Common idiot errors

This is a page dedicated to Luca Vascon, who suggested to have a Hall of Fame for all of us who made some basic and very common errors and who can laugh about that...

Forgot to pull off the metal ring of the Sigma 8mm fisheye

Erik Krause

Michel Thoby

Michael Crane

Jim Dawson

Barry the Dunce

John Mitchener

Thomas Rauscher

Dave at 360Texas

Shop clerk at Foto SOBOTKA

Forgot to pull off the metal ring of the Sigma 8mm fisheye, NOT the first time, but after years of experience

Luca Vascon

Stefania Zangrando

Yuval Levy

Forgot to shoot one of the 4 images and substituted with a mirrored one from the other 3

Luca Vascon

Did shoot all 4 images but accidently deleted one later, off-location

Bernhard Vogl

Forgot to remove lens cap while shooting in public

Yuval Levy (classical music concert, the public was laughing loudly)

Bernhard Vogl (Jazz Concert in Sziget, only Andras Freyno laughed, the public was too glued to the band)

No image tabs in Panorama Editor (PTGui)/No images checked in Create Pano Tab

Patrick Born

Forgot to check ISO setting at next event after shooting with high ISO at an evening event, resulting in horribly noisy panoramas

John Riley

Thomas Rauscher

Serge Maandag

Sacha Griffin

Luca Vascon

Yuval Levy

Bernhard Vogl during his visit of Exmoor National Park, UK. He noticed his goof-up several days later, 1500km away, at home.

Forgot to set the camera back to autofocus / jpg / p-mode while shooting normal images after shooting a panorama

Serge Maandag

Yuval Levy

Bernhard Vogl (numerous times...)

Forgot to shoot the zenith

Serge Maandag (numerous times..)

Bernhard Vogl

Realizing they forgot a crucial piece of equipment.

Sacha Griffin (batteries on the top of Stone Mountain, compact flash card the second time, tripod on another shoot - requiring the philopod method.)

Carl von Einem (yes: film...)

Luca Vascon (On assignment let the battery on charge... at HOME!, forgot the allen key (on SUNDAY) to adjust the old head)

Yuval Levy (had to buy a USB card reader on assignment)

Bernhard Vogl often forgets to charge the batteries and leaves the spare batteries at home. Causes him to buy spare AAs at a ridiculous high price e.g. in the tourist shop of Schoenbrunn World Heritage...

Dropping the click-stop selector screw

Manfrotto's first panoramic rotation unit "MA300" doesn't have a safety cable (unlike the later "300N" model) to keep the little ball tipped screw close to the "head" so it can be dropped easily while selecting a different number of click stops in the field. If you are unlucky enough "in the field" will just be several meters above ground (think of bridges and canyons...) and so you lose that important piece of your equipment.

• Carl von Einem (screw fell off a bridge - happened to me for the first time in 11 years but I was warned about that problem at every panotools meeting!)

Bernhard Vogl on the Novoflex rotator

Shooting extended range panoramas without enabling bracketing

Bernhard Vogl (most memorable on a HDR presentation at the Panotools Meeting in Bath. Jaques Joffre jumped in with a talk while Bernhard rushed outside to repeat the shot)

Left bracketing on while shooting one shot per position

Keith Martin (left bracketing turned on after demonstrating the concept - made a total mess of the next panorama, an unrepeatable group shot!)