Nodally Mounting PANAFLEX and PANASTAR Cameras

Many aspects of the PANAFLEX CAMERA SYSTEM make it especially suitable for film productions with a major SFX content. Not least of these is where the lens is mounted relative to the pan and tilt movement.

For normal usage PANAFLEX and PANASTAR cameras are mounted centrally on a PANAHEAD and as low as is practical. However, for SFX work, especially when shooting miniatures and for Front Projection work, it is of crucial importance that the camera be mounted nodally on the head, that is, with the front entrance pupil of the lens (the point inside the lens where the bundle of light rays entering the lens appear to meet) is set exactly above the center of rotation of the pan axis and in the exact center of the tilt axis (the center of the quadrant).

To achieve this it is necessary to mount the camera about two inches higher than normal, about 4" to one side and to be able to slide the camera rearward on the head until the entrance pupil of the lens (which is in a different place on every lens) is directly above the center of the pan axis, regardless of what this does to the balance and the “feel” of the head.

Setting the Camera in a Nodal Position

The easy way to check if a camera and lens are mounted nodally is to place a post in front of the camera and note through the viewfinder its position relative to the studio wall or to the horizon. If the camera is correctly mounted it will be possible to pan and tilt the camera without changing the relative positions of the post and the mark on the studio wall.

1. Camera mounted nodally above the pan axis and about the rotational axis, 2. Camera mounted nodally above the pan axis and about the tilt axis, 3. PANANODE micro–adjustment unit, 4. Setting a camera nodally by the use of two markers.