I have been producing nice cylindrical virtual tours with interactive floor plans in Tourweaver for about 6 months now... I'm ready to upgrade to spherical panoramas to have more of an edge on my competition, but we are also branching out to commercial work as well.

With that said, I am looking for the best SLR, lens, & rotator setup for producing high quality tours for commercial (possibly full screen) purposes, but a setup that isn't too cumbersome for high-end real estate.

What I also need is camera settings for the camera/lens configuration.  I tried the Nikon d70s with the Sigma 8mm and spent hours experimenting and could never get an acceptable or crisp & clear panorama.

The result I am seeking is a pano that looks as good as the samples in the Easypano Panoweaver gallery on their site.  I have wasted a lot of money experimenting, and I really just want the best, but I also need to know how to use it properly...

Please Help!

Will

I see that a lot of people have viewed your comment but none have replied.  Ok so you have learned alot making cylinder panoramas. 

You have tried the d70s and the sigma 8mm lens.  Did you locate the nodal point ?   Your subjective criteria for a great image is "Crisp and Clear [of stitching errors?] image.

I assume you have aligned the Sigma 8 lens properly on your panorama head (not the traditional tripod pan-tilt head).  You have removed the Left to Right Parallax.  You might find that if you use the camera settings of 'Aperture Priority by setting the the f-stop to f/8' and letting the camera determine the shutter speed.  Everything from 8" in front of the lens to infinity will be in focus.  f/8 to f/10 is the lens sweet spot range.  Also set the camera to 'Center Point' for light meter reading.

The Sigma 8mm only needs 4 images around the horizon.  And on the 4th click stop position.. you can rotate the camera to view straight UP for the 5th image of the sky or ceiling.  Be sure to kneal down below the Sigma 8 edge view angle so as not to get into the image.

What software are you using to stitch the image? You didn't mention it.

The person behind the camera is most important. Know how to use your camera features.

GREAT images the FIRST TIME  goes along way to producing a GREAT final panorama.

Dave