Hi Guys.

I've lurked for a long time, but this is my first posting because I'm really stumped.  In the past I used a pretty simple set-up involving the FC-E8 to shoot spherical panoramas.  I just upgraded all of my equipment as you can see below in my signature.  I'm getting ready to shoot a hotel shortly her in Vegas. 

The end result cannot be Spherical.  It needs to be Cylindrical.  The reason... the end result needs to be distributed to many travel websites.  The largest company of course determines the format.  So here's my dilemma..

I need to know what wide angle lens is compatible with Panoweaver 4.0 and my camera the Nikon D80.  I went and picked up the SIGMA 12-24mm F4-5.6 EX DG ASPHERICAL LENS thinking that would be the ticket.  Combined it with a nodal ninja pano head since my Agnos head doesn't have a big enough ring to fit around this huge lens.  This lens doesn't seem to be the ticket so I'm taking it back.  Help!

Panoweaver 4.0 supports only Fisheye lens. Panoweaver 5.0 supports Wide Angle lens and Fisheye.

It is possible to crop the cylindrical view from a spherical panorama or you could mount the camera in landscape mode and shot with the Sigma F/3.5 8mm Fisheye.

You will need to "limit" the tilt values so people don't see the cropping.

Regards, Smooth  

Hi Smooth.

Turns out you are correct.  Just receive the following from EasyPano.

Panoweaver 4 doesn't support wide angle lens. Panoweaver 5 supports wide angle zoom lens, such as Canon EF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM. Theoretically, sigma 12-24MM is compatible with Panoweaver 5.0. But a suitable camera is necessary for shooting images used for panoweaver.

So now the trick is to find a way to take the photos and get them stitched together so I can provide them with a finished stiched jpg.  Doesn't sound like Panoweaver can be used to do the stitching.

As I have mentioned there are work arounds using Panoweaver 4.0 and your Sigma 8mm Fisheye.

If it is a one time job you could aways have someone else do the stitching for you (like me!) this might be a good alternative for you. 

If you need a good all round zoom lens I suggest you look for a Tokina 10-17mm Zoom Fisheye. This would work well with Panoweaver 4 or 5 and be a great lens for the Nikon D80.

Regards, Smooth