A panoramic head allows you to easily rotate a camera around the nodal point of its lens. This prevents parallax errors when creating panoramic photographs.
Unlike my previous pan head this one has two axes of rotation for producing mosaics made up of multiple rows of images.
This pan head is made from 18mm MDF. A thin layer of cork provides a high-friction surface for the base of the camera to seat against. As with the A70 pan head, it has a rotating base so I don't need to worry about getting my tripod perfectly vertical. I can use the tripod's pan/tilt to level the pan head, and ensure that it will rotate in a perfectly horizontal plane.