Today, 360Precision’s full spherical panorama tripod heads are quickly gaining a reputation as the best heads on the market, offering a perfect batch stitching solution and repeatable results. Featuring high precision engineering, the full spherical panoramic tripod head offers perfectly repeatable results, zero degree vertical flex and is designed to take 5kg loads. Simple to use, the head has a built-in bubble level, high quality INA bearings, an indestructible brass detent ring, 1/4" and 3/8" tripod mount, and comes with a three-year warranty.

One of the most oft-cited benefits of the 360Precision heads concern nodal points: Setting the nodal point for most spherical heads requires patience and some level of knowledge, and even then, vibrations, transportation and shocks often require resetting. As 360Precision panoheads are designed for a specific camera and lens, it has no customizable setting, apart from the spirit level.

Benefits and testimonials aside, the biggest hurdle in making this purchase decision is getting over the high price point. Starting at £520 (prices range from £520 to £585), it’s a little rich for amateurs and enthusiasts. But many point out that it’s more cost-effective than it first appears, especially when compared to other heads in the same category.

So, with all the hype, discussion, praise, and the ever-ready band of cynics and critics 360Precision has been generating, VRMag was eager to ask Mathew and Stuart a few questions about the duo’s background, how the company got started, their business philosophy and what’s coming down the pipeline. The interview is followed by comments from two early 360Precision head users – Andras Frenyo and Eric Rougier.

So, with all the hype, discussion, praise, and the ever-ready band of cynics and critics 360Precision has been generating, VRMag was eager to ask Mathew and Stuart a few questions about the duo’s background, how the company got started, their business philosophy and what’s coming down the pipeline.

Can you tell us about your photography background and a bit of the history behind your company?

Matthew and I have been involved in panoramic photography for 20 years between us. Matthew photographs professionally, whereas I have been shooting as a hobbyist whilst studying as an Engineer here in Cambridge. It is at the Dept of Engineering workshops that I have always made my own panoramic heads, and the unfortunate technicians have put up with my relentless pestering over the years.

My meeting Matthew was a chance encounter just after I had bought my first DSLR (a Nikon D70). I had seen a panorama that Matt had posted to the QTVR forum demonstrating the nikkor 10.5mm lens and I asked him for advice on the nodal position, as I was aiming to make a head whilst my lens was on order. We got chatting, and Matt said that he’d love me to make him an accurate custom head. I got designing, and soon we had our first working version. On the field we realised that although these heads were far from pretty at the time, they were a joy to use. We decided it would be a waste not to commercialise the heads, and 360Precision grew from there.

It took a long time to design, test, reiterate, and get machinists and capital in place to get going, about 12 months in all from conception, to our first commercial head reaching the outstretched hands of Andras Frenyo.

I don’t think that we have been met with any serious troubles that couldn’t be accountable to being a new business, we’ve made mistakes and learned from them, but that is to be expected. The biggest challenge has been (and certainly still is) getting people to believe our claims re: use and accuracy of the head. Sometimes people find it hard to switch from one way of thinking to another – we are slowly but surely getting our converts.

Can you share your business philosophy?

Our business philosophy is literally to produce the best panoramic head that we can. We think that the best heads will be backed up by the best customer support, and we do everything to be available whenever we possibly can. We have made many good friends through this venture, so we must be doing something right!

Matt, Stuart, what are each of your roles within the organization?

I have been the designer of the head, from fabrication of the initial prototypes, through to design of the final product. I oversee the technical aspects of the heads, and deal with the suppliers.

Matthew's role is dealing with the day to day running of the business. This involves answering emails relating to both the head and panoramic photography in general. A large part of time his also spent on tech support via iChat and MSN, some days Matthew can spend four to five hours just chatting with people. Then there's the creation of calibrated templates for customers that Matthew oversees. We offer a service that involves getting the customer to shoot a calibration scene, which we then use to create a highly accurate template. The template can then be used to batch process panoramas.

What made you decide, against all current VR industry trends, to build the precision head locked into one specific camera set up, so if I update my camera or lens I'll require a new head; and how big a hurdle is this problem for you in selling your heads as many photographers don't want to lock themselves into one specific setup?

Firstly, you won’t need a new head if you change camera, just purchase a new elbow part and camera arm from us for the new system and you are good to go. The head is very modular; you can change parts easily so that the rig works best for you.

