I've now completely replaced my LF gear for a pano setup. I'm head over heels in love with the 6X12 format and find that I can achieve that easily with a 3 shot pano using my 5D. That gives me a native 18 megapixel file. Great. Today I tried shooting it in vertical and just shooting more frames to achieve the same ratio but with more more resolution. With a 6 shot pano I've hit 39 megapixels and the resolution is just great, more than I need technically but it's so little effort, why not?
Apart from the fact that when stitching like this you get a lot of wide angle effect due to being so much nearer to the subject (I would love to use longer lenses but DOF is a serious problem), evenso with my 50mm, the difference between the focal point used for the 'middle' frame and the subject when you are rotating to the far left and right is quite dramatic. I'm shooting at f22 anyway but diffraction is rather obvious this stopped down and to be honest with that big a shift in focus, I'd prefer to get it right rather than rely on DOF to 'see me through'.
As such, should I refocus on the subject each time I rotate making sure that each frame has the optimum focus on the subject or will I start getting problems?
I do know about programs such as Helicon but trying to avoid the need (it's useless for moving subjects such as branches anyway, autopano pro is actually very good with that), I would prefer to make the most of each frame focus wise in camera and leave helicon for territory needing a tilt lens!
I always use manual focus and leave it set throughout the pano "run", but I'm not
sure you have to - most canon lenses pull and I've never really wanted to see if
the pano tools could deal effectively with that. You might just try it and see
what happens..
I prefer to turn AF off and use manual focus. Particularly with panos, if the camera autofocuses on a point where "it's not supposed to in my eye"----that one frame can completely ruin the panorama effort. Not having that focused frame is the same as getting a compromised shot from not using a sturdy tripod or cable release.
Single-shots are always easiest, but a successful pano is breathtaking.
You can see my latest efforts with panorama images using medium format digital at www.houseoflandscapes.com in the Canada gallery. All manual focused.
I use AF to focus at the hyperfocal distance (or as close as I can get to it), then switch to MF and shoot all the frames for the pano. For my 50mm at f11, the hyperfocal distance is about 7.5 metres / 25 feet. It works for me.
My problem was with the focus shift as you rotate, did some testing today and no idea why but refocusing caused a softer picture overall than just leaving the focu where it was when you started. This was with a pretty close up subject. Less work for me!
