QuickPan® Panoramic Tripod Head User’s Guide - V1.4 - Feb 2007 QuickPan Panoramic Tripod Head Overview Welcome to the Kaidan QuickPan and Panoramic Photography Thank you for purchasing a Kaidan QuickPan Panoramic Tripod Head. This manual is designed to help you understand how to use your Quick- Pan to create quality panoramas. This document will be revised from time to time and updated versions can be down loaded from the QuickPan page on the Kaidan web site. QuickPan Overview The QuickPan family is built around a stur dy and precise Rota tor Base with interchangable in dex ing ClickDiscs. There are several camera brackets that slide and lock onto the Rotator Base. The QuickPan IV rotator design supersedes the QuickPan III rotator and uses a new fl at detent disc design. A panoramic tripod head makes it easy to capture a sequence of photos that are stitched to form a complete panoramic image. It holds the camera in the portrait ori en ta tion, positions the cam era so that it ro tates around the optical center or nodal point of the lens and provides a repeatable and adjustable click-stop indexing mechanism. QuickPan Rotator with Optional Twin-Axis Adapter and Standard Camera Bracket The QuickPan Family Introducing the QuickPan Components Rotator Base (QuickPan ) Standard Camera Brack et This heavy-duty design is lighter and more com- The Standard Camera Bracket is designed pact than previous models and the compe ti tion. to support most digi tal and fi lm cam er as in a The QuickPan bases employ interchangeable por trait ori en ta tion. Used pri ma ri ly to shoot indexing ClickDiscs or rings that support various sin gle-row cy lin dri cal pan oramas it is ad just ed click-stop positions. These can be easily swapped along the hori zon tal arm to locate the camera at any time and contrib ute to the light weight. in the side-to-side orien ta tion. There are three The indexing mechanism requires no lubrication slots in the brack et, that when used with vari ous or adjust ments and has no loose parts. The base po si tion ing aids, pro vide the fore-aft adjust ment con tains an integral cir cu lar bubble level and ac- of the camera's nodal point, over the ro ta tion al commodates either 1/4” or 3/8” tripod threads. cen ter of the tripod head. Earlier models used The latest QuickPan IV Ro ta tor Base (Aug 04) an aluminum bracket while recent models use a will also ac cept older Kaidan camera brackets high-strength composite material (inset). A Quick (i.e. KiWi+, QuickPan). Release Plate is optional. Twin-Axis Adapter Spherical Camera Bracket The Twin-Axis Adapter is designed to support most The Spherical Camera Bracket is designed to dig i tal and fi lm cam er as that are equipped with sup port most digi tal and fi lm cam er as and to fi sheye lens es, or will appeal to those us ers who de- per mit the an gu lar up/down el e va tion for the sire two in de pen dent axes of adjust ment. It can be cap ture of multirow spher i cal and QuickTime® used with either the Standard Camera Bracket or VR Cubic pan ora mas. This bracket is ideal for with the Compact Camera Bracket. The two axes those software ap pli ca tions that stitch mul ti ple of adjust ment positions the lens in such a manner rows of im ages, in clud ing up/down "cap" shots so as not to cap ture any more of the Rota tor Base such as REALVIZ Stitcher. The Spher i cal Camera than nec es sary. When a camera equipped with a Brack et can also be posi tioned at a lev el zero circular fi sheye lens is in stalled on the brack et, only degrees, thus fulfi lling the same func tions as the a small segment of the Ro ta tor Base will ap pear in Standard Camera Bracket. You can also use the the im age. This fea ture makes the Twin-Axis Adapter Spherical Camera Bracket for shooting single- ideal for those us ing iPIX software, Panoweaver and row cylinders as well. An optional Arca-Quick oth er software ap pli ca tions that use circular fi sheye Release Camera Plate is also available. images. Both camera brackets support optional Quick Release Camera Plates. QuickPan Rotator Base HowHow to install and removeremove the indexing discs and adjusting the indexing forceforce Installing Detent Discs 4) The new Detent Disc is in stalled by pushing it into the re cessed area in the top 1) To install or change the of the Rotator Hub as shown Detent Discs simply loosen at left. the silver thumbscrew on the side of the black Rotator Sil ver 5) Replace the Horizontal Hub by turning it in a counter Thumbscrew Brack et Assembly into the clock wise direction. Do not Rotator Hub. Push the as- remove the screw, just turn sembly down into the hub several times. You do not need to fully engage and collapse to remove the head from the the plunger, then tight en the tripod. thumbscrew. 