Shooting panoramas with a real tripod...

When I can't use the virtual tripod method (for example when light is low), I mount my Coolpix on a tripod with a L-shaped bracket. This bracket enables to rotate around the nodal point and to use the Coolpix vertically : the hinge will not rotate under the weight of the fisheye.

I built this bracket with a 3 mm thick aluminium plate, 90° bent. A tripod nut is epoxy-glued under the base while two 6.5 mm holes enable to screw either a 950 (off center hole) or a 990 or 900 (centered hole)

Dimensions are : A = 12 mm, B = 60 mm, C = 30 mm (B is a compromise : lower values means a stiffer bracket while higher values gives a smaller view of the tripod in the panorama).

Note that the Coolpix is used in reversed, "self portrait" mode yielding a much smaller - and stiffer - bracket. The top LCD screen is also more visible.

Another bracket: Bill Bates sent me photos and description of the bracket he built after this one. See them here

... and another bracket: Stefan Wode improved this basic design with a rotating axis and a detent mechanism to get 60° rotation steps, using an hexagonal nut and a leaf spring. See his photos and description here.

Stefan is more gifted in mechanics than I am : he built is own car... and even his plane ! Please visit his site at www.planet-interkom.de/stefan.wode/default.html.

A bracket for Coolpix 880 + FC-E8: built by Volker Brehme, see it here.