When I went travelling for the first time with my Rebel, I only had the (excellent) 50mm f/1.8 lens, which translates to a mild 85mm telephoto on my cropped sensor. You can imagine that it was difficult to take pictures of the sweeping vistas in Luxembourg and the Cinque Terre, but I think I did okay. That’s not to say I couldn’t have used a little help from a tripod like this, though. Plus it looks like something I could put together in shop, rather than something I’d need an arc welder and supply of adamantine to make, like that honey press.

The panoramic tripod has different requirements than a regular one. It needs to rotate in a specific way so that the pictures making up the panorama have a minimum of interference with one another when they are stitched together.

Professionals use mechanized ones, but they do the same job a little elbow grease does, so unless you feel like laying out a grand, this is a great option.

[via MAKE]