2) Once the thumbscrew is Adjusting the Force loosened, pull the Horizontal of the Spring Plunger Brack et Assembly upward out of the Rotator Hub. You may The screw, shown at left, can need to wiggle it a bit as you be used to position the spring lift it out of the hub. plung er up and down. You can use a screwdriver (or a thin coin) to adjust the indexing or click-stop force. The spring plunger is set from the factory, but you may fi nd that you pre- 3) Once the Horizontal fer a harder click-stop action. Brack et Assembly is re moved, the Detent Disc can be Be sure to not overtighten changed by grabbing the the plung er so that the metal pro trud ing tab on the detent body of the plunger would ring and pulling it up out of Note: The QuickPan IV rotator uses a stainless steel come in contact with the the Rotator Housing. ball plunger that is different from the plastic nosed indexing ring. Also be sure plunger on the QuickPan III. Be sure to use only the that the plunger is not set stainless steel ball plungers (available from Kaidan) on deep enough as this will cause the QuickPan IV rotators. excessive play in the indexing ac tion. QuickPan Rotator Base Tripod threaded bushing adapter Mounting camera bracket The QuickPan III / IV Rotator Bases comes To mount your camera bracket with a tripod adapter bushing which ac- onto the rotator loosen the clamp commodates both 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch tri pod mounts. lever at the bottom of the camera bracket. To loosen the clamp lever grab the lever and turn coun- 1/4 inch Tripod terclockwise. The clamp lever is turned clockwise to tighten and If your tripod has a 1/4 inch threaded counterclockwise to loosen. The mount, leave the brass bushing in the center hole in the bottom of the rotator as lever part of the clamp lever is shown at right. spring-loaded and can be reposi- tioned by pulling outwards against spring pressure and moved clock- wise or counterclockwise. Next position the end of the horizontal bracket of the rotator and slide it into the slot at the bottom of the 3/8 inch Tripod camera bracket. Note: There are various images If your tripod has 3/8 inch threaded mount, throughout this manual showing remove the brass bushing by un screw ing it the mounting confi gurations of the in a coun ter clock wise di rec tion and screw- cmarea brackets on the rotator. ing it into the adjacent hole in a clock wise direction us ing a coin (or large screwdriver) as shown at right. Use the spare outer hole to store the brass bushing when you're using the 3/8 inch thread. That way, you won't lose the bushing! slot Standard Camera Bracket - Camera Mounting Mounting your camera on the Stan dard Camera Bracket To mount your camera, fi rst select The left-right adjustment to center the ap pro pri ate slot in the Ver ti cal your lens over the pivot point is Cam era Bracket that will best ac com plished by loosening the lo cate the tri pod mounting thread clamp lever and sliding the bracket. on your camera. You may need to Be sure to tighten the clamp lever re po si tion the Cap tive Cam era to lock the brack et in place. Note: Knob. To re move the knob simply To loosen the clamp lever grab slide it along the slot to the end the lever and turn clockwise to that has the threaded hole. Care- tighten and counterclockwise to ful ly un screw the knob out of the loosen. The lever part of the clamp threaded hole, be ing care ful not to lever is spring-loaded and can be crossthread the knob. Re place the repositioned by pulling outwards knob into the ap pro pri ate slot by against spring pressure and moved re vers ing the pro ce dure. clockwise or counterclockwise. Note: Al ways keep the offset StandardStandard CamerCameraa BracketBracket The fore-aft adjustment is made por tion of the Ver ti cal Bracket on the QuickPan Rotator by loosening the camera knob to wards the rear of the camera.