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Panoramas :)


RobAGD

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I used a very old Olympus 600l Digital. I have a few software proggies that will stich, the one I tend to use the most is PhotoVista.

 

Something I have been thing about is picking up an old Maya 4x6 and doing some pano's with that. I havent shot but maybe 3 or 4 rolls of film since 98 when I got my Oly.

 

I was shooting at not quite Wide angle, I try to get out of the sidest part of my lens when doing these. Ill post up a few more later.

 

-Robert

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Great Falls VA 1

icon_smile.gif I walked across without getting my feet wet.

 

Great Falls Dry

GF_low_pano-sm.JPG

 

Enjoy, I am making a wall mural kinda of thing with the pics I have of Greatfalls, I still need a flood pano and a good snow pano. Silly rangers have this thing about people climbing on rocks in the snow.... Imagin that...

 

-Robert

 

[This message was edited by RobAGD on October 14, 2002 at 08:56 AM.]

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I've been using Panorama Factory for a few years. Great, easy to use and has nice Wizard option to step you through the process.

 

I use my digital video camera to get the shots. I setup a tripod (as close to level and plumb as possible) and slowly spin the camera 360 degrees and then continue another 90 degrees for overlap.

 

When downloading the images from the camera I can set the software to grab a frame every N seconds. Typically, I set it for one frame every 3 seconds which provides about 50% overlap between images. The more overlap the better quality stitching of images.

 

Once the images are saved to disk, it's a simple matter of running the Pano Factory wizard to stictch them together. The final product then just needs some minor cropping and you have a great 360 degree pano.

 

Some other cool things you can do are use PTViewer to make your panos interactive or grab a still shot from a reflective sphere for a true global 360 degree (all directions) pano icon_smile.gif

 

Check out Team Exocets panos for some cool panos.

 

-

 

btw - great shots of Great Falls, Rob - I grew up in Vienna/Herndon/Reston back in the 60's-80's and have spent many hours rock-hopping throughout the park on both sides of the river - although I never saw it as low as your pic shows and certainly never tried walking to Maryland icon_smile.gif

I did go there just after hurricane Agnes in 72 (the one that took out our beloved carousel - remember grabbing the rings?) and it was nothing but whitewater/foam from treeline to treeline - not a rock in sight.

 

[This message was edited by makaio on October 14, 2002 at 10:51 AM.]

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OK, so I was trying to keep my line of work out of this but I need to mention it to explain this. I am a used house salesperson and I signed up for a "******** tour" of a house the other day and the photographer showed up with a camera on a tripod that shoots straight up into a domed mirror, thereby taking a 360 degree shot in one photo and the software puts it into a panning virtual tour. The only way to not have the photographer show up in the photo is for him to set the timer and scoot behind something or for him to stand directly under the tripod. They are online now and look pretty cool. You can pan back and forth, zoom in and out. There are other companies that do this with a video camera that turns around 360 degrees but I think this is a quicker method. If you want to see how it works, this is how it came out. Be forewarned that download time is longer. I have now idea how much the software or camera costs. http://www.circlepix.com/home2/90-28207

 

Cache you later,

Planet

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This summer I was vacationing at a lake in Northern Wisconsin on property my father-in-law owns. He has reclaimed the 40 acres from what was a cow pasture 30 years ago to a forest once again. He spends a lot of time in the woods and loves to track his progress.

 

I took a series of 36 pictures to document his woods. After recently acquiring Adobe Photoshop Elements, there is a feature in it called photomerge which helps to stitch together photos for panoramas. So I have taken those 36 images and created one out of if.

 

WoodsLake.jpg

 

I still have some touching up to do, but the plan is to have this printed and framed as a Christmas present for him. The software is realtively easy to use. My only real critique would be if it helped in blending different shading and lighting issues.

 

M-D-M Explorations

MrSki and DogMa

40 07.874'N

88 11.647'W

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That's what I like about PhotoVista, it does the blending automatically. Actually, most of the auto-stitching software does it.

 

I have two versions of PhotoVista (old and new) and I prefer the older version. You can usually pick it up on the software discount racks for under $10.

 

I also like PixAround. You can produce output in a number of different ways, but I really like the emailable rotating "postcard".

