FFP2 and 360Precision: How many pictures around?

[tvslaven]

Hi. I wanted to ask this forum for some advice. I use a 350D and 10/22mm canon-lens. How many steps would you recommend? 8 or 36 images?

What kind of lens was used on the demo from FFP2? You know the _f, _r and so on? I hoped the time of manually stiching together pictures where over!

Do I need to buy an 180 degree fisheye-lens to get this 6 picture ease of use?

Hope some of you moore experienced users may help me with some pointers :rolleyes:

I hope i dont need any other stiching software than the FFP...

[cheathamlane]

Hi there:

FPP simply displays your panoramas -- it doesn't stitch them.

If you're using a 360Precision head, it should come with the appropriate indexing plate for your camera & lens combination.

That said, for the 10mm on your camera, you'll probably end up taking 9-12 shots to get a good resolution image.

A good place for pano-shooting and stitching info is the PanoTools group over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/ where there are literally hundreds of shooters with an opinion. :)

Cheers,

[izoneguy]

I just got started with the 360 Precision head. I use a Nikon D200 and the Nikkor 10.5 fisheye. I take 6 photos for the 360 and then one up and one down. I use PTI Gui to do the stitching. it produces very good results.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I use PTI Gui to do the stitching. it produces very good results.

PTGui should be the one-stop stitching software of choice. I have only recently started to use it (weeks), after having been locked into the understanding that Realviz Stitcher was the best, and I was very pleased with the quality and ease of use... along with the smartblend plugin it delivers quality one can simply not get with realviz. Some of the panos I have been assembling have needed zero manual work. Only load the images, check alignment and render it to a pano. Only when working with skies that are clear blue or greyish, without any reckognizable control points, is there a need for manual job, but still lightyears ahead of Realviz.... and several times cheaper... which doesn't matter much in the end, since the biggest saving comes in less manual work and better quality stitching.

Sincere thanks to Hans Nyberg for recommending PTGui to me a few months back.

[lc8b105]

autopano pro (www.autopano.net) is another good choice too.:)

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

But autopano does not support spherical panos (3 rows). They only mention one or two rows on their site.... or maybe I missed out that info?

[tvslaven]

Thanks for good answers, but I still havnt found out how the demo that FPP2 shows was created? Did they manually stitch together a panorama with PTGui og PTmac, and then cropped out six individually pictures for the demo?

I really need to get my head around this thing you see :-)

Because I want to end up with the same results as the demo with a smaller preview I can activate to fullscreen. This looked supernice and is exactly what I am looking for.

Hope someone can demystify this for me :idea:

[doubledrop]

Same as izoneguy i use 10.5mm requiring just 8 shots to render out the full cubic needed for FPP. Although i use Stitcher, which gives excellent results automatically, an eg here: screenstar360.com

[lc8b105]

But autopano does not support spherical panos (3 rows). They only mention one or two rows on their site.... or maybe I missed out that info?

No problem with spherical panos,what ever how many rows.:)

[izoneguy]

Thanks for good answers, but I still havnt found out how the demo that FPP2 shows was created? Did they manually stitch together a panorama with PTGui og PTmac, and then cropped out six individually pictures for the demo?

I really need to get my head around this thing you see :-)

Because I want to end up with the same results as the demo with a smaller preview I can activate to fullscreen. This looked supernice and is exactly what I am looking for.

Hope someone can demystify this for me :idea:

A good Pano Head and stitiching software are essential.

http://www.360precision.com/360/index.cfm?precision=products.absolute_canon&MainSlideID=1&mainnavID=2&MainMenuOpen=2

Look at this compability list from 360Precision.
Looks like your combo will work with the listed head.

You can download sample files to play with using PTgui

Then get http://www.ptgui.com/

Use the files and preset from 360precision.com
to get a feel for how the software works.

You must master the creation of a pano before going to
FPP2.

[GregorH]

At the end you need 3 Programms to get the result from the demo.

