The FC-E8 lens has 8 elements and about a half size small diopter. The FC-E9 lens has 9 elements and about a 1/2 size larger diopter. If you do the math on the optics and compare the two lens it comes out that the FC-E8 does a little better job of "resolving" the light onto the CCD of the camera. How much better... can you tell. I think this depends on the dimensional size of the pano jpeg and the display size in the applet. The bigger you get the more you will notice.
I checked your website and prices out. Your example tour is more than adequate for what you are charging. Now a lot of us don't do the price range you are in but that is ok. As long as you are making money then its all good.
In my opinion I WOULD NOT invest anymore money into a setup. What you have will produce perfectly acceptable quality for "your" price range. The problem arises when you want to up your price for a more exclusive listing. Like virtual tours, not all listings are created equal. If you can target a few "top producers" who have listings over say $500,000 to a million dollars then you can pitch more advanced tour at a higher quality/larger image size. For that you might consider a Cannon/Nikon DSLR and the Sigma 8mm. If you want to go even better then the Nikkor 10.5mm might be worth considering.
We are all "pro-a**-fessionals" here LOL. So we tend to be hyper critical and down right anal at times about quality vs megapixels vs optics.
The bottom line is if your clients are happy and like the product you deliver and you are making money then that is all that matters. I haven't had any clients asking me when I am going to get rid of my old CP-950 and get a DSLR or something else. They don't know the dam difference especially the real estate agents. Heck there all half brains anyway, at least all the ones I know are....big LOL.
You do have some light balance issues to solve and you definitley should be "unsharpening" the images in PS. You have to look around the space and get a feel for where the brightest light is coming from. Shoot a set with where you think the best place to split the light is. If your not sure you should split the light through a window or off the walls etc. Do both. In post process you can choose the best one.
In 2 shot, I just do a stitch and if the hemis are off I open up both hemis in PS. I apply the "levels" command to the darkest hemi and lighten it up with "midtones only" trying to match it up with the other hemi by eyeballing. Save and do another stitch. If your still off then adjust the levels in smaller increments until you get it right. Unless you are wayyyy off in your exposres you will get a perfect stitch. However doing this will sometimes change the shape of the hemi due to the edge being lightened also. So you might have to tweak the stitching parameters alitte each time. But in PW 3.01 this is a breeze. Not so in PW 4.01.
Gen. Lee
|