The reason why we have built custom head is simple. When we shoot VR, we do the same thing each time (I shoot eight around, one up with the 10.5mm on a D70, Matt does the same with his s2Pro/10.5mm). When I am doing a shoot, I don’t suddenly think, “I want six shots here with a sig 8mm, put the 10.5mm away”, I have a simple workflow that I use for all shots. When using the head professionally speed/ease of use and repetition is of paramount importance, it is faster to be consistent. With our head we make shooting easier (cannot make mistakes by mounting cam in wrong place) and we make post production easier. It is possible to ‘batch stitch’ comfortably with our head as its accuracy means the same PTgui/Realviz templates can be reused for each panorama. I can now shoot and stitch a panorama in an embarrassingly short time in comparison with my old systems.

Some photographers don’t like the lack of adjustability, but then the 360Precision head will not be suitable for everyone. Photographers producing a lot of hi-res panoramas professionally love the head; this is whom the head was designed for.

We know you're working restlessly, pushed by your customers, to release solutions for various cameras and lenses, would you tell us what solutions are available now and what is still to come in the next months?

We have recently begun support for the new canon 350D and more high end pro cameras (1Ds’s, D2X’s). As each head is custom made, we are literally following demand (we can always take on new custom requests from customers). Over the next months/years our releases will track the newest offerings of camera manufacturers, and continue to support those we already produce.

Can you give us an idea of your sales projections when planning the product launch, and what effectively occurred during the last months of sales? Can you mention some of your customers, both companies and individuals?

The panoramic market is quite a small entity; but we still expect to sell more than 60 / month long term. Our sales were slow to begin with (due to many not believing our claims, disillusioned by some players in the market over the years), but have been showing marked acceleration as more people get to see/use the head around the world. Currently sales are going faster than we had imagined and all is looking very promising. Most inspiring is the thanks we get from photographers whom we respect (Andras Frenyo and Eric Rougier to name but two); this means a lot.

How much of a dampening effect do you feel your high price point has on volume sales?

Our street price is something we sometimes have to justify to people. Once they have seen/used a head the price is almost universally understood, this is the king of the panoramic head world.

As we effectively sell 10 or so different custom CNC machined products, unit cost of our system is going to be far greater than the cheaper heads on the market. A very good panoramic head can be made from a plank of 2x4 wood (as my first DIY heads attest to); our head cannot. That said, we do not really consider ourselves in competition with the lower price panoramic head manufactures, but the higher priced scanning camera solutions.

According to some of the posts on your forum, it seems that many would prefer a quick release clamp rather than screwing their camera on and off at each shoot and dealing with a different pitch value; can you explain why you chose not to do this?

The 360Precision head has been shipped with a system to cradle the camera (in all but the first prototypes to customers, whom were given FoC upgrades) ensuring that the pitch is fixed each and every time the camera is re-fitted. It takes literally two seconds to mount and dismount the camera reliably via our large custom thumbscrew. Some photographers have asked for quick release plates, but we have not found them accurate enough, or repeatable enough to be of any benefit on our head.

Who are your industry partners?

At the moment we are in negotiations with various software vendors and large-scale virtual tour content providers. We're planning on developing more industry-based partners as time permits.

How do you promote your products?

We primarily have promoted our product using panoramic mailing lists and forums; our website now generates a lot of interest as more people discover our existence. We plan to begin actively marketing our head shortly via some very interesting leads - we think we deserve to be better known, and are setting up to kick and shout until we are!

Do you handle all worldwide sales from your Oxford, UK headquarters? And are you seeking resellers in other countries?

Currently we deal face to face (read: email to email) with each and every customer. We think until now it has given the best information possible to customers to help them select, and use their panoramic heads. As we have now built up a user base, and understand our customers technical support requirements, we are now able look at properly distributing our products seriously. We are currently in talks various distributors.

What future developments are you working on?

That would be telling! We have been looking at a few ancillary products, both hardware and software. Certainly the 360Precision head will stay as it is for the foreseeable future. We are very happy with the design, and feel we have taken it as far as it can realistically go.

Two of the first 360Precision panohead users – Eric Rougier and Andras Frenyo - offer their thoughts on the product.

