DIY Photography has a great article on building an inexpensive spherical panoramic head. Would love this to make HDRi photos for 3D images!

Check it out over at DIY photography. Looks very easy to make. Might have to build one.

Here it is in all it’s Glory, a bit different than the one they show, but perfectly adequate and can’t wait to start using it. It seems to roll pretty smoothly.

Check out the article and instructions by Martin Taylor at DIY Photography.

Now I tried following his instructions directly but at Home Depot I could not find a few of the pats, mainly the 4x connectors and the 4 x 3″ risers threaded on both ends (though now I am thinking maybe they are in the sprinklers sections instead of the PVC section).

Anyway, I did it with a couple of pieces of 3/4″ PVC pipe and a hack saw. My cuts weren’t straight, but when I glued them in they were perfectly straight, so it worked fine. It is a little bigger than his example (I had to get connectors for the caps since my 3/4″ didn’t have threads on the ends). And I had to get T parts without threads on the bottom, as I didn’t have the threaded extensions. Luckily having a bigger wheel base might make it a bit more stable.

Also I would change the screws to 1/4″ and 2 inches long instead of 1.5″ long. You could make them smaller with washers, and you could put more washers to make the whole thing more stable. These screws worked, but didn’t leave much space, and I had to shave the whole in the top piece to allow the screw to stick out at all.

And I had gotten my scooter wheels years back to build a dolly (actually got 8 of them) at the dollar store for $1 for 2. Wish I had bought more now! Overall including a hack saw, the parts, the wheels, the pvc, screws and the glue cost me around $32, but that was with only $2 for wheels, and it could be more like $20. Looks like you can get them at Amazon for $4.99 with $5.34 shipping, though hopefully that would cut down if you ordered more than one set, though not sure. And this obviosly still needs a head, but you can get this one at Amazon for $12.99, or this one with a quick release plate for only 22.95.

Am already thinking of building a low mode one, that would only go straight (this one can turn either set of wheels) byt taking out the elbow pieces and just going to the middle T, and that way the camera would be lower.