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Q & A
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360 precision communication problems?
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Re: 360 precision communication problems?
Posted: 23 Apr 2009 at 19:40 GMT
updated: 23 Apr 2009 at 19:43 GMT
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I must confess to running&hiding the last 24 hours, not really sure what to say or do. 
Very glad things have come back on track. After seeing your last post Tupence, Matt & I decided that we'd use the profits from this head for the forces of good! As such we are entering a team in a charity go-karing event, this profit will secure the place and will represent the start of the fundraising. All money will go to a local hospice 
Matt&Stu
EDIT: Sam, it's a fair point, and we have thought about it... but we don't want people to think we are spamming them, and the system we run honestly does work for most of our customers. More thought perhaps.......
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Forum:
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360 precision communication problems?
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Forum:
Q & A
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360 precision communication problems?
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Re: 360 precision communication problems?
Posted: 22 Apr 2009 at 14:19 GMT
updated: 22 Apr 2009 at 14:22 GMT
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tupence,
Your head should be going out mid-next week, the parts are ready to be anodised now. It does sound a bit like you missed the order confirmation email, although Matt did say to me that you fwd'd it to him in the base of another email - maybe you just overlooked it? It should have been sent April 8th. In the order confirmation email it will say about not-relying on absolutes to be made for specific days of shooting (and stating a 10-15business day lead), and if that is the case to let us know and we can advise... in that case the adjuste option would be our preferred route.
Anyway, hopefully no harm done, and when it's inhand we can get a specific delivery day tee'd up with you offline.
Cheers,
Stu@360P
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Forum:
Q & A
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360 precision communication problems?
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Re: 360 precision communication problems?
Posted: 22 Apr 2009 at 12:15 GMT
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My stock intro;
Ultimately I think that of issues we have, >90% of them are just due to comms problems for whatever reason (sometimes spam traps our end, sometimes their end, sometimes pure mis-understanding). To try and cut this down we have put a page up on our website that explicitly outlines the communication options to people having difficulty getting through to us:
www.360precision.com/resolution.cfm
It really is that simple. If any of you out there are made aware of people having communication difficulties with us on forums or mailing lists, it would be most appreciated if you are able to direct them to the page above
This is just 'general' comms resolutions though, and it doesn't appear to be that relevant to posts recently. Things certainly seem to be much better of recent on comms failures, I'll take solace in that at least! Nonetheless in case anyone is having, or knows of anyone having problems with comms....as above.
______
Re ordering: We don’t hide the fact that some heads are made to order. This is no ‘uncovered secret’. At the time of order, an ETA on delivery will be provided. Typically for an absolute not in stock, this will be 2-4 weeks. If this is not acceptable for the customer as the wait is too long, we can offer to ship an Adjuste out FoC to tide them over if we think that will solve the issue (TuPence, if this will help you, contact me offlist). However, once an order is placed we incur real costs of fabricating a part for a specific customer. For a custom absolute we request upfront payment, with clear ETA guidelines, and we do our utmost to fulfil them. This stops us building parts for customers who change their mind, only for parts to sit on a shelf for ages (some parts we have, we will probably never sell as the bodies are now so old).
Heads that are not custom (atomes/adjsutes) do not require upfront payment if the heads are not in stock. We may take a credit card swipe / request a paypal payment but we will NOT process either until the goods go out. This is the same way that any other online retailer works for an order placed on an out of stock item. It means that as soon as it comes in, we can whap it straight out. For what it’s worth, we actually hold more stock now than we ever have, but then we also sell more variants then ever too, so it sort of cancels out a bit.
As for all this other stuff.
The internet gives people loud voices. There are 2 sides to each story. What should we do about people who have put pages up years ago that are being constantly bumped? Publish a page on our own site, with all the emails sent to&fro, shipping invoices and logs of payment/telephone calls? It’s an unwinnable battle, and in part, a lone customer knows this, and plays on it to their advantage. We also know that some content is entirely fabricated, but we have no authority to remove it.
As most of you know, I don’t really deal with the day to day stuff, and when I see this stuff posted I think the same as all of you. I tend to shout at Matt and ask him WTF is he doing? In the vast majority of cases I quickly realise I’d have dealt with it in the same way, the reality can be very different to one person’s postings.
I think that most companies, in the face of an ‘unpleasant’ customer, does as much to appease / get rid of them at any cost, due to PR damage and general PITAness of them. We don’t play that game. People who are nice & treat us fairly get the best of our attention, I make no apologies for this. My take is that this probably causes us more trouble/hassle than it saves, but at least we don’t get kicked around.
