I am a former iPix Real Estate Wizard user.

I just recently purchased Panoweaver and Tourweaver but having a lot trouble using Panoweaver.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 8700 with the Nikon FC-E9 Fisheye lens.

I can't see to take pictures that match up correctly. Using iPix I would simply take two hemispheres, return to my office, and the Real Estate Wizard would stitch the two sides together.

When I try the same with Panoweaver, the two sides never match up, or the like one room, 1/2 was white the other was yellow after they were stiched together.

Am I doing something wrong? I was told I can use the iPix Rotator, maybe I can't?

Please help

Hi Ron.

Welcome to the Easypano forums.

You are best to shoot three shots using that set up and to learn how to set the AE-L for each panorama set. Panoweaver is a stitcher and doesn't offer colour blending or correction.

Like all new software to your collection you will have to learn how to use it.

Panoweaver is very capable software.

If you offer up a set of images I will take a look for you and offer some further advise.

Regards, Smooth 

danny where u able to solve the problem by adjusting the programs settings?

or ur still getting poor results?

Hey Ron--

I have gone through some of the exact same problems, and I have exactly the same camera and fisheye, and I came to tourweaver/panoweaver from iPix, as well.  First, Smooth is the man!  He helped me with many of the problems I was having.  Listen to anything he says.

My suggestion is to do some test VTs in your own house or apartment, and pull them up in the software.  What I found was, I would use the old iPix tripod rotator (2 shot).  Try taking one pair of shots with a lot of light, one in the middle, one with low light, and finally, one with AE lock on.  This is what I do at most houses where I go to take VTs  (I am not the most conusmate profession in photograhy, but I do get paid, and often!).  Most of the time, the set of pics that look the best is the pair with the AE lock on.  I just learned where this was on my camera recently.  If you don't know where that is on the Coolpix 8700, I can tell you.  Also, position the camera away from any strong light source (usually 45 degrees).  This will seem awkard at first, becasue sometimes, you are not pointing the camera directly at what you want to be the emphasis of your shot, but it still works.

I have a lot of other tricks I use.  Let me know if you want me to share.  But I do have the same camera, the same fisheye, the same Easypano software, and use to deal with iPix, so feel free to contact me, if you need to.

Hang in there.

lef3@bellsouth.net

After looking at Ron's images the main issue was that the camera wasn't level (or had been re-leveled in the second position) between shots. Leveling should only take place in position (1). Using this Camera / Lens combination it is recommended that you shoot 3 shots at 120 degrees and stitch using Panoweaver. If your rotator/panohead doesn't have 3 click stops this doesn't matter just mark 3 positions at 120 degrees and manually place the camera into these positions. The reason for 3 shots is because the sharpest part of a Fisheye lens is the centre and with having much more overlap the automatic stitcher has much more area to line up and add control points resulting in better stitched panorama images.

I recommend you shot in Manual Mode with and Aperture of F/8 and a matching shutter speed to match that of the internal light meter (which can be seen on your LCD) |--|--| with the centre position being correct 0EV. Similar results can be had using Aperture Priority mode and using the AE-Lock for each panoramic series of shots. Just remember to reset it after you have completed a series.

Shooting 90 degrees of the brightness light is a very good idea. This is where you have half the brightness light in frame and this is where you are best to make your shutter speed match the internal light meter. Never set up your shot looking straight into the bright light. In fact you shouldn't ever have the bright sun pointed directly into the centre of your lens if you can help it.

Given the opportunity you are always better to shoot in RAW format and learn how to process the image for best results using a RAW converter (I favour Photoshop CS2 RAW Converter 3.1) But I'm sure others work just as well.

Regards, Smooth