1.PTgui (highly recommended) to stitch the 6-8 Images to an equirectangular Image
2.Pano2VR (my recommendation) to turn the equirectangular images into cubefaces or .mov files
3.FPP for displaying the cubefaces/.movs on the webpage

[izoneguy]

Yes, he is right. I use PT Gui to do the stitching and then
use Cubic Convertor on the MAC to create the 6 cube faces.
I like that workflow because it is easier to add and or fix the bottom.
And I like using the cube faces instead of a .mov for use in
FPP. Although I am experimenting with .mov and that does
have certain applications where you might want to be able
to show a 360 .mov as well as a 360 FPP.

[izoneguy]

Sorry - Doublepost

[tvslaven]

Very nice to have such a helpfull forum. Thanks to all who have answered. I will try out all things mentioned here.

Last question:
Some people mention taking to rows? og tre rows? This is the only thing left I havnt been able to wrap my head around yet :-) Is this something I have to think about?

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

If you have a fisheye lens, you will not have to think about either 2 or 3 rows. But if you have more "normal" lens, you will normally need to take 3 rows of pictures that you will then stitch with your stitching software.

Taking first row at 0° angle... for instance 9 shots that cover all 360° in level.
Taking second row at say... 50° angle downwards, also 9 shots to cover the 360°
Taking third row at 50° angle upwards, also 9 shots to cover the top 360°.

Apart of that you would need one shot straight up and one shot straight down (preferably removing the tripod from that shot).

That's 29 photos you would then stitch for a fully spherical panorama.

With 2 rows, and even one row, you can make cylindrical panoramas that do not cover either top or bottom.

I think the following site would be a good starting point for you... http://www.panoramas.dk/panorama/index.html you can find all the info you will need to get started ... and understand the basics.

[HerbertB]

Hi,

new here, reading this thread and trying to understand why you need 'cube faces' at all.

Can you go straight from PTGui (which is what I use) to FPP with one equirectangular image? The FPP site is not clear at all on this point.

Or can I use a single MOV as an input file or is there a trade off in quality or something?

Thanks for sharing your insight!
Herbert

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Hi,

new here, reading this thread and trying to understand why you need 'cube faces' at all.

Can you go straight from PTGui (which is what I use) to FPP with one equirectangular image? The FPP site is not clear at all on this point.

Or can I use a single MOV as an input file or is there a trade off in quality or something?

Thanks for sharing your insight!
Herbert

Hi Herbert and welcome.

Yes, you can use an equirectangular image with FPP, but as things stand with the quality of it, I don't recommend it. There is a warping error in both top and bottom of the images when they are displayed through FPP. I think that next version of FPP will have a specific equirectangular plugin for displaying without that very ugly error.

You can use a single .mov file with FPP, giving you no problems at all... except the following:

Last December Adobe put in a limit on how big files can be, and that seriously hurts the quality of equirectangular images (max size 8190x4095). The limit is not as effective at killing the quality of cube faced panos, since you can make each cube face as big as 6602 x 6602 pixels.

From PTGui, the .mov files are also limited to the 8190x4095 size... That is a global limit, and not only something that applies to FPP.

I have only recently started to use PTGui as stated above, and the only major setbacks on it in my opinion, is the lack of cube face rendered output files, and the lack of zoom function when aligning images... but that will surely change sooner rather than later.

Hope this helps a little.

[HerbertB]

Tuddi, sure it helps!

I was just reading this: http://flashpanoramas.com/blog/2007/10/01/flash-panorama-player-22-announcement/ and more or less could answer my own question by now.

For the moment the size limit is not so important to me, but that may change quickly when I like to bring more detail and bandwith allows it.

Maybe we could ask the guys from PTgui to add the cube faces as an export option in a future version. I find it rather weird that in their software there is no mention of it whatsoever. I compose an email rightaway...

thanks again,
Herbert

[izoneguy]

Yes that is a pain that PT Gui does not export cube faces.
I tried several PC programs but went to Cubic Convertor on the MAC
because it gives me the best result. Using cube faces is the easiest
way to fix the bottom and lets you fix the blend in the wrap if you need to.
Plus once you have the cube faces it seems that FPP runs the best.

[Birdseyemedia]

Ptgui for stiching.

Nodal Ninja 3 or 5 for a nice pano head.

I use a Canon xti with 8mm Sigma

[HerbertB]

Yes that is a pain that PT Gui does not export cube faces.
A support guy from PTGui just replyed that cube face export is on their list for a future upgrade. Not very soon however.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

That's good news.