Konakid
Posts: 2
Location: Kailua Kona, United States
Registered: 19 Sep 2008
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A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 19 Sep 2008 at 22:08 GMT
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Hello to all you guys/gals on my first post.
I run a popular unrelated forum, so I appreciate this one, and all the fine and considerate help and information it provides. I am new to panoramas, and you guys have provided me with a lot of knowledge to get started.
Unsurprisingly, I haven't figured everything out, so I thought I would ask for some advice before a buy something I wish I didn't. 
I feel pretty good about my understanding of the various softwares and how to display what I wish to on my website. Now I just need to create the panoramas themselves. I have a few more things to buy, so maybe you can help.
First --- My main desire is to take as detailed as possible panoramas of botanical gardens. So, a lot of the time my material will be between the small confines of interior shots, and wide open distant landscapes. And I wish to have as much detail and depth of field in order to be able to zoom in on individual plants and trees.
I know this will entail gigapixel resolutions, and will be using Krpano to display these. I presently have the new Nikon D90 and the Nikon 10.5mm for the smaller closed in areas, but wish to be able to get more detail and less distortion in the more wide open areas.
So, I have two questions for my first post.
1) Does anyone have a recommendation for a lens and technique for my garden panoramas? Remember detail is the goal. I have seen 100+ MB panoramas using Krpano that load and view very well. Am I asking for trouble? It's my own site, and I have plenty of storage and bandwidth. The webhost is a friend. And I am not afraid of the extra effort needed to create high resolution panos.
2) I am ready to pre-order a "Nodal Ninja 5 w/ RD12 Rotator." Is this a good decision? And can someone recommend a nice tripod for this head? And perhaps a dumb question --- Is a tripod and this head all I need? Or is something else needed to begin taking shots.
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John Houghton
Posts: 2317
Location: Hitchin, United Kingdom
Registered: 17 Jan 2005
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Re: A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 20 Sep 2008 at 8:48 GMT
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"As much detail as possible" isn't a very specific requirement. You need to identify the required size of the final panorama in pixels and work backwards to determine the focal length of lens and number of shots. A 40mm lens would give you a one gigapixel 360x180 panorama and would need 7 rows of images. Or maybe a third of a GP would be adequate using a focal length around 22mm. That would be equivalent to this one by Juergen Schrader:
schrader-air.de/panorama/grandcanyon/
It was taken with a 5D+35mm lens on a NN5: 3 rows of 12 + N + Z, 24576x12288.
Using a zoom lens (if you have one) you could take some handheld test shots covering a limited area of a typical garden and stitch them into a full (mostly blank) 360x180 panorama to see how adequately the detail is captured. Do this for different zoom settings and that will tell you all you need to know.
Note that the severe distortion in a fisheye lens does not somehow make its way into the final stitched panorama. Any perceived "distortion" in a 360x180 panorama will be the same, regardless of the type of lens used. Limiting the maximum angle of view in the viewer will avoid stretching effects at the edges, which some people find disconcerting.
John
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Konakid
Posts: 2
Location: Kailua Kona, United States
Registered: 19 Sep 2008
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Re: A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 21 Sep 2008 at 3:01 GMT
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Thanks John,
I have learned a lot from all your other contributions to this "hobby."
Perhaps i should mention that I am a novice photographer and have only tried stitching a few panos taken on a regular cheap tripod and a D-40. But with my background, I seem to have picked up the software and computer part of the process already. Now all I need is some good material to feed in.
I am starting to see the correlation between the different variables now. My next question would be about another lens to try and do what looks to be about 1/2-1 GP garden panoramas starting out. Most of the subject matter would be between 10 meters and 100 meters distance. And I would wish to be able to zoom in and see some leaf and flower detail on the closer plants.
This Nikon D-90 came with a DX SWN VR ED IF Aspherical, Infinity-.45 meter lens. (I have no idea what any of that means) It is 18-105mm. So, can I use this lens to try all the different combinations and find out what works best? And if so, why would I need any other "long" lens at this point? Would my Nikkor 10.5mm FE and this 18-105mm do most of the "heavy lifting?"
If not, is here another more versatile (higher quality) lens I should be looking at?
And I am still hoping to get some feedback on that NN-5 D12 head. Is that overkill for what I am trying to do? The only reason I think I may need it is for the smaller Increments it offers --- down to 7.5 degrees. And a good tripod for this head, if advisable, would be?????????????????? And is there another gizmo I need between this pano head and tripod?
I do prefer to have equipment that is better than what I need, so I can always move up in project quality, rather than struggle with stuff that is not up to the task.
And one last question for now. If I start stitching 30-60 photos taken in 2-4 rows for a high resolution pano, will I have trouble using a 2.33 GHz Mac Book Pro with 3 GB Ram?
Thanks again for reading.
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photo41
Posts: 183
Location: Stamora Romana - Timisoara, Romania
Registered: 14 Dec 2007
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Re: A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 21 Sep 2008 at 7:15 GMT
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Hi Konakid
nice to meet you
My humble opinion is that the Nodal Ninja is a very good panoramic head and the 5 series (I was lucky enough to see) is very nice for the common panoramas and gigapixel.
I'd advice to avoid anything in-between the panohead and the tripod. Try a Manfrotto tripod.
You have good equipment so for the panos you obviously need experience. Just stitch panoramas, post the links over here and you'll have the best imaginable advice.
I have the deepest respect for the Nikkor lens, I'm sure you will discover with experience what you need for your images with good details.
I work on a Macbook 2.1 with 4 GB ram and it runs well (even on windows).
regards,
Valentin
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mediavets
Posts: 475
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 21 Sep 2008 at 8:20 GMT
updated: 21 Sep 2008 at 8:37 GMT
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Konakid said: And I am still hoping to get some feedback on that NN-5 D12 head. Is that overkill for what I am trying to do? The only reason I think I may need it is for the smaller Increments it offers --- down to 7.5 degrees. And a good tripod for this head, if advisable, would be?????????????????? And is there another gizmo I need between this pano head and tripod?
I do prefer to have equipment that is better than what I need, so I can always move up in project quality, rather than struggle with stuff that is not up to the task.
Some tripods to consider.
Manfrotto 755XB:
www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/pid/14804
Manfrotto 055XPROB with optional levveling centre column:
www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/cache/offo...
www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/pid/3209
You can see the merits of such a setup here:
www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/tutorial/index.asp?I...
The NN5+RD12 is a new configuration with a brand new design of rotator which is not yet shipping but it sounds good from the specs.
I have a NN5L which I am very satisfied with.
The new RD8/12 rotators would be more convenienet for me because I could switch between 4 click-stops for my Sigma 8mm FE and 6 click-stops for my Nikkor 10.5mm FE without swapping specific detente rings or skipping stops, but would I pay US$100 more for this facility? Not sure. The 15-degree lock-stops for the upper rail are of no interest to me.
Andrew
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DorinDXN
Posts: 1695
Location: Timisoara, Romania
Registered: 14 Nov 2006
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Re: A Few Questions for the Experts
Posted: 21 Sep 2008 at 11:58 GMT
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Hi Konakid
the Nodal Ninja 5 is an excellent panohead, for tripods the Manfrotto 055 XPROB seems to be an excellent under the NN5 as well.
I will use NN5 for other photo asigments too, say for close up and macro photography, so I purchased a new tripod for my new NN5.
The purchased tripod is Giottos MT9370.
It has some features also useful for pano making even toward the pole panos, like the central column can be replaced with a longer aluminium (modular) regular metal tube of desired length then the column can be rotated from tripod's collar. I guess even some monopods can be mounted instead of central column.
Dorin
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