Panoramic Photography?

[MrWindupBird]

Anyone had any experience taking a full-scene panoramic shoot using Panosaurus tripod mount (http://gregwired.com/pano/pano.htm)?

I have gone over 2 weeks without having to order any heli parts, and was thinking this was a great opportunity to invest in a panoramic tripod mount to shoot my local field and even my home street (which would be a major challenge!).

The Panosaurus (http://gregwired.com/pano/pano.htm) is about the cost of a pair of blades, seems like it requires some effort, but can produce results.

Seems this takes some patience, but so does learning to fly a heli, right?

[HFG]

If you take the photos i will convert them to flying fields if you want.

[frogbmth]

The challenge is balancing and stitching the images. Shooting the photos is the easy part. I have yet to find an ap that does an acceptable job of it and had to do all mine manually in the end.

You also need a kick a$$ camera, my last effort was with a 6mp DSLR and its no where near enough high res to make the scenery look good when it is zoomed in.

I'm looking to get a 10mp camera before I work on my next release.

Be great to hear how you get on though :thumbup:

Andy

[HFG]

The 6 base images phoenix works with is only 2048x2048, not sure why you feel you need more than 4mp.

[MrWindupBird]

I have a 6MP DSLR - Of course it all depends on what focal length you decide to take your pictures at - as well as the quality of your stitching app, but I think 6MP should be plenty if you take enough images per revolution.

Interestingly, just found out tonight at a company dinner that a buddy at work has a roommate that specializes in panos! He thinks I should be able to borrow his pano mount or maybe even convince him to shoot my field (http://www.flysrw.com/). The field as a nice view of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge (http://www.mta.info/bandt/html/veraz.htm), which happens to be quite an ugly bridge in my opinion, but I am learning that in NY you just gotta take what you can get.

[frogbmth]

Indeed the tiles aren't too big but the source images lose a load of res during the stitch and once its lost, its lost. The higher res you start with, the better your stitched image ends up.

[theglennster]

I have not used a Panosaurus head so cant comment on the quality. I used an ordinary tripod and used to take a gazillion shots to create sperical panoramas then stich em together.

I've done a few now but you dont need a mega spec camera, I've done them a 3 megapixel camera with very good results its all down to how may images you take at one time and the lens you are using. I had pano fever a while back I think I've got over it now :P my hard disk used to be full of it. All my pano's were for Reflex XTR I've never tried creating one for Phoenix.

The major problem you WILL run into its stiching the sky as clouds move you will never get a good match the longer you take shooting the panorama the worse it will be. If you shoot on a cloudless day you will be ok but with no point of referance to stitch together.
In the end as its always cloudy in the uk I resoted stitching the scene together in PTGUI and then blending it with a pre stiched sky sourced from elsewhere and finally use Photoshop to get a perfect match.

I have tried several ways to do it and even using a 180 fisheye (very expensive method) that will only require 2 shots to get the pano. There is a lot of documentation on techniques if you surf the net.

Make sure you lock the exposure when you do it or the images will not match this becomes a problem because you may get burnout looking at the sky its just a matter of experimenting to get the right trade off.

Good luck and why not post your results of your first pano then we can all fly at your field:thumbup:.

Cheers
Glenn

[fluffhead]

I made a very nice panaoramic image of my large backyard using a $30 tripod, a 10mp camera, 3 rows of 15 pictures in portrait mode, and a straight up and straight down picture. I stitched them with ptgui. It was very easy to import the raw image into Realflight.

My question is how do you import the image into either Phoenix or Reflex. I cannot figure it out.

[HFG]

http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=57026

[Vibe]

You dont need to do any importing or stitiching, if you send the original images into Phoenix and they think that the site will make a good addition they will do all of that for you and then release it for download - look here: www.phoenix-sim.com/technical_panoramas.htm

[frogbmth]

For me, its the fun of homebrew to do it myself ;)

[HeliMix]

Anyone had any experience taking a full-scene panoramic shoot using Panosaurus tripod mount (http://gregwired.com/pano/pano.htm)?

Thanks for the link MWUB. :thumbup:

I looked into buying a 360 mount and they were all WAY to expensive. Then, I started looking at building my own but via my prototypes I realized it was a little tricky to get it to where it would have accurate movement.

I am adding this to my wish list today. :YeaBaby:

[HFG]

Just tell Lock your having another birthday.

[HeliMix]

Just tell Lock your having another birthday.

:lolol

[MrWindupBird]

Thanks for the link MWUB. :thumbup:

I am adding this to my wish list today. :YeaBaby:

Well, it's definitely on hold for me - as I plowed my 500 today and need to get it back in the air... I am still hoping that I can get my friend's friend to do the shoot... It's always tough organizing things when there are like 2 levels of indirection...

But once I get the photos, I really wanna try to do the scene myself - as a learning experience...

I was at the field today at dusk, just as the sun broke after a weekend of crappy weather. It was beautiful...