p.2 #1 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
Mr Joe wrote:
I've been using Enfuse in PTGui to blend clouds and it works pretty well.
Yes, it works surprisingly well! It leaves a rather flat image, but that can be easily tweaked in Lightroom afterward with a touch of clarity or contrast. I love it for interiors where you want a fairly flat image anyway and true to the natural colors of the walls. For more dynamic outdoor scenes where I want more punch I'll fuse them with SNS HDR or occasionally Photomatix before stitching with PTGui.
As a side note: the Panoneed robotic head saves out .xml positioning files that load well into PTGui. I have the Panoneed trigger the Promote Control, and the Promote Control shoots the brackets for me. When I plug the Panoneed touch controller into the computer it saves out two .xml files for each panorama: one with all the images of the brackets, and one with a single image from each bracket. This is great because then I can choose later whether I want to load all the images into PTGui and do my blending there, or blend outside of PTGui and just bring in one photo for each bracketed set. Either way I just choose the .xml file that has the correct number of images.
p.2 #2 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
I've had good luck with PTGui's exposure fusion, but recently shot a 360 interior where I just wasn't getting good results. Surprisingly, I got really great natural looking transitions in Photomatix. And I'm not a grungey halo loving HDR guy.
In some other recent experiments, I found the Photomatix anti-ghosting to work much better on trees than Photoshop or PTGui's exposure Fusion.
I haven't tried SNS HDR.
How much computer horsepower are you using the process the big Gigapans? A 5 shot bracket in an 8 shot pano works OK on my i7 Mac with 16GB of RAM, but I think I'd need a faster machine for the level of resolution you're shooting.
p.2 #3 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
I'm not doing many over 500 megapixels, so I've only done a few that are technically gigapans. For the large ones I go back and forth between PTGui and AutoPano Giga. I often do my blending in Photoshop for those. I had been doing them on a 1st gen Core i7 with 8GB of RAM and that just wasn't cutting it! This spring I upgraded to an Ivy Core Xeon with 32GB RAM. I also upgraded my older Intel X25-M 80GB SSDs to Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSDs, both in RAID 0 arrays. Dramatic performance jump. Most things will render fine with 32GB of RAM, but it's still a bottleneck on the big stuff. I'm waiting on Intel to refresh their dual socket chipsets with USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, and QuickSync before I invest in dual CPUs and 256GB of RAM or so. I suspect Apple is impatient too because their Mac Pro has not been updated in years either. I mostly run Windows so I can choose my own hardware and build my own workstations. My biggest problem now is storage space. I can't back things up to single 3TB hard drives anymore for offsite backups, and I need to go to external RAID arrays this summer if enough projects come in to pay for it. None of this stuff is cheap! And people wonder why photos aren't free? :-P
p.2 #4 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
sjms wrote:
you must be dedicated at 2000 euros as an intro price.
Yes. But you get a device for which you need to pay much more somewhere else.
I assisted the developer as a pro-photographer testing the head under
hard commercial aspects over two years and tested Dr. Clauss Rodeon heads, Seitz VR2 - both the most relevant heads on the market.
p.2 #5 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
like I said you must be dedicated. If I were in your position and it was my specialty would give this serious thought. I actually will have potential use for it in my work but I would probably be looking at a rental option as it would not be a full time venture. it would be an interesting tool to work with.
p.2 #9 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
Ah, my apologies! I'm writing too many things at once on too many pages and switched names around. Of course I meant you Klaus! I gotta take a break and find some breakfast!
p.2 #11 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
Nicely done! Perfect exposure and nice, crisp lines with good stitching. What focal length did you use and on what sensor? Feels like 35mm to 50mm range?
p.2 #12 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
aaronpriest wrote:
Nicely done! Perfect exposure and nice, crisp lines with good stitching. What focal length did you use and on what sensor? Feels like 35mm to 50mm range?
p.2 #17 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
Mr Joe wrote:
Aaron - Have you thought about using a D800 for the same resolution in less shots?
The saved time isnīt THAT much related to the costs. The 5D2 is a great workhorse.
But my next camera definitely will be a Nikon in the class of a D800īs following model - i have 12 manual Nikon-lenses and use them on the 5D2 . . .
Theyīre excellent!
p.2 #18 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
I've been eyeing a D800E for quite some time, some for the video mode, some for the resolution and sharpness, and some for the f/8 autofocus. I'd keep my D700 and vertical grip for handheld HDR though to keep the 8fps. However, that being said, you can still take more photos per MINUTE with the D800 because it's buffer is bigger. For me it comes down to costs. I'd have to get a larger memory card, more storage space on my computer, a different vertical grip and more batteries, plus another L bracket. It adds up. This year I upgraded my computer instead and bought a Panoneed.
p.2 #19 · Panoneed Motorized Panoramic Head - German Engineering
aaronpriest wrote:
you can still take more photos per MINUTE with the D800 because it's buffer is bigger.
Well - you definitely need less shots using a D800.
Or you do the same amount of shots but have a lot more resolution/zoom factor.
I guess you can compare the resolution you now get fom a 20mm rect. to a resolution you get then from a 16mm fisheye (thatīs only guessed - but it should go this direction.)
Of course you need fewer shots using the fisheye - so you indeed save time when you shoot.
But i guess werīre not really in the quick-shooting business . .
