Small and nice- the new Nodal Ninja Mini
Review by George Palov | Panomagic.eu
The Nodal Ninja Mini panoramic head for mobile phones!!! Yes, at last! I have been wating for this particular item for a long time- as soon as I heard about the intention of making a mini panohead. The wait is over and I must say it was TOTALLY worth it! (You can also check the review of the heavy duty panoramic head Nodal Ninja M2 Giga )
Let's start- I got my order of Nodal Ninja Mini Pano head Starter Package together with the Mini landscape adapter, as I already had the Phone holder pro from Nodal Ninja. The box with the panoramic head is super nice and easy to handle. It accomodates the pieces of the panohead quite well. The package comes with some spare parts as always, which is very useful! The full box weighs a bit more than 500 grams.
The panohead is just like all other panoheads from Nodal Ninja that I have- it is a 3-pieces kit: lower arm with the rotator and a stopper, vertical arm and upper arm with a stopper and an adapter for the phone holder.
The rotator has several degrees for turning: 36/2, 60, 45, 36, 45/2 degrees. It has 2 bolts, one is for the choice of the turning angle, the other is for fixing/stopping the rotation.
Lower arm has a stopper so you mount the vertical arm with ease after you have done the calibration (if you intend to shoot only with one focal length). The upper arm has such a stopper as well.
The first time I tried to mount the Phone holder I tought it was not fitting, but it did - just super tight. Pro tip- you can loosen the knob on the upper arm and the Phone holder will slide much easier (you don't have to worry about moving the adapter alongside the upper arm as there is the stopper).
The vertical arm can be extended so that your phone is not hitting the lower arm. BUT I think it could use a few more centimeters, as at the moment with 6.7" phone and the "pro" adapter on the phone holder extended- it still hits the lower arm and you have to put away that stability part of the holder. This is no general problem, as the side arms are very strong and there is zero flex and possibility for the phone to fall off.
The upper arm rotates around the axis with the vertical arm and it has click-stop holders. For me personally it could have been greater if the rotation was free with no click-stops, as if you shoot with Panosphere mode of your phone, the little dots of the software do not match the clickstops of the upper arm, which makes it harder to operate. I would also add a small line/dot on the top of the marks of the upper rotator, so I can see from there the turning angle as well.
This mini panoramic head is for all those panoramic enthusiasts who don't want to lug around heavy tripods, cameras and lenses and who want better quality than the one-shot 360 cameras. Modern phones do offer RAW file format and a lot of megapixels, which give more than enough /not quite pro yet but getting there with AI, etc/ quality of the panoramic photos. A great option for hiking as well. With the ultrawide camera of my phone I have to take 2 rows with 6 photos (12 photos total) for 18 000 x 9 000 resolution- downscaled panorama in the gallery bellow.
If you are in Europe and decide to buy any Nodal Ninja panoramic equipment from Panosociety.com you can use this discount coupon for 5 % off on first order. Enjoy!