Forum/thread	Message
Forum: Q & A Thread: Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3	Re: Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3 Posted: 11 May 2008 at 12:25 GMT go to thread OT, sorry Smooth+Nick, I think my post was well intended and well measured. I do not beleive I have contradicted myself in what I wrote, in fact I went to great length to explain that I agree a bit of drift is not an issue, and we try to minimise it as best we can. The point I was trying to make is that we can and we do have heads that go out with pretty much zero drift, that certainly stay within the centre bubble, and smooth you categorically stated this was impossible, I only wished to point out it was. I also brought in a bit more info about how our stuff works, but it gave context IMO. I think, myself and Smooth are arguing 2 sides of the same coin, as seems to happen on here whenever I try to chime in (which is rarely in fairness). Again.... I agree 100% that ultimately bubble levels should be used to setup the shot, and pretty much disregarded after that - although I like, where possible, our bubbles to stay as true as we can get them - and this can lie within the inner bubble. As for your (both you and nick) other posts dragging up issues which you are not involved in, whatever. Start a new thread/pm me if you want to play games, I just came in here to talk bubble levels and offer my opinion on what you wrote (that was wrong ). I think it was well balanced. I'm not even going to answer that other stuff. Kindest, Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3	Re: Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3 Posted: 10 May 2008 at 21:18 GMT updated: 13 May 2008 at 20:37 GMT go to thread Sorry for OT Smooth> It is IMPOSSIBLE with any panohead using a bullseye bubble level for the bubble to stay within the center of the level during a 360 degree rotation. NO panohead can do this, it is not a result of brand X vs brand Y. Er. OK. Whilst it's not easy to do, we try to do so whenever we can. Ultimately if you have a strong tripod + very accurate rotator + accurately installed bubble level (this is the hardest bit in some respects for us) it is totally possible. It's not something 360P make a point of caring /too/ much about, as ultimately we are talking fractions of a degree and (as stated it makes little difference to the output pano), the biggest unknown for us is the glue that holds the level in , BUT I have hardware right here that does what you proclaim impossible. I am actually with a customer at the moment and just tested his panohead and it's 100% within middle of bubble through all rotation. OK not necessary maybe, but pleasing nonetheless! Smooth>It is perfectly NORMAL for the bubble to move all over the place, so long as it returns to perfectly level at the 0 degree/position 1 click stop/starting point. Its not for us. If the bubble moved 'all over the place' we'd hope it didnt make it out the door without the bubble being removed+reset properly. We have replaced in the past for people who have had bubbles out of tolerance. That said, of course there is a tolerance on these things, but you want a level to <0.25 degrees or so to keep your verticals vertical IME without having to rely on any postprocessing work. (I cant remember the last time I had to set a vertical CP when using my panohead) Smooth>Batch stitching requires panohead with repeatable accuracy which just about cancels out any panohead that mounts via the camera body (unless it has some sort of locking device or pin) All our absolute heads have this (and adjuste if you spec the pin mounting plate and camera body you are using. So there are lots of 360P panoheads that achieve this if desired. >"IF" that was the case then any images shot with these "so called" batchable panoheads would stitch perfect Ultimately the issue is the inaccuracy of cameras and lenses that form the requirement for per-user calibration, not the panohead. Most our customers manage this quickly, some take longer and require more help to get going, but the science of rockets this is not. Methodical + careful testing will see most with prior experience up and running in a few hours. I fail to see what is 'so called' about this. smooth>Simply, this is NOT possible and never likely to be. You need a quality panohead with personal optimized software templates to match YOUR equipment. Agreed. Until the camera+lens manufacturers are able to dial out CCD offset and lens inconsistencies this will never occur. I doubt this will ever happen as the tolerances are infinitesimal on CCD positioning. smooth>If you are still thinking the bullseye bubble level should be in the centre (or even think it's possible in a real world environment) when rotating 360 degrees via click stops YOU ARE KIDDING YOURSELF! I sort of agree, it needent stay firmly in the centre in the real world, but it *is* possible, and many 360p heads go out with a level that will stay resolutely inside that middle circle. Anyway, thought I'd clear that up Kindest, Stu@360precision [This post has been edited by the moderator] alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Choices	Re: Choices Posted: 3 May 2008 at 11:35 GMT go to thread mediavets, Those shots would benefit quite a bit from some pre-stitching chromatic abberation correction - you'd get quite a bit more percieved resolution IMO. If you use raw, the CS3 Raw convertor has some CA sliders that would mop the worst of that away very quickly. Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.	Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file. Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 16:32 GMT go to thread D'oh, actually it appears not to work like that IF you want to do it in PShop just record the action on 1 layer and assign a hotkey - just repeat it to all layers, it will be faster than re-stitching. Good luck! alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.	Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file. Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 16:24 GMT go to thread I think if you lock all the layers together in the layers palette the offset will work on all together at once Kindest, Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.	Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file. Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 12:29 GMT go to thread The seam is most probably present in the file. I'd correct it by opening in photoshop filter->offset 'wrap around' offset 1000px (or 1/2 your image width) then youll see the seam in the centre of the image and you can just clone it out. HTH Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Cylindrical to cubic	Re: Cylindrical to cubic Posted: 3 Sep 2006 at 21:01 GMT go to thread Hi Marcus, Actually I just meant to use Pano2QTVR to convert them to cubics as he intitially asked. Certainly if he doesnt have a high VFoV then displaying the panorama as native cylindrical will result in smaller filesizes like for like. Kindest Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Cylindrical to cubic	Re: Cylindrical to cubic Posted: 3 Sep 2006 at 20:09 GMT go to thread Marcus, That isn't correct at all. You can't flip between cylindrical and equirectangular like that, they are different projections. As John says, the easiest way is to use Pano2QTVR Kindest, Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Nadir shot with FC-E9 / N8700 possible?	Re: Nadir shot with FC-E9 / N8700 possible? Posted: 3 Sep 2006 at 19:42 GMT go to thread Peter, Happy days! Glad I was of help. Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Nadir shot with FC-E9 / N8700 possible?	Re: Nadir shot with FC-E9 / N8700 possible? Posted: 31 Aug 2006 at 20:09 GMT go to thread Hi Peter, I'm not sure exactly what sort of nadir you are aiming to insert from your description, but I have recently produced a PDF guide for nadir insertion based on a D2x 10.5 setup. It may be of help as I am sure you can take the core ideas, and apply them to your workflow. www.360precision.com/360/stu/nadir.pdf Please let me know if that gets you anywhere. Kindest, Stu alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Question about the 303Plus	Re: Question about the 303Plus Posted: 27 Dec 2005 at 12:03 GMT go to thread Hi Mike, I am pretty sure that 303+ will hold it, but the 1DS is a heavy beast. Hand on heart I'd say you'd notice flex/straining on the rig. (Though you would still be able to shoot panoramas of course.) If you wanted a stronger head, please take a look at our offering, www.360precision.com We do not currently support the 24-105, but could if it was a necessity to you. We have many people using the 16-35 @ 28mm for hi-res work. Batch stitching is possible with the head if you wish to use this feature. To qualify this somewhat, over just my biased 'salespeak', Eric Rougier (a great VRist) has a mini-review of his 360Precision head on his site viewable here, www.fromparis.com/html/technical.php If you scroll down you see he used to use a manfrotto 303+ and 304 VR head, but has moved over to the 360P for most of his work now. I concede we are not the cheapest head on the market, but then we are the only head custom made in the UK to each individual lens + cam combination. I hope this is of interest to you! Kindest regards from a snowing Cambridge, Stuart@360Precision alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: Help with spherical panos...please	Re: Help with spherical panos...please Posted: 14 Dec 2005 at 23:13 GMT go to thread Hi Pablo, If you could host your images and project somewhere we could perhaps have a look and point you in the right direction. Without it, people are just guessing. Yours, stu@360precision.com alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: need help... problem with stitching.	Re: need help... problem with stitching. Posted: 28 Nov 2005 at 17:40 GMT updated: 28 Nov 2005 at 17:40 GMT go to thread Fatchai, It seems to me that your nodal point is off (1-2" my guess), which is causing problems. I added a few c/p's and got it to get somewhere, but it still sucked. Go outside and try to shoot in a better area, where it is easier to place control points, you keep having overlaps with bunches in the bottom etc.. you want to really spread them out all over the image. Youll want to select 'circular' as your lens type, then use the crop menu to draw around the image - don't forget to hit the 'apply to all images' Hope that helps Stuart@360precision alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: A Newbie in Need of Urgent Help!	Re: A Newbie in Need of Urgent Help! Posted: 4 Sep 2005 at 18:40 GMT go to thread Hi Han, If you just want to do cylindricals with a single level panhead, the 10-22 *may* be a bit too narrow - youll certainly want to mount it in landscape. With the 10-22 I'd recommend 8 shots at -30deg, 8 at +30 to get a decent vertical coverage, the sig 8mm may be better for you for a 1 level shoot. That said, you have the 20D and the 10-22 in your hands, go outside an shoot a handheld landscape panorama, stitch it using your favorite program - it may be wide enough youll have to decide that from the output (If not, youll have to get a sig 8mm, or get a head that will do sperical.) Hope this helps, Stuart@360precision alert moderator
Forum: Q & A Thread: A Newbie in Need of Urgent Help!	Re: A Newbie in Need of Urgent Help! Posted: 1 Sep 2005 at 23:42 GMT go to thread Sorry, forgot to answer you question, got carried away with sales patter You do not need a sig 8mm. The 10-22 will require you to take more photos per panorama, but will create a better quality (sharper) image. Yours, Stu alert moderator