This is an open invitation to guide a newbie. I'm very tech savy and have been engaged in digital videography lately. I intend to branch out into providing virtual tour services on web sites and standalone cds. Half of the content will be outdoor shots, the other half indoor tours. After looking at all the software out there, easypano appears to be the best. My dilema is in which direction to take on the photography equipment.

Questions to anyone with significant virtual tour experience:

Lens approach: Based on your experience, is it best to use a one shot 0-360 lens, or a 180 lens and stitch 2 images together. I'd prefer to have a seemless 360 pan, so I may have answered my own question here.

Camera: The type of lens and aparatus seems to dictate the type of camera. I currently have an olypus C-730, which just isn't practical for this application, so I'll be getting a new one. I do like a camera with great zoom potential and the optical12x zoom has been great, but I want a faster startup response time and higher res than the C-730. I also need to maintain flexibility to do other types of shots while in the field (without completely breaking the bank). I like the Canon EOS series, but they don't have a swivel LCD that would be helpful with the one shot lenses.

Tripod: I have a bogen professional tripod I'd like to also use for the panorama shots, as it is very stable and has a level. Getting confused on which head will work with which cameras.

Overall: Given my situation and preferences for good resolution, which direction should I take? I don't want to spend too much time dealing with the stitching process, because I want to do high volume, high quality work. I am leaning toward something more versatile and less fragile than those one-shot systems. So...

In your opinion, what is the most appropriate lens/camera combo that I should use with my bogen tripod (#3046)?

Hi Ecodevoman,

Straight up! One-Shot Lenses do not give a very high standard of panorama when compared to a stitched shot.

Your tripod will be fine but you will need to add a "Tilt Leveller" either a Manfrotto - Kaidan will do the job.

Camera? Well the dilemma is that the 300D - 10D - 20D fitted with a fisheye lens doesn't give a full circular image on these modal cameras because of the 1.6 multiplying factor. So unless you can afford a Canon 1Ds you will be best of sticking with a Nikon. At the moment your best bet is the Coolpix 8800 and FC-E9 Fisheye lens + Adaptor. 

Panorama head will be required and I recommend the www.agnos.com MrotatorB with additional camera support bracket.

Hope this steers you in the right direction.

Regards, Smooth 

As far as the panorama head, are there any viable alternatives to the Agnos mrotator that are known to work with the coolpix 8800 setup?

A second larger question...where would the lens node position be with this 8800 combo/at what setting?

Thanks

The nodal point is a function of the lens optics. 

Light enters the front entrance pupil and somewhere in the glass optic groups it is inverted and projected on the CCD or film plane upside down.  The point on inversion is called the nodal point.

This nodal point location inside the lens must be placed directly over the top of the tripod point of rotation. Each image in the panorama series then is taken from the exact same distance.

Ok.. so the lens manufacturers often say they do not know this nodal point inside the lens they manufacture [yeah sure].  I suspect they just don't want to give away propriatory lens specification information.

So we have to go find out the nodal point by our own testing method.  I have updated our page to make the test simple.  Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see how to perform a simple test to locate the nodal point.  This will work with ANY lens.

http://360texas.com/tips/nodalpts.htm

Dave

Quote: Originally posted by ecodevoman on October-31-2004

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As far as the panorama head, are there any viable alternatives to the Agnos mrotator that are known to work with the coolpix 8800 setup?

A second larger question...where would the lens node position be with this 8800 combo/at what setting?

Thanks

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To answer your question: Probably!

But if there is it is not commonly known. Nothing from Kaidan works except "maybe" the Twin Axis version, but I cannot be sure that there is enough length.

I would be buying the MrotatorB from Agnos without hesitation.

Why is it you are looking elsewhere?

Price is good product is great and delivery takes only 4 to 10 days! and the best bit is that you don't have to find the nodal point it has already been found by Agnos "fit your lens and shoot" to easy!

Regards, Smooth

My only problem with Agnos is the difficulty finding a good deal, or any source to purchse from in the states, for that matter. They don't seem to work with one of our largest resellers, BandH photo. Can anyone provide a source in the US for purchase and what price range I should expect? Thanks,

send agnos an email requesting  price of the item, and shipping to the USA (tell him your zip code).

must people have done it this way and they seem happy with the product and delivery.

He's quick with the emails. Perhaps it went to his junkmail or got deleted by mistake. Or perhaps he's out of the office.

In the subject write: Agnos Order

This way he knows that is not junkmail. Better luck.

NIKON SUCKS!!!!

Two months ago I attempted to purchase all the equipment suggested--and succeeded with everything except for the essential UR-E18 converter adapter and the agnos mrotator B. I don't blame agnos for their part because they can't get theirs ready until Nikon gets around to making their part available.

I can't by any stretch of logic imagine how Nikon can pull off implementing a sophisticated camera and a 180 degree lens, but FAIL to deliver to the market what is essentially a threaded pipe to make the wide angle usable.

No one on earth seems to carry the device at present and they all point to Nikon as the problem. Nikon representatives won't admit to their failure--they said to try larger retailers (which I already had). At this point there are no guaranteed delivery timelines from Nikon and they are already far past all promises for delivery dates made to vendors. This is one of the most irresponsible chain of events I've seen from a major camera equipment manufacturer.

At this point, I've lost a lot of credibility with all the customers I had lined up for VR panos. I'm so upset with Nikon, I would like to try to return the lens and sell the camera at a loss. I didn't want to deal with the 1.6 multiplier problem on the lower priced Canon systems, but I'd rather deal with a manufacturer that can keep its promises. Any suggestions to the next best system in a Canon (Coolpix 8800 with FC-E9 lens and mrotator)?