Panorama Tripod and Mount Search

I'm looking for a middle of the road quality tripod and camera mount to do panarama shots. The reason I'm leaning towards the middle of the road in quality is it's going to be left in a vehicle. I'd like it to be easy to setup/level a heavy 50D w/ grip and up to a 70-200 2.8 IS lens. And assistance would be helpful.

Check out manfrotto. They are decent tripods I had one for about 25 years before I finally replaced it and I only did that because I could afford a carbon fiber one. That thing used to get put on airplanes just tied up and tagged.

I prefer 3 way pan heads but most (and by most I think everyone else) people here like ball heads. I think to get a good ball head you need to spend a fair bit more money so I would say that is another good reason for a 3 way pan head.

I like a right angle camera mount. I made my own with some 1.5 inch aluminum flat and added an rc2 quick release to it. It will help to keep the weight of the camera more balanced on the tripod and with a middle tripod that is even more important. If you make one it could be very inexpensive, depending on if you have some scrap metal around.

I did some research but was unable to find an inexpensive panoramic head so I made my own.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=679708

FYI I'm not interested in the 360 degree stuff , just stitching a few pictures together. I'm under a little pressure here as I'm heading east the first part of June.

Steve,

I'll look at your link tomorrow. Would yours work for what I'm after?

With tele lenses you do not have to be very concerned with having the lens over its proper focus point as that helps mostly with foreground objects and you will not have so much in the foreground with a long lens. The zoom lens will also likely change that point as you change focal lengths. Also since it has a tripod mounting bracket you really do not need the right angle mount.

That said here is a photo of my simple right angle adapter that is also set back for one of my pan primes the 24TSE (actually it is 1mm out) it is just 4mm out for my 45 and that is close enough for that lens except indoors with close foreground objects. You can use this sort of thing for short lenses you want to use. You just need to figure out how far back to set the camera body in relation to the lens. I used a macro focus rail but I had one and if you don't have a regular use for it you probably don't want to buy it just for this. Of course you could use one for pans as well using it to change the lens position depending upon what lens you are using.

I have the Manfrotto Head RC4 shown HERE. It is nice because it has 2 bubble levels. One to make sure the tripod is level, the second to make sure the camera is level from the tripod mount so when you rotate the RC4 head you are moving perfectly horizontal.

IMO RC4 is (way) too big on a DSLR.
RC0 is *way, way* too big.
RC2 is okay size wise.

That being said: I prefer Arca Swiss style QR.