ITCOW 360 [Pano Asia].

26 Dec 2013.

This, is a nice lens. It’s wider than what currently the M4/3 offers but as of writing, 26 Dec 2013, it’s only available for the NEX’s E Mount. We brought it out with a NEX7!

Number 1. Weight. It is nothing you can complain of. We paired this up with the Gobi by Bushman Panoramic we had back since Sept 2013.It’s been almost 3 years since we were out sourcing for a lightweight setup with the M4/3 setup we tried back in March 2011. Image quality has improved dramatically. We won’t be getting into stats and what the NEX7 is capable of. It’s been reviewed many times by many many many sites. The weight of the whole setup is effortless. If you’ve been lugging around like us, a 5DMK3, a Nodal Ninja of some sort, plus the tripod. This “lightweightness” is a very welcomed setup.

The Gobi by design is a little flimsy as we have mentioned. The knobs could have been bigger and there isnt the sturdiness we have come to expect using so much of Nodal Ninja’s equipment. With the smaller NEX7, every turn seems we are a few degree off. There seem to be leeway or extra clearance somewhere with the Gobi. We took extra care to take more shots.

So, the panos. We decided we needed something to compare with thus we went back to the “Sitting Man” site.

The first was the original done with a 5DMK3 and a 8-15mm lens.

The second is with the NEX7 and the Madoka 180.

More from the setup. All shots done with 2 secs to 3.2 seconds shutter and at F4 aperture. The Madoka 180 is a manual lens, so expect to do some tweaking. Once you have done that, simply apply it as a template file in PTGui. We shoot 6 around with no nadir.

*Every pano after this are from the NEX7.

This would be what we hoped to have carried onto Mount Bromo with a couple of lens like F/2.8 telephoto and a wide angle. All that add together could be simply the weight of a 5DMK3. No we didnt calculate but it’s light enough to enjoy shooting and shooting more. That’s the whole point. Having a great super pixel setup but not carrying out at times due to weight defeats it’s purpose.

We won’t be bringing this setup for commercial shoots just yet. Perception has yet change and clients expect you to be using big ass cameras with heavy stuffs.

It’s been just 30+ months and things have caught up really quickly for this compact cameras. Give it another 12 or 18 months, we believe it will be something we’ll shoot panos with very often.

This is a great setup for some quality panos that we can’t shoot enough with. We also got a 16mm F/2.8 and love it too. We can’t wait for the M4/3 mount of this lens to appear and coupling it with a whole range of M4/3 cameras that are in the market now.

An earlier version of this article stated that the NEX7 hindrance of taking MS Duo cards. It has been changed, the NEX7 takes SD cards too.