Panoramic backlog

I do regular harddisk housekeeping and backing up my files, both raw and processed, and always during these exercise I come across unprocessed or "unseen" images. So while copying some more images to the safe (?) DVD I stumble upon the handheld LX panos from September made in Neustadt (Germany). Yes, handheld panoramas are possible, even with wide angle lenses (in this case 24mm), it takes some practive and might not be perfect though. The buildings in the old town of Neustadt are not perfectly straight either, but the manual shooting increased slightly the obliqueness.
Just realized, this blog turns 100 ! Nice occasion and dedicated to my home place ! I am happy to be persistent enough to write more or less regularly and enlight readers with my panoramic endeavors and experiments.

16:9 Walkabout

Occasionally it is my pleasure to go around with a simple (or rather small) camera and enjoy lightweight and tourist-alike snapping away. The Panasonic is a perfect companion if you want to leave your DSLR stuff at home. And the dynamic bw mode with some curve adjustment is just nice to enjoy simple digital photography from time to time.

GIGAPAN Chinese Garden

Another GIGAPAN made with the modified gigapan systems head and the Panasonic Lumix FZ28. 96 images stitched with PTGui to a 14.200 x 17.300 pixel image (245MP). Not sure if it reveals much more details than 4 Canon 1Ds images stitched together. Maybe I will compare for this sake.

See the complete GIGAPAN here (link)

Panorama Tripod a shoestring II

To follow up on the description of the simple mini panorama tripod, here some results:
LX3 @24mm (ISO80), F5, 1/250s (Shot in 16:9 format by mistake), 30 degree between the 7 images covering roughly 180 degree.
Resulting in a 10.300 x 3.600 pixel image. (below smaller jpg version)
LX3 @60mm (ISO80), F5, 1/250s (Shot in 16:9 format by mistake), 20 degree between the 17 images covering roughly 180 degree.
Resulting in a 19.000 x 3.800 pixel image. (below smaller jpg version and 100% crop)

Conclusion:
I am happy with the results for a 270g (tripod only, LX3 comes at another 275g) light tripod that fits into my daily bag.
It needs some finetuning for the nodal point for closer subjects, I used the pre-made holes in the L-shape bracket. All you need is a drilling machine.

Panorama Tripod a shoestring

Occasionally I bring only a small camera along on shirt trips. The Panasonic LX3 or FZ28 deliver pretty good quality RAW images without carrying my 1Ds or ZD. Sometimes I create handheld panoramas and wish I had a tripod with a panoramahead at hand. I tried to create the lightest and smallest pano-tripod with parts I have in my repository.
Lets take table tripod (0$, came for free with another small camera), a L-shape bracket from the DIY-shop, 2 tripod screws and a Novoflex Panohead (for about 100$) from Ebay.
Yes, it is not perfect, it is not perfectly mounted over the nodal point, but with the FZ28 starting at 28mm it is pretty OK. Will upload some result files later.
The whole set can be disassembled and fits into my notebook bag and comes along any short business trips. And I even can do night panoramas now.