Duncs
Posts: 1
Location: Australia
Registered: 31 Aug 2010
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Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 31 Aug 2010 at 12:33 GMT
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Hello all,
im a photographer in Perth, Western Australia. You could say I specialize in panos all though I shoot alot of other stuff as well.
I do lots of QTVRs and have worked for various companies etc. If anyone is interested in seeing some photos you can check out
www.flickr.com/drdw or my film blog www.friendsonfilm.com
a more serious website is on its way.
anyway enough of an introduction.
I'm going travelling to Vietnam for two weeks at the end of this month and I think will heavily regret not taking a tripod. Does any have know of any that are preferably (but I dont expect to be) cheap, lightweight, compact and can hold the weight of a 5DMKII with 24-105 L lens. I also shoot with a 15mm fish for QTVR but that is obviously of lesser weight than the 24-105.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Duncs
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 1319
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 10:32 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 10:33 GMT
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Duncs,
The lightest option is you yourself. 5D with 15mm lens handheld, 5 or 6 around with slight uptilt to capture the zenith. Try it before you leave for your trip. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results, and you won't have all that hassle with police and security guards which most of us experience from time to time when using or carrying tripods.
Oh, and are you still using Quick Time? Most have migrated to FLASH.
Mark
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 1319
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 12:37 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 12:53 GMT
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Duncs,
Just to let you see what is possible handheld, take a look at these done by Jeffrey Martin of 360Cities
Open Links in new window to avoid being trapped with no return. Click mouse wheel or right key.
www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-air....67,-3.59,70.0
www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-air....70,6.23,70.0
In the second panorama there are stitching errors in the roof of the fuselage. And that's the kind of error we handheld guys experience quite often. Means time consuming work with Photo Shop to put right. So having promoted the idea of handhelds, a lightweight tripod will guarantee better results every time. SLIK has probably the cheapest carbon fibre tripod. I'm told a Nodal Ninja R1 pano head is the lightest and best of it's kind.
DdenniS - look him up on this forum - also shoots handheld when needs must.
I do too
www.360cities.net/image/polish-workmen#69.90,30.50,80.0
The nadir here has a lot do be desired but that has nothing to do with handheld. However, if you look around you will find a few uncorrected stitching errors which I missed.
It works, but get some practice in before Vietnam.
Mark
PS - It will be easier to achieve better results with a 5D and an 8mm fisheye, I think.
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Amoscowdog
Posts: 16
Location: Sydney, Australia
Registered: 8 Jun 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 13:15 GMT
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Hi Duncs,
I don't know if you have been to Vietnam before but you will love it. My daughter lives in Hanoi and I went there for the first time last October, had a blast.
I took along a 20D with 8mm Sigma, Nodal Ninja and a Focus Gorillapod with a Manfroto ball head, but I also have a 5MkII and 15mm and it works just as well.
Here's a shot of the rig on the deck of our Villa in the Sixth Senses Na Trang
And the result can be seen in the "Sunset over the Bay" pano at www.redsquare.com/360/vietnam/sixsenses/
Have a great trip.
regards,
Tony
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John Houghton
Posts: 3412
Location: Hitchin, United Kingdom
Registered: 17 Jan 2005
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 13:51 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: The lightest option is you yourself. 5D with 15mm lens handheld, 5 or 6 around with slight uptilt to capture the zenith.
Mark, You would need more than a slight uptilt to capture the zenith! Probably around 22 degrees. The 15mm on a 5D behaves like a 10.5mm on your 40D. The nadir hole of 86 degrees diameter would be difficult to fill, too.
John
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DennisS
Posts: 1210
Location: Los Anglels, United States
Registered: 1 Sep 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 13:57 GMT
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Duncs,
For travel I use a Nikon D300, Sigma 8mm f3.5, Nodal Ninja Ultimate R1 at 5 degrees up tilt, a monopod and a bubble level. I shoot 4 around with 1 or two hand held Nadir shots.
Although not as stable as a tripod, it is better than hand held. With practice, you can get results that rivel a tripod.
As Mark (the king of hand held) states, I do on occasion take a pano hand held. It is only when no form of camera support is allowed (mostly in Europe) that I resort to hand held.
Here is my latest set of monopod panoramas. www.dlsphoto.net/Yosemite2010/Yosemite2010.htm Last year the family vacation trip was to Europe. I published about 100 monopod panoramas. www.dlsphoto.net/Europe2009/Europe2009.htm You will find most of these are monopod with some hand held mixed in.
It is so easy to shoot panoramas when traveling that I do not take a standard lens for single pictures any more. I leave that to my family.
Here is the shooting technique: www.dlsphoto.net/Tutorials/NadirShadow/index.htm
A monopod can also double as a walking stick. If I do not want to carry the monopod, I collapse it and hang it off of one of my belt loops.
Dennis
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Mahmood H
Posts: 62
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: 30 Jul 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 15:33 GMT
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Dennis,
Was monopod allowed in the Louvre?
/M
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DennisS
Posts: 1210
Location: Los Anglels, United States
Registered: 1 Sep 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 16:14 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 16:15 GMT
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Was monopod allowed in the Louvre? Mahmood,
No type of camera support is allowed in the Louvre. All of those panoramas were shot hand held. All of the Disneyland Paris panoramas were hand held as I just did not feel like taking the monopod that day.
