Nodal Point (continued)
Step 2: Fore-Aft Adjustment
This step is most easily
accomplished out of doors. Find
a vertical edge or line, such as a
doorway or edge of a building.
Position your camera and tripod
about 2-1/2 feet away, or as close
as possible with the edge still in
focus when you look through
the viewfi nder. If you’re using
a multirow head such as the
QuickPan III Spherical, set the
swing arm to a level horizontal
position (zero degrees).
Looking through the camera’s
viewfi nder, fi nd another vertical
edge or line that is far away, such
as another building or telephone
pole. Align the two objects and
rotate the pan head so they are in
the left hand side of the viewfi nder.
Rotate the pan head so the two
objects move over to the right
hand side of the viewfi nder. Unless
you’ve managed to unwittingly
locate the right position, you
should notice the two objects will
If, as shown above, the two objects move with re spect to one
and another in the viewinder, slide the camera fore or aft in
order to elim i nate this move ment. Here, the tele phone pole
has moved be hind the brick wall.
move with respect to each other
as you rotate the pan from left to
right. Slide the camera to the front
or rear as required to eliminate
this relative movement.
Step 3: Record Your Results
After you’ve discovered the two
location dimensions, be sure to
record the settings. The QuickPan
III has convenient indicator
scales for this purpose. These
numbers represent the nodal
point for this given camera and
lens combination. If you change
cameras or lenses, this procedure
may have to be repeated
Step 5: How About Rangefi nder
Cameras?
A rangefi nder camera is a
camera where you look through
a separate viewfi nder and not
through the actual lens. The
process is basically the same.
Locate the Side-to-Side adjustment
as discussed in Step 1. When it
Looking through the viewfi nder align a close object (brick wall)
with a faraway ob ject (tele phone pole). As you ro tate the camera
from side-to-side there should be no relative move ment be tween
the two objects as shown to the right.