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Thread:
help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 22:39 GMT
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The samples I posted were crops taken from the FINAL qtvr movie after all the interpolation, resizing and compression. So the comparison is completely valid.
And like I said if you can't tell the difference then you either need an eye exam or you need to take some Photoshop lessons. The 10.5 is clearly the better lens when used by someone that knows what they’re doing. I see people all the time that resize images in Photoshop thinking they're experts in image processing but come on, if you do this then you need help.
Now I don't like to be mean or rude Doug but from the sub standard samples on your site you're not really in a position to comment. I can't find a single panorama on your site that I'd ever present to a client, not even in 1994 when Ipix first hit the scene.
Matt
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help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 11:54 GMT
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That's not what Hans is saying. Where do you think VR jobs come from, mushrooms ? They come from Ad Agencies, Photographers, web designers as well as Real Estate agents.
Matt
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Forum:
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help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 9:20 GMT
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But you don't mind the other 75%  All I;m saying is if you use the 10.5 then you can cater for 100% of the market. I personally would not be happy having clients view sub-standard tours on a 30" display. Yes this is the absolute minority but so what.
Matt
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Forum:
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help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 8:27 GMT
updated: 11 Jul 2008 at 8:28 GMT
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Well I used to host and maintain two of the largest real estate websites in Australia, one consistently in the top 10 visited sites in the country and even back then only 25% of the visitors used such small screens.
If someone is still using a 1024 x 768 screen then to be honest they're not really in the target segment for full screen virtual tours anyway.
I also don't understand why vr photographers are so intent on trying to accommodate the lowest common denominator, perhaps that's why this industry has never really taken off.
Matt
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Forum:
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Thread:
help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 7:53 GMT
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Here are two crops, one from a 10.5 and another from an 8mm. Actually the higher the resolution of the camera you're using the more noticeable the difference between the two lenses will become.
If you know what you're doing there can be massive benefits gained from down-sampling a larger image. For example, down-sampling a 12,000px image from the D300/10.5 to 8,000px will not only reduce the noise noticeably but also improve per pixel sharpness. This has two massive benefits in itself, smaller AND sharper movies. Now call me crazy but I prefer smaller (file size) and sharper virtual tours.
There's really no argument here, the 10.5 is the better lens due to the larger sensor coverage, better contrast, better colour, sharper and smaller.
8mm image crop:
10.5 image crop
Matt
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Forum:
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Thread:
help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 at 7:08 GMT
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Doug Aurand said: Andrew
I don't think anybody, including experienced VR photographers, could see a difference between an 8000x4000 and a 6000x3000 pixel image on the Internet using a typical 1024x768 computer monitor.
Once any kind of compression, even minimal JPEG or other methods used on images that appear on the Internet, is applied, no one will be able to tell the difference. Any advantage the 10.5mm had will disappear when the image is compressed.
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
That's completely not true, I can see a massive difference between panos shot using my D300/8mm (6k x 3k) and my D300/10.5 (8k x 4k). Plus who still uses a monitor with 1024 x 768 ? Less than 8% of my site visitors use this res and I assume a large part of the 8% are using either laptops with small screens or don't realise you can actually change the screen resolution
After you've cropped out the unusable part of the 8mm image you end up with over 25% more angular resolution using the 10.5. I'd say if you can't tell the difference then maybe an eye test is in order 
Matt
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Forum:
Q & A
Thread:
help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 10 Jul 2008 at 14:17 GMT
updated: 10 Jul 2008 at 14:32 GMT
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That's not entirely true. Quite a large percentage of our sales are to corporate type companies like TV studios, effects company, Universities etc and these customers would never take part in something like WWP.
Matt
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To Nadir cap or not to Nadir cap?
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Re: To Nadir cap or not to Nadir cap?
Posted: 10 Jul 2008 at 13:30 GMT
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I completely agree with Gus on this. I think in the 10 years or so I've working with panos I've only seen a handle full of panoramas that really required a nadir.
If you can automate the processing of adding a logo and link to your pano then do it, otherwise just limit the view.
Matt
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Forum:
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help for choosing wide angle lens
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Re: help for choosing wide angle lens
Posted: 10 Jul 2008 at 9:50 GMT
updated: 10 Jul 2008 at 9:50 GMT
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Steven Scott said: Of those you listed, I think the Sigma 8mm F3.5 is a dominant lens for worldwide panographers. I'll let the others give their say.
I'm not so sure about the 8mm f3.5 being dominant. We sell over ten times as many 10.5 Absolute heads compared to 8mm f3.5, in-fact we sell more Canon 15mm Absolute heads than the 8mm as well.
That fact may also be down to the fact that Nikon heads far outsell Canon heads.