Eric Rougier:
Eric Rougier was among the first to purchase a 360Precision head after Matthew Rogers came to his office and demonstrated one of the prototype heads. He was so impressed he wrote a cheque on the spot. Is he happy with his purchase? “With the 360Precision head, now my question is not ‘What is the best technical way to make a panorama/QuickTime VR?’ but ‘What is the most creative and beautiful way to show that?’” he says. “The technical questions can be partly forgotten. In fact, it’s possible to think only about the photography, not about the boring things.”

Rougier, who owns the head for the Nikon D70 with 10.5mm DX lens, cites the benefits that have been converting cynics into users: The head is built like a tank – no flex, no bending and very smooth movement when turning; each head is built for a specific camera and lens combo, so setup is a breeze; and the modular head enables Matt and Stuart to customize the spacer, arm or detent rings to any requirements. “It’s important to remember that the stitching part doesn’t exist with this head, you just have to use a template,” continues Rougier.

When asked how the 360Precision head has impacted his workflow, Rougier responded with a diagram (see below) and the comment that, “if you must create a lot of panos from a lot of pics, you need three things: your PTMac/PTGui template, PTBatch, and a good restaurant and friends near your house to wait for your renders to finish.” He uses the following equipment: 360Precision, Nikon D70/10.5mm, PTMac/PTGui – with template, Photoshop CS2, CubicConverter, PowerBook Macintosh (or for big renders – paper prints, posters: a PowerMac G5)

Andras Frenyo:
Andras Frenyo first saw the 360Precision head at the Sedona Summit in October 2004, where Jook Leung had brought the prototype. “I immediately fell in love with it and little did I know that the very one in Jook's hands (the first to make it over the Atlantic) was ultimately going to be the mine,” he recalls

Frenyo admits that the head had some shortcomings for use with his Fuji S2/Nikon 10.5, but they were quickly rectified with “outstanding support” from Stuart and Matt. “With eager ears for my feedback, I've spoken with both of them via phone, chat and email. They have been available without delay every time, and more than exhaustive in their responses of advice, as well as replacing the modular parts of the head as deemed required”.

Frenyo describes the head as solid, similar to some Manfrottos he’s used, but more compact and obviously custom-tailored for a single set up of camera and lens combination and, which he mounts on a Bogen 755 tripod with a built-in ball head for leveling. “The 360Precision head keeps beautifully in level through its rotation and its click stops are solid, but not too strong to throw the gear off balance even when the center pole of the tripod is extended and the legs aren't fully spread (something I often do to reduce footprint). The detent ring is at least a quarter inch thick and is of solid brass, foretelling of no wear to weaken the solid stops. The ring can be flipped; although this is not likely something one would often do (if ever), as this head is a tool for reliably repeating the photographic process of panorama making and since the greatest time saving which is gained in post-processing is built on an unaltered process in its use.”

Frenyo continues: “While on the subject of footprint: at first glance one might think the rotating base to be large at 4 1/4 inches; I know I did. With the ability however, to repeatably shoot downward at variable angles while the camera is still mounted, one can reduce the footprint at no significant time invested once the system is calibrated. I know many photographers who routinely do this already for their multirows.”

On calibration: “Since I am awaiting an arm fresh off the manufacturing line to bring my aboriginal gear up-to-date with its latest incarnation, I will have to recalibrate. As in the past, I will be using Panorama Tools for this. It is a somewhat arduous process, and is not for the faint-hearted - but after all, calibration is at the heart of the post processing automation. Panorama Tools users will have no problem with this whatsoever. To those who aren't familiar with Panorama Tools, Stu and Matt can provide superb guidance - they have been using Panorama Tools themselves for many years and there's little they are unable to accomplish with it. Stu's Escher Self-Portrait panorama speaks to this nicely, and though I forget how many images Matt shot and stitched for each QTVR of the Alexander movie set, there were a lot. The GUIs available for Panorama Tools have also greatly reduced time required for such a calibration process.

Final Thoughts: “While the pin registered approach by Mark D. Fink's panohead rivals this head in precision and weighs a lot less, the calibration required is the same and the 360Precision cannot be beat in its ease of use and no-cost-spared manufacture.”

For futher information, visit 360Precision’s Forum, where a multitude of questions are addressed, and check out Eric Rougier’s excellent tutorial and video of his 360 Precision head.
Email: matthew@360precision.com