I did get away with using my monopod in the lower lobby area. Just as I was finishing up (one advantage to shooting 4 around), a very nice female guard came up to me and very politly asked me to put away my gear. This was at the very end of our visit, so it was really no big deal.
Monopod shooting does help improve hand held skills. Not all hand held panorams from that trip stitched well enough to post.
Dennis
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Mahmood H
Posts: 62
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: 30 Jul 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 17:46 GMT
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I thought so but was not sure.
I was there 3 years ago with my really small tripod, I tried to use it as a monopod but was reminded by a guard that tripods are not allowed and I had to put it away.
I just thought maybe a real monopod had made a difference in your case, but obviously not...
/M
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 1319
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 18:24 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 18:35 GMT
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John,
You point out: Mark, You would need more than a slight uptilt to capture the zenith! Probably around 22 degrees. The 15mm on a 5D behaves like a 10.5mm on your 40D. The nadir hole of 86 degrees diameter would be difficult to fill, too
I'm forgetting that despite being heralded as such, full-frame is a myth as far as a 5D is concerned. If it were really full-frame then 15mm wouldn't need such an uptilt. It wouldn't be that much different from my Sigma 8mm on the 40D, which is equivalent to 8mm x 1.63 = 13mm. (1.63 crop according to Autopano Pro 1.4).
An 8mm fisheye on a 5D could well be the answer, as I already hinted. (I think this was Jeffrey Martin's solution).
Tony,
At first glance of your Gorillapod setup I thought a good alternative to lugging about a heavy tripod. With a second look I became less optimistic.
1. What could your gorilla grab onto in the middle of a field or footpath, for instance?
2. Even if there is something it probably wouldn't be best placed for your composition.
3. A handrail or tree branch or backrest or that kind of thing needed for support wouldn't normally make for an interesting nadir even if you got over the difficult stitch.
Mahmood,
Welcome back after so long. Where have you been? To Iran I know because someone showed me some very nice panoramas you shot there. Why not let us all have a look? 
Mark
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Smooth
Posts: 3729
Location: Mount Panorama, Australia
Registered: 21 Jul 2004
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 20:00 GMT
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Mark,
You are confusing yourself with the 5D and 15mm Fisheye. The 15mm is not a circular fisheye, it is classed as a fullframe fisheye. It isn't circular on a 5D or any small sensor camera.
If you place a Sigma 8mm on a full size sensor you get a full circular image. The is actually what the Sigma 8mm was designed for full frame 36x24mm sensor, using it on an APS-C is basically doing the reverse of shaving an APS-C designed lens on a full size sensor (only it doesn't require any modification) because it is a backward step.
To do what you would class as usable, similar to what you get from the 1.6x and Sigma 8mm you would need a shaved Tokina 10-17mm at 12mm where you get maximum circular sensor coverage - a "drum" image (a cropped edge circle).
Regards, Smooth 
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Mahmood H
Posts: 62
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: 30 Jul 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 20:01 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 20:25 GMT
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Hello Mark,
Thanks, I have been in Sweden but I have not visited the forum so much lately. I have also been to Iran for 2 weeks during the X-mas, when I took the panoramas you refer to.
Of course, all my panoramas can be seen at www.stockholm360.net
The Shiraz panoramas are in the gallery section.
There are also other panoramas and virtual tours in the gallery for whoever that is kind and want to spend time looking at them.
Here is the absolute latest one taken on Sunday.
stockholm360.net/flashpano2.php?id=gbg_lipstick
BR,
/M
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 1319
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 23:33 GMT
updated: 1 Sep 2010 at 23:52 GMT
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Smooth,
Whereas your explanation is very helpful, it only goes someway to remove my "confusion".
Although I know it isn't true that lenses with identical focal length have identical coverage, I still don't understand why not!
I know, for instance, a Samyang 8mm has an image diameter approximately equal to the diagonal of an APS-C sensor whereas a Sigma 8mm has a diameter approximately equal to its long side. Moreover, the Samyang 8mm is marketed under different brand names and with different focal lengths specified, ranging from 4.5mm to 9mm, although each lens is identical in all but name. No wonder I am confused (and I suspect I'm not the only one)! Care to elucidate? But don't use big words like I just did to try to cover-up my ignorance. Keep it simple and I will try to understand.
Mahmood,
Bit off thread but I particularly like your Nasir al Mulk Mosque interior. I've been to the Nasir al Malk house in Shiraz (museum now) and made some panoramas too, and know just how difficult the lighting is. But you have got it just right.
Thanks to both of you.
Mark
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Amoscowdog
Posts: 16
Location: Sydney, Australia
Registered: 8 Jun 2007
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Re: Hello and travel pano!
Posted: 1 Sep 2010 at 23:50 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: At first glance of your Gorillapod setup I thought a good alternative to lugging about a heavy tripod. With a second look I became less optimistic.
I'm not saying the Gorillapod is the full solution but with a bit of creativity it can certainly help a lot, mix it in with some handheld and you can cover a lot of situations. All of the images in the Six Senses panos were shot off the Gorillapod. The biggest issue with the pod is getting a good height.
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bigwade
Posts: 821
Location: Utrecht, Netherlands
Registered: 19 Oct 2005
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