I own a Coolpix 4500+FCE8, and my 4 questions are :

- did anybody compare 4500+FCE8 and 8700+FCE9 ?

- which one gives the best results (8700 with 8Mpix I hope...) ?

- where can I find "sources pictures" shots whith a 8700 ?

- which is actually the BEST system to be used with PW 3.01 (fisheye 2 or 3 pics)... And plz don't answer EOS 1DS + fish, I can't buy it...

Regards from French guaiana, south america.

Phil

Results will be similar between both cameras if you are displaying in smaller applets. I.E 400x300 You will tell the difference when larger I.E Fullscreen or Zooming in hard.

3 shot is far superior to two shot.

The Coolpix 4500 and FC-E8 produce fine panorama's Fact is most in my gallery are done using this set up (three shot Panoweaver 3.01 Pro)

Regards, Smooth

Thanks, smooth.

I don't want to produce very large panos, but I want to be able to zoom inthe panos to get details. So it is quiet the same thing...

Did you try the 8700+FC-E9 ?

What I think (perhaps I'm wrong) the 8700+FC-E9 is actually the best becaus it is 8MPix, circular fisheye, not too expensive. And I'm stonished not to see any example of panos made with that system, as nobody would have try it...

Phil

I'm pretty shore Jeremy at Mediapix www.360.hk  was using this combination and I'm sure others are also.

The Coolpix 8800 and 8400 are better camera's over the 8700 though it is a capable camera. Test result proved the FC-E8 is a sharper (thus better) lens than the FC-E9 with is much softer (I own both!)

Question becomes if I owned a CP4500 and FC-E8 would I sell it in favour of the CP8700 and FC-E9 the answer is NO. But I would for the CP8800 and FC-E9 because of the extra features.

Reality is I use my Canon DSLR these days with Sigma 8mm and my CP5000 and FC-E8. My FC-E9 sits around doing nothing! But "might" get mated to a CP8800 when I think the price has dropped enough.

Regards, Smooth

Hi smooth

Thank you for your link, it seems that Mediapix uses this combination.

I know that the resolution isn't the own quality parameter, but it's hard to believe that I won't get a better quality with a 8MPix camera instead of a 3MPix...

About the 8800, I received an Easypano's newsletter a couple days ago :

Nikon company once announced that Nikon Coolpix 8800 Camera can capture full circular fisheye images, but after testing, our photographers found that the fisheye image can not cover 180 degrees of FOV. Nikon Coolpix 8800 is still compatible with Panoweaver 3.01, but in order to get full 360 degrees panorama, you have to shoot three images, then stitch them together in Panoweaver 3.01 Professional Edition.

So you have to take 3 pics, but as I read on this forum, you get a better quality with 3 shots...

Did you hear about that :

http://www.agnos.com/catalogo.htm?v_lingua=ITA&v_iss_web=0000000000000084856934218533&v_cod_art_sche=MROTATORC

And if yes, what do you think ? If that really works, it seems to be the best Quality/Price/Speediness combination. 3 shots, hi-res pano...

Phil

Phil,

Yes, I have an MrotatorC and it does work very well and the quality is very high. But you must have a DSLR and Sigma 8mm Fisheye lens and different software.

Examples are on my site in the fullscreen gallery.

Even better results will happen with 4 shots and Panoweaver 4.0 (But not using the MrotatorC) Better to buy the Agnos QuicklyQTCubic panohead.

Believe me 8MP over 4MP is not that big of a deal. But DSLR over Prosumer Coolpix is. A 4MP DSLR is far better then a 8MP Prosumer.

Regards, Smooth

Dear Smooth,

You state that:

Yes, I have an MrotatorC and it does work very well and the quality is very high. But you must have a DSLR and Sigma 8mm Fisheye lens and different software.

What different software do you recommend or are you using?

Thank you.

kazesoze.

I'm not so much recommending "other" software but I can tell you the MrotatorC is designed for use with PTGui Panotools. This you would have found by visiting the Agnos site and the MrotatorC

Regards, Smooth