Panorama on the fly

The panorama feature is nothing new, lots of consumer camera have at least a panorama assistant or even a in-camera stitch feature, producing more or less good panoramas on the spot, most of the time at a rather low resolution due to the limited camera memory and processing power).
I didnt notice a complete new approach to this by Sony earlier this year (March 09). They released the DSC-HX1, the first camera with a panorama sweep mode, which means basically it creates a panoramic image while panning across a scene. Judge yourself with the review at dpreview.com which comes with details and sample panoramas. As usual I am tempted to play with it, but the price tag is too high for another gadget.

Spontaneous Walkabout

Just quitting some meaningless seminar early today and I was right in the mood to shoot some pictures. Lucky enough the trusty LX3 is always around.

Update Summer 2009

It has been a while since my last blog entry ! Didnt do much VR or large panoramas recently besides small commercial projects. The VR market is dead, with some folks offering one 1 VR spot for the price of 1 Mug of beer. I focus more on independent projects are just having fun. Will upload some of the backlog'd uncprocessed raw material soon.
My recent project with Whelock Properties in Singapore (link):

Panorama Photography Generation Y (Z?)

Here we go.. Digital Panoramas are no longer a big deal. Even 7 year old kids can do it now with the help by Micorosofot..

GIGAPAN production release

Have been a slow in producing panoramas lately and missed the fact that Gigapan Systems released their ex-prototype now as full production model with the name EPIC with only slight design changes (guessing from the look), also announced a EPIC 100 supposingly able to carry small DSLRS (D30 and others). Link to Gigapan Systems.

Picture copyright by Gigapan Systems

Aljunied Walkabout

Nice to see that some areas are not cleaned up yet and reflect a bit the old at look-and-feel of Singapore shophouses. In times of recession the pace of modernization should reduce hopefully.Walking the streets of Geylang and Aljunied with the LX3 in dynamic BW mode. The Panasonic is my mainly used camera at the moment.

VR with Mamiya ZD

A while ago I evaluated the user of the Mamiya ZD wich the 24mm lens (link) over the Canon 1Ds Sigma 8mm combo.

Facts 1Ds with Sigma 8mm:
3 or 4 images (4.062 x 2.704 pixel), fisheye
Resulting in a 5.000 x 2.500 equirectangular image.
Pro:
Full 360x180 degree coverage with 3 images.
Can be shot using monopod.
Con:
Lower resolution and image quality due to fisheye

Facts Mamiya ZD with ULD Sekor 24mm:
6 fullframe fishey images with 4.008 x 5.336 pixel each results

Resulting in a 16.500 x 5.200 equirectangular image.
Pro:
Crisp result, high resolution and quality image.
Con:
Requires shooting using tripod.
Does not cover zenith and nadir. Requires a sturdy panorama head with this gear, maybe Nodalninja 5, to shot up and down.

Sample: Stitched with PTGui 8.0.2 and converted to Flash with Pano2VR 2.2 beta4. Crop and Touchup Photoshop CS3.

Link to VR (flash based) version

Sydney 16:9 Walkabout (II)

Part 2 of the bw walkabout. Some more verticals will follow.

Lunapark at night

At the last night in Sydney we did one more outing to a rather touristic spot, Luna Park (Wikipedia link) at Milsons Point nearby the Harbor Bridge (Wikipedia link). I let the Mamyia ZD run versus the LX3 and challenged them with this blue hour/night condition. Here the results of the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Quite convincing results, little noise for this small camera at night, specifically the dynamic bw mode, which I hardly touched in PS. ZD results will follow.

Sydney 16:9 Walkabout

Exploring the city centre of Sydney with the Panasonic LX3 and looking for my favorite subjects: Walls, old facades, decay, doors, signs.

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.