 

I have one of the 360º lens mentioned above (Cyclovision, now Remote Reality), but the quality is not as good as a stitched result.

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quote:
Originally posted by geospotter:

That's what I like about PhotoVista, it does the blending automatically. Actually, most of the auto-stitching software does it.

 

I have two versions of PhotoVista (old and new) and I prefer the older version. You can usually pick it up on the software discount racks for under $10.

 

I also like PixAround. You can produce output in a number of different ways, but I really like the emailable rotating "postcard".

 

I have one of the 360º lens mentioned above (Cyclovision, now Remote Reality), but the quality is not as good as a stitched result.


 

Thanks for the info. I'll look for PhotoVista. Sounds interesting.

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I just got around to putting together a few of the Panos from our vacation. Here is one from the Historic Lincoln Highway Cache.

66427_2500.jpg

 

Taken with an Olympus 700 and its included stitching software. For some odd reason you have to have an Olympus memory card to be able to take Panos. So I didnt take many. But they are impressive.

 

66427_2400.gif

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Centaur,

 

Olympus memory cards turn on the pano feature for Olympus cameras, but all other stitching software will work with the images. Olympus' pano feature just locks the exposure for all of the photos to match the first exposure.

 

BTW, you can hack any smart media card to become and Olympus 'pano-enabled' card.

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There was an old discussion on panoramas in the past. You can actually use an applet on geocaching.com to display them. Various examples are at the link above.

 

I shared the images that are on img.Groundspeak.com to /cache/ for the cache photos. I'll have to figure out a more permanent solution.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

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quote:
Originally posted by Centaur:

quote:
Originally posted by geospotter:

BTW, you can hack any smart media card to become and Olympus 'pano-enabled' card.


Ohh Ohh... How ? icon_smile.gif


 

How indeed?

 

I'm interested as well. I never really understood why it needs Olympus media to take panoramas. Other than to force users to purchase the vastly overpriced Olympus memory, that is.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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Centaur,

 

How are you currently downloading your images from your camera? Does the 700 attach as a new drive through a USB cable? If not, the ZIO mentioned does, it only costs about $25 and makes downloading a breeze.

 

Bigredmed,

 

I don't know if it can be done for other cameras.

 

Couch Potato,

 

You're right. The only reason is to get you to buy their brand. Check out the link that Centaur provided, or search the Web for others. It's pretty common.

 

Good luck, all.

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quote:
Originally posted by geospotter:

Centaur,

 

How are you currently downloading your images from your camera? Does the 700 attach as a new drive through a USB cable? If not, the ZIO mentioned does, it only costs about $25 and makes downloading a breeze.


 

Yes, the 700 mounts as a disk drive via the USB port. I also have a No-Name-Brand usb smartmedia/stick reader. Only problem now is I have to find a copy of the hack program that will work with my reader.

 

Thanks!

 

66427_2400.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by Centaur:

Well, I found the hack http://www.geocities.com/roberthaus/pan/ but it takes hardware I dont have.... Hmmmm....


 

Hmm, I don't have the right hardware either.

 

I wonder if there's already a hack out there made for use with the camera. I don't have any form of smartmedia reader other than the camera. And as Centaur mentioned the camera mounts as a USB drive.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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quote:
Originally posted by geospotter:

Guys,

 

The SMPREP.EXE is packaged with many readers. Check your installation CD to see if it's there.


 

It was not with mine, but i have dowloaded a couple sets of others drivers that include it. Now ill have to see if i can get the new drivers to talk to the box i have, and then see if SMPREP.EXE will work from there. I think ill wait till the weekend though, when I have more time to play. Thanks!

 

66427_2400.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by geospotter:

Guys,

 

The SMPREP.EXE is packaged with many readers. Check your installation CD to see if it's there.


 

Not with mine either. But since Centaur and I both have olympus cameras and probably with the same software that's no surprise to me.

 

Panorama's can still easily be done without the 'panorama' feature being on the card though. It seems that all that the panorama feature does is adds info on the order in which the pictures are to be stitched. The camedia software is able to read that info and stitch them together automatically. But the camedia software will also stitch together pictures that aren't tagged as panoramas on the card, even able to stitch 2D panoramas.

 

I don't think I'll bother trying to find a hack.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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