Now of course this isn’t true of all problems with customers, sometimes things haven’t worked out too well. Again, what to do in these circumstances? Make right / offer refunds, and apologise. It really does not benefit us to lose a sale; it’s the last thing we like to see.
I had one guy email me offlist from my last panotools asking for some help on something that Matt, “hadn’t dealt with”. Matt had done, and had emailed the chap instructions on what to do, but they were ignored/not noticed. This ‘issue’ was then escalated to me, who, with a quick email became a saviour… only I didn’t actually do anything. If the chap had read the email he received from Matt properly, the problem wouldn’t have existed in the first place. I think that happens quite a lot where Matt thinks that because he has written something in an email to someone they read & understood it; it’s not always the case. Once again, I know not how to solve this, we can’t force people to read what we write to them! When problems pop up, we’ll solve them, that’s all we can do really.
Anyway, that’s my take on it all.
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Forum:
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Full-screen Flash Panos.
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Re: Full-screen Flash Panos.
Posted: 2 Feb 2009 at 22:37 GMT
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KrPano is worth a look too, plus there another open source variant.
I think you just pick a platform and go for it. The XML scripting of a nice interface that you are happy with will take about 3 days I think, so just set aside one weekend and you'll come out of it happy
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Forum:
Tips & Tricks
Thread:
EGG Photo360 - My review and experience.
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Re: EGG Photo360 - My review and experience.
Posted: 2 Feb 2009 at 20:52 GMT
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One idea - maybe the remapping program is getting confused by the 16:9 image? I'd take that image into PShop and extend my canvas to make a 4:3 image and try running that through - may help? 
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Full-screen Flash Panos.
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Q & A
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What do you think about 360precision?
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Re: What do you think about 360precision?
Posted: 27 Jan 2009 at 23:16 GMT
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This thread (and the ones linked to within it) have shown us a few things. I guess we try to learn from them. Rather than dissect the ins&outs of specific posts on here (we certainly do not agree with everything written, there is always ‘another side’ to these things) it makes sense to look at the bigger picture – communication.
Ultimately I think that of issues we have, >90% of them are just due to comms problems for whatever reason (sometimes spam traps our end, sometimes their end, sometimes pure mis-understanding). To try and cut this down we have put a page up on our website that explicitly outlines the communication options to people having difficulty getting through to us:
www.360precision.com/resolution.cfm
It really is that simple. If any of you out there are made aware of people having communication difficulties with us on forums or mailing lists, it would be most appreciated if you are able to direct them to the page above
If people read & follow the guidance there I just can’t imagine them not being able to get in contact.
Our business is meant to be selling panoheads, not peeing photographers off. (Although when I see stuff like this I wonder if we’d make more money doing the latter, we certainly seem very good at it sometimes.) If anyone who has posted in this thread (or others) with what they believe to be bona-fide outstanding issues with us, I invite them to contact us now (via one of the listed channels) and make their opinion heard – if we agree with them and can do anything to help, we will do it.
I’d really like to try and draw a line under any outstanding issues.
Kindest,
Stu
PS. We will buy some beer in Romania (panotools09) if we make it.
PPS. I have asked James to lock the thread after this post as other users on PG don’t want this thread to keep getting bumped, I can understand that and it seems to have run its course anyway.
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Forum:
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What do you think about 360precision?
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Re: 360precision Absolute
Posted: 22 Jan 2009 at 17:44 GMT
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Don't drink with Matt. As a few guys will attest in Panotools 08, he put me under the table.
In fairness. I did only drop the sig 8 once & smashed the flash on my D300, but we did get some sweet photos of spiders. Oh, and this one. Manual focus on a 85f1.4
Happy days!
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Forum:
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Thread:
Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3
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Re: Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3
Posted: 11 May 2008 at 12:25 GMT
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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
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Constant drift - is this fixable with my NN3
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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
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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
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Choices
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Re: Choices
Posted: 3 May 2008 at 11:35 GMT
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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
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Forum:
Q & A
Thread:
seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
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Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 16:32 GMT
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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!
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seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
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Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 16:24 GMT
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I think if you lock all the layers together in the layers palette the offset will work on all together at once
Kindest,
Stu
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Forum:
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seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
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Re: seam problem after convert pano into QTVR file.
Posted: 18 Nov 2006 at 12:29 GMT
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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
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