A nodal camera is when a camera is rotating around the lens axis (the center of the lens) and shooting the photographs with out moving the camera off center. This is also known as panning. In other words, to maintain a nodal camera you can rotate the camera, but never move it from side to side or up and down. On most cameras, the center of rotation (where the camera attaches to the tripod) and the lens axis are offset from one another. This means that even when you shoot on a normal tripod, there may be some off-axis movement from the nodal point. With most panoramas this is not an issue, except if you are trying to create a panorama of a very small space (such as the inside of a car), or if there are objects very close to the camera. A special tripod head makes it much easier to make sure your camera is nodal.
http://www.kaidan.com/nodalpoint.html
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/teachnet/QTVR/NodalPoint.htm |