Matt
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Forum:
Galleries
Thread:
A graduation day in Cambridge
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Re: A graduation day in Cambridge
Posted: 9 Jul 2008 at 7:26 GMT
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Mark Schuster said: No tricks by me this time. What you see is what came out the other end of APP after dragging in 32 shots (including the first 6-around) taken over a period of several minutes. The only editing was to remove five painted toe nails (not mine) sticking out of half a sandal (certainly not mine). Apart from this there were none of the usual amputees, walking wounded or ghosts - not even obvious clones. How's it done? Magic? Don't know, but that's one of the reasons I'm won over to APP.
But what you're describing isn't a unique feature of APP as such but Smartblend which can also be used in PTGui and other Stitching applications.
Matt
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Forum:
Tips & Tricks
Thread:
Canon 40D/ EFS 10-22/ NN3 MKII - trials & results - questions too!
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Re: Canon 40D/ EFS 10-22/ NN3 MKII - trials & results - questions too!
Posted: 8 Jul 2008 at 8:49 GMT
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Quite simply your control points are not good enough or are not wide spread enough across the images or both. A part of the problem is PTGui will report good controls when in-fact they're not really good at all. Unless PTGui reports "too good to be true" you need to go back and either add more control points or delete the worse control points and re-optimise.
You also have to remember that the control point distance is directly related to your final output size. I often see people optimise the control points whilst the output size is still relatively small, 2800 x 1400. Doing this will only give you false positives unless you either output at this size OR change the output size and THEN re-optimise.
The errors above seem to be in the region of 2-3 pixels so I'm guessing your average CP distance is in the region. To remove these errors you really want your control points all be below 1px. If this isn't possible then you might not have the NN3 set-up correctly for your camera and lens.
Matt
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Forum:
Tips & Tricks
Thread:
hdr help
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Re: hdr help
Posted: 7 Jul 2008 at 16:22 GMT
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jimt said: obviously every shot has different lighting etc...which means a lot of tweaking and adjusting with each image in photomatix....and then i end up having to do the fine tuning in photoshop.
Im looking for the holy grail where i can shoot fewer shots, process them less, get the IQ up and have more time for a few beers at night...
Well if you want really high-end results there's no option but to put in the time post processing or take the time so set-up proper lighting on site. Either way high-end results don't come quick or cheap.
Matt
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Forum:
Tips & Tricks
Thread:
hdr help
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Re: hdr help
Posted: 7 Jul 2008 at 16:20 GMT
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jimt said: Right now, my competition is delivering clear bright interior images with excellent visibility through the windows. Im assuming HDR is the best way to properly expose the indoors while not blowing out the view thru the windows??
I emailed photomatix a similar question...if they have anything interesting to say i will pass it on.
thanks...
Jim
I bet you your competitors images have nothing to do with HDR but sophisticated light systems and techniques. They probably have years and years of experience and have mastered techniques far more useful than software based HDR.
One other point, if you're taking 8-9 photos for an interior HDR you're doing something wrong. You simply do not need that many exposures, even if the sun itself is visible through the windows.
I have no idea how much experience you have but I do know that a large percentage 'virtual tour' photographers simple don't have the skills that high end specialist property photographers have. And just learning "HDR" won't get you to their level.
Matt
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Forum:
Q & A
Thread:
Sigma 8mm on APS-C: to roll or not to roll?
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Re: Sigma 8mm on APS-C: to roll or not to roll?
Posted: 5 Jul 2008 at 14:13 GMT
updated: 5 Jul 2008 at 14:17 GMT
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I have to completely agree with Gus on this. For some strange reason panoramic photographers seem to love to make things harder than they need to be. They also seem to really concentrate on the small things that in the end make absolutely no difference to the final pano.
Maybe other photographers feel some sort of satisfaction if they can actually produce a pano after deliberately making things difficult ?
Personally I've shot tens of thousands of panos and I've never tested my lens for sharpness, I've never shot with my lens rolled, I've never worried about which degree between each image the seams overlap etc, etc and I can't remember the last time I had an issue.
Yes, you can test every single setting on the camera, lens, software but at the end of the day if you only upload your final pano no one will be any the wiser.
The best advice I can give is to keep it simple and just go out and shoot panoramas. Actually doing it and learning from your mistakes will teach you far more than you can ever learn on an internet forum.
Matt
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Forum:
Q & A
Thread:
Pole aerial VR & 5D/Sigma 8/Agnos RingT combo..
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Re: Pole aerial VR & 5D/Sigma 8/Agnos RingT combo..
Posted: 4 Jul 2008 at 13:35 GMT
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You can easily cover the zenith using less than 15º but you then start to have issues with blending between the four images.
Matt
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