, it's the way to go. The images produced are as good if not better than the 39megapixel cameras. I also have been using the RRS rotation device, though not cheap, to produce very fast 4 frame stitches by rotating the Zork around to 4 points and stitching. http://reallyrightstuff.com/CRD/02.html The mounting of the PSA was quite involved but now makes shifting in either direction very easy. I also had a 5D and found it worked very well with the PSA and I think it rotated around because the gripe is smaller.
Dennis

Dennis, Paul:

Thanks for the info; I think I’m ready to invest in a Zoerk. The RRS lens collar is really ingenious, but pricey. A point of clarification: I do not own a 5D, but am considering it or a Pentax K20D for use with the Zoerk. The Pentax will have an advantage in resolution (stitched, it would yield about 21MP in 35mm FF vs 12 MP for the 5D) and price; on the other hand, the 5D has well documented image quality.

Tom

I think the 5D as a full frame would yield around 25 to 27 mp. Each stitch is going to be 11mp, 33 total, then take out for overlap, you should see 25 to 27. That is what I got on the 1ds MKI

Paul