I too thought about the loss of the image rotational adjustment tools.  But not for long. 

I understand that it is necessary for the photographer to improve their camera skills in making sure that the original image set is properly aligned and levelled.   This can be achieved by using the proper panorama head and leveller for your specific camera and lens.

Dave

Dave,

Mate, you are wrong. Panoweaver 4.0 is streets ahead of Panoweaver 3.01 Pro.

If you ever needed to adjust pitch, roll and yaw then you are simply not shooting right. This topic used to come up often with people saying I can get a good result if I manually adjust the pitch, roll and yaw etc and I would think to myself what are they doing so wrong that I never need these options? Simply put you MUST have the correct nodal point (entrance pupil) set. I suggest the www.agnos.com MrotatorB with matching support bracket. You also MUST have perfect level in the number 1 position this is the 0-360 mark. You DO NOT re-level your camera at position 2 or 3. and you must be 100% sure you don't bump the tripod when rotating or the camera / tripod when shooting. This is why it is recommended that you use either the self timer option or a remote shutter device.

The fisheye enclosing option does make a huge difference and should be set to the outer limits of the image without adding the chromatic (purple) ring. Once you have set this for the first image you should then use the "same for all" images in that image/panorama set.

I have stitched many hundreds/thousands or panoramas and I can 100% assure you that Panorama 4.0 does a fantastic job on auto stitching. But only once you know how the shoot a set of images correctly and have a good understanding of the software.

This forum is full of help - be sure to utilise it.

Regards, Smooth

Morning Smooth,

"I understand that it is necessary for the photographer to improve their camera skills in making sure that the original image set is properly aligned and levelled.   This can be achieved by using the proper panorama head and leveller for your specific camera and lens."

I agree with you... Getting the images taken properly is most important.  It reduces the need for stitch correction settings.

Dave

Yes Dave,

The whole thing is a breeze once you get on top of the alignment of the camera on the panohead and the whole thing in 100% level.

Don't get me wrong, I too had pano's that wouldn't stitch "automatically" but it didn't take me long to realise that I had made a mistake in my set up. I have found that it is just as important to make sure the camera is level in both axises as the camera can also drop at the lens. Of course you personally know this, but I thought I would mention it for the other readers.

This all brings to mind the "Twin Axis" hot shoe bubble level and the one other thing. The highest bubble level I.E the one closest to the "entrance pupil" of the lens is the one you should be paying attention too.

Up shot is, once it's set up correctly the panorama's automatically stitch correctly!

Regards, Smooth

Hi guys,

I upgraded to PW4 a little while ago and I can say to (to repeat what Smooth said) that it is 100 miles ahead of PW3.   I've been stiching pictures with PW4 that I wasn't able to in PW3.   Thanks to the matching points!

I have one question though! 

Smooth says "You also MUST have perfect level in the number 1 position this is the 0-360 mark. You DO NOT re-level your camera at position 2 or 3." Why don't you level the camera for the other 2 positions?  I always readjust the level and it seems to work ok, if not great!  The adjustment are very slight thought! 

Thanks
www.panomedia.ca

You should not re-level your panohead for the following reason.

Agnos heads have the bubble level built into the actual panohead that rotates with the panohead hardware. (Independent of the tripod or tilt leveller) Once it is levelled at position (1) 0-360 mark the correct level has been obtained for the complete shooting of the panorama series of shots. The bubble level "may" move from it's centre position when moved to the next click stop and consequent click stops but once you return to position (1) 0.360 the level is still 100% correct. What you are seeing with the bubble moving from the centre position is the slight inaccuracy in the hardware. This is so slight that the human eye cannot see this and even less so within the panorama image. (you cannot see it, it is impossible)

If you re-level you are creating misalignments everytime you re-level as these shots are not taken as a set but as individual shots. This will cause errors in stitching and is why you need to use "matching points" I don't ever need to use these when I stitch with Panoweaver 4.0.

What I'm stating here is clearly stated in the Agnos Mrotator instruction manual. (Page 6)

Making re-levelling adjustments, will not cause a non stitch-able panorama. Because typically you are only making ever so slight adjustments. But you are kidding yourself if you think it is helping your stitching. It simply doesn't make sense and will cause stitching misalignments.

Imagine this, you are on a rotating turntable (levelled at position 1) with a video camera on a tripod. (This could be a childs Round-a-Bout in a park) You record while in rotation without re-levelling at "any" point or degree. You play it back and all looks as it should. Nice smooth and seamless in motion. 

Now, imagine the same video footage if you re-levelled at every corresponding click spot position whilst all the time recording (even if the re-levelling was instant) your video would jump. Correct?

I hope this sheds some light on why you shouldn't re-level when shooting in rotation.

All of this is not to say you shouldn't make 100% sure your tripod is level BEFORE you level your panohead at the 0-360 number (1) position first.

Regards, Smooth

Smooth and I use two different types of Panorama Heads.  He uses AGNOS's and I use an older Kaidan Kiwi990 pan head. 

On Smooth's Agnos head you only need to align 1 time on click stop position #1. 

I on the other hand, try to get the tripod itself only near levelled.  As a result, I level the Kaidan Kiwi990 deck at each click stop. This assures that the top of the first image is the same as the top elevation of all the following images.  If I didn't... my images would show a stitched gradual stair step downward direction.

Two different pan heads.. two different techniques. 

Dave