Manfrotto 410 head question

[jonreid]

Hi all,
My Manfrotto 410 head arrived the other day and I replaced the worn 3-way head I had. I follwed the instructions and mounted the base-plate under my Deardorff with the lens arrow pointing toward the front of the camera. In my opinion this then means that, due to the head's design, the camera will turn in a circular motion instead of spin when panned as the centre of the baseplate is not over the tripod's central column.

Maybe it doesn't matter but it seems odd. One possible fix would be to mount the camera on the base plate with the lens arrow pointing to either side (90 degrees to how it should be) which would centre the camera over the tripods vertical axis though would swap the other two controls.

Any thoughts?

Jon

[Joanna Carter]

No matter which way you attach the camera to the plate, the whole plate is offset outside of the centre of the tripod head. Why do you need to centre the camera anyway? Are you looking to stitch panoramics? :rolleyes:

[Noah A]

Go for it.

I use my 410 for a Technikardan and I have the lens arrow on the qr plate pointing to the right of the camera. I like the way this orients the controls and it balances my particular camera better than if I followed the instructive arrow.

Great head by the way.

[dave_whatever]

I also have the lens arrow pointing sideways for large format use, since it generally keeps the weight of the camera centered over the tripod.

However for smaller formats you need to point the lens along the arrow or you wont be able to flip the camera 90degrees for vertical shots.

[jonreid]

No matter which way you attach the camera to the plate, the whole plate is offset outside of the centre of the tripod head. Why do you need to centre the camera anyway? Are you looking to stitch panoramics? :rolleyes:

Yes, the plate is offset, but it's offset in one direction, which means if you change through 90deg you are no longer offset. I'm not going to stitch panoramas, so it doesn't really matter, I just thought it was a little odd...

I bought a spare plate today, so I'll leave one on the Deardorff, probably pointing to the right and use the other 'correctly' for smaller formats.

Cheers all.

Jon

[Joanna Carter]

Yes, the plate is offset, but it's offset in one direction, which means if you change through 90deg you are no longer offset. I'm not going to stitch panoramas, so it doesn't really matter, I just thought it was a little odd...
I would still be interested to know why you think centring is important; I can't, as yet see a worthwhile reason.

[jonreid]

Joanna

Maybe it just feels different than what I am used to, but I noticed it right away. Rather than, when you pan a head, the back of the camera spins around a central axis, you have the camera turning around a radius (the distance between the centre axis of the tripod and the point on the plate where the camera attaches) of some 3-4cm. This would seem to mean that the camera is going to turn left or right but also move forward or backward a bit, as the point where the camera attaches is describing a circle rather than spinning on the spot. Just felt weird.