Hello,

I'm using a Canon S3 with a .38 fisheye, it seems to stitch ok accept for the top and bottom images. I'm new to all of this, could someone look at my images and see if I am doing this correctly?

http://www.cajunpalms.com/pano.htm

Thanks,

Ron

Wow... not really sure what to say.  LOTS OF information in your hardware description.  I looked at your .MOV and see a very large 6 sided bottom.  To make that 6 sided Nadir bottom object smaller you would might consider sliding the camera/ lens back towards you.  This means that if you are standing behind the camera looking through the view finder... you would want to relocate the camera closer to you.

Your LEFT/ RIGHT center of lens alignment looks good. You need to adjust your FRONT/Back alignmet.  You  might consider visiting this page and look at the Canon XT Rebel (350d) Test result PDF's.  It shows how to find the No Parallax Point.

http://www.360texas.com/services/software/agnos/index.htm

 You might experiment taking 4 images at 90 degrees.

Thanks for the help Dave,

I re-adjusted the Nodal point (Front/Back) with a line and a nail as instructed in the Panosarus head. They didnt say anything about lining up the top of one object to the bottom of another like in your battery example. Is this a better way to find the Nodal point, like your example with the batteries?

I tried the 4 - 90 degree shots, it got worse - I'm beginning to think this lens isn't showing a full 180 degrees? If it was I would only need 2 - 3 shots without the T&B, right?

I posted some more samples and observations at:

http://www.cajunpalms.com/pano_2.htm

Thanks for your help,

Ron

seems like it might not really be 180, becasue with 180, you would catch the tripod legs or tripod top. in ur shots, i dont see that.

the battery test is a good test and urs seems to be on the spot.

"If it was I would only need 2 - 3 shots without the T&B, right?"  yes

Hi Ron,

Welcome to the Easypano forum.

Mate, I don't want to rain on your parade, but some home truths might just help you along the way to better panoramas.

Firstly Re: Nodal Point (Wrong) it is NOT the nodal point but the Non Parallax Point you are trying to position correctly (NPP) This is a piece of cake to set up using a panohead that allows 90 degrees tilt. You must centre the cross over the centre of the (bubble level in your case)

As you can see you are slightly off. Though probably not enough to worry the stitching.

Secondly: The Canon S3 is a fine camera but that lens you are using is the worse fisheye lens I have ever seen! What is it? Optima? Phoenix? It is junk and doesn't cover anywhere near 180 degrees. The Chromatic Aberration and general clarity is at best very poor.

Here is the best I could get out of your images. ron.mov

Best thing to do?

Adapt a Nikon FC-E9 to your Canon S3 or maybe a Raynox 185 Pro. This is of course unless you want to upgrade your camera as well.

Sorry to have to put your lens down mate, but it is really, really bad!

Regards, Smooth

Thanks for the help Smooth,

I have been reading your posts, learning alot from them as well as the others. The lens is a Titanium Optics .38x - and point well taken. I will get a new lens and try it again. You did a great job on my .mov - the sky and the ground line up correctly, pano head is gone - amazing! How did you do it? 

I tried to convert to cubic.psd and then edit the top and bottom, but I might be missing a step like "flattening" the image? Never could line up T&B that way either... Hopefully a new lens will help with some of my issues - Ill let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your help!

Ron 

Thanks for your help zxcvbnm,

That's a good job on my images! You guys are really good at this, I will read more and practice more - I can't wait to actully get this far on my own.

Thanks again,
Ron

I reckon they used ptgui / panotools to stitch them images using control points.

These applications are for advance users as there is a steep learning curve. Defineltely not an easy and user friendly way. Nothing compared to Panoweaver.

No risk!

I used PTGui because those images will never stitch correctly with Panoweaver 4.0 as Panoweaver requires images that meet the expected file types. I.E: Full circular 180 degree fisheye which Ron's images aren't. Panoweaver 5.0 we are told will handle many more types of image formats and styles. Doesn't change the fact the images produced from that lens are crap.

Simply using a Nikon FC-E9 on the Canon S3 (with adaptor) will make it all come together very nicely with Panoweaver and the lens quality will be a whole lot better. (and you will get a proper 180 degree image)

Regards, Smooth