Levels

 

I played around with the panorama software that comes with the camera, and did a little reading.  It became apparent that leveling the camera when shooting the panorama is quite important.  When I started I found that the head and camera may be leveled using the tripod tilt-head controls.  But when the head is rotated, the camera will not stay level if the tripod itself is not level.  The center column must be perpendicular.  I little research turned up levels for the camera and the tripod. 

Later when I purchased the TS-E 24mm Tilt/Shift Lens the level became one of the most important tools to have on hand for controlling vertical lines in the image, in concert with the shift-front of the lens.

 

     

This enables preliminary leveling of the tripod, and then leveling of the tripod head with camera attached.  With that, the head may be rotated without affecting the leveling of the camera.  But as it turns out this is not the end of the story.  The axis of rotation of the camera must be centered on the optical center of the lens for both horizontal and vertical panning.  That's a problem for me because the tripod mount on the camera is not centered on the lens, side to side.  And the optical center of the lens (front to back) os not located at the tripod socket.  So for sophisticated panoramas, I would have to get a more elaborate devices such as this, to dial in these settings:

This basic device is interesting but does NOT achieve these adjustments

This more elaborate device on the other hand, provides the necessary controls.  Note the substantial difference in price...

   

         

     

   

          

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