Old Nodal Point Adapter

Yuval used to shoot with a home made alluminium multi-row nodal point adapter on the Manfrotto's 300N. There are no pictures of that construction. Since moving to fish-eye lenses for full panoramas, he uses Agnos MrotatorC.

The Agnos MrotatorC features an oblique nodal point adapter to maximize the use of the sensor surface. It makes possible to shoot a full spherical panorama in a single row also with dSLRs whose smaller sensor cuts away at the top and bottom of the full circle of the Sigma 8mm.

Although it was originally designed for Nikon. As of June 25, 2005, the manufacturer's website claims compatibility with Nikon D1, D2, D70, D100, Canon EOS 300D, 10D, 20D and Fuji S1, S2, S3.

The MrotatorC comes in two variations, both of them suffer from a major drawback: weight. It is very heavy and thick iron.

MrotatorCP

The slightly more expensive MrotatorCP features a Manfrotto rapid connect system 2 plate (RC2).

The trade off is flexibility for precision as the additional element is more prone to misalignements between assembling and disassembling.

MrotatorCS

The camera is connected directly to the nodal point adaptor with a tripod mount. A little transversal bar is fixed on the adapter to keep alignement between assembling and disassembling.

A great idea but the model delivered to Yuval is a poor execution. It does not work with the Canon 350D + Sigma 8mm. The transversal bar can not be fixed in the front and there is not enough space in the back. A longer plate would solve the problem.

Improvements

Lengthen the slit for the tripod mount. As it is now, it does not work for the Canon 350D.

Lengthen the slit for the lateral shift of the nodal point adapter. To use it for the Canon 350D it had to be turned upside down. In the process, the bubble level is lost. Agnos promised to deliver a replacement adapter with a bubble level on both sides but never did.

Lighten the adapter, use alluminium. Even after cutting away a big chunck of unnecessary iron at a local metal workshop, the adapter is still too heavy.

Weaknesses

The MrotatorC does not allow for Zenith and Nadir shots.

The nodal point adapter is the weak link in the combination and Yuval intends to build a replacement, in alluminium.

Next: New Nodal Point Adapter