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Question about pano and gimbal equipment

I had a friend who builds websites for businesses ask me about doing photos for the businesses. Most of the photos will be interiors and he wanted virtual tour photos for full 360 in all directions. Because I've never done this type of photography I don't have any of the equipment necessary but was willing to get some (affordable equipment at first until I see if this is going to be profitable). My camera body is a 7D. I was thinking the Canon 10-18mm (thoughts on this would also be appreciated) but I'm stuck on the pano head and gimbal heads and I need some guidance. If this works out I will upgrade.

Any advice, suggestions, help is greatly appreciated.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I had a friend who builds websites for businesses ask me about doing photos for the businesses. Most of the photos will be interiors and he wanted virtual tour photos for full 360 in all directions. Because I've never done this type of photography I don't have any of the equipment necessary but was willing to get some (affordable equipment at first until I see if this is going to be profitable). My camera body is a 7D. I was thinking the Canon 10-18mm (thoughts on this would also be appreciated) but I'm stuck on the pano head and gimbal heads and I need some guidance. If this works out I will upgrade.

Any advice, suggestions, help is greatly appreciated.

I hope there is money in it for you! Do you have any idea about how much money is involved and how many interiors you will have to cover. My instinct is to send you first to Kolor.com to try out their panoramas including 360 degree virtual reality with ability to move from one room to another via nodes at the junctions of different spaces.

Where are you located. If you are in Los Angeles I might be able to help you.

Also look at The work of Nicolas Claris on 3D videos of boats.

Asher
 
Asher,

I'm in the Dallas area. I have a friend that builds website for churches, scuba shops, bars, etc. who said he'll sell for me and integrate into his web pages and apps. I have another friend who is a realtor so the potential is there if I can figure out how to do this. I was going to get some cheaper equipment to begin with just to get started then upgrade if it took off.

Do you know of anyone in my area? There is a place called the camera spot in plano, just up the road a bit, that was my next stop when I get time to go up there.

I'm a little confused about the equipment. I've watched a few videos but most of what I can find is for outdoor stuff.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Kari,

Look at gigapan.com That's all you need. I have 3 of them! Read more here! I could sell one of them, perhaps, hardly used!

All you need is a 35mm, 50 mm or 100 mm lens set to f5.6 05 f8 and focused to the plane of major interest and DOF will cover the rest.

If you have the camera set to bracket shots, then software can give you an HDR result if you wish.

You could even use a digicam!

Asher
 
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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
A few years ago I spent some time with a friend of mine who did a lot of high end 360 degree HDR spheres and backplates for the gaming industry and his animation business. He introduced me to a few basics of the process.

Firstly, the tripod head really isn't that important other than it be solid enough with the tripod legs (a heavy wight hanging from the centre post does wonders). The Pano Bracket is the useful part. While these range from expensive to inexpensive - automated to basic manual - - - the most important part according to him, was making sure that the nodal point of the lens was accurately positioned over the rotation point of the bracket. This nodal point needs to be calculated for each lens - and if using a zoom lens, each focal length you will use.

The software that he was dedicated to and so used, was called Maya I believe. For his animations, he used it in conjunction with Adobe After Effects. One point that he mentioned to me was that it is much more difficult to get accurate stitching with very wide angle lenses. At the time I had a wonderful Sigma 10-20 lens with my Nikon D200 that I thought would be perfect for getting the captures done quickly. He soon showed me how that wasn't the case. So apparently it takes away a lot of extra work and frustration if a more normal focal length lens is used to create 360 panos (he was shooting each position of the pano with 9 HDR frames so had a lot of alignment concerns to worry about).


I can't remember what the brand of the inexpensive manual bracket that he used was - - - but with a quick Google search this morning, I did find this handmade unit and instructions that probably wasn't too much different - expect for some markings (which can easily be added with a magic marker I'd think)

http://www.peterloud.co.uk/nodalsamurai/nodalsamurai.html




It is a big learning curve, but very rewarding with good results. All the best.



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Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Robert,

A few years ago I spent some time with a friend of mine who did a lot of high end 360 degree HDR spheres and backplates for the gaming industry and his animation business. He introduced me to a few basics of the process.
<snip>

. . .the most important part according to him, was making sure that the nodal point of the lens was accurately positioned over the rotation point of the bracket.

Actually, a lens has two nodal points. So which one should we use?

Actually neither (I was just pulling your leg). The appropriate location for the panoramic pivot axis is through the entrance pupil of the lens.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
If you want to do this quick and easy: Ricoh Theta. The older M15 can be had for little money used and that is perfectly sufficient for a web page.

This is a major advance in simplicity and low price point. I commend this option.

Still, I have become pretty good at taking adjacent overlapping pictures and an able to do this handheld. As a guide to novices, hold the camera over a wall or marked spot or coin so that one rotates the camera through an imaginary entrance pupil at about the center of the front of the lens.

Simply process using autopano software from http://Kolor.com, this works perfectly, 95% of the time without a lot of adjustments!

For handheld panos, try to be at least 10 feet from objects and use f5.6 or f 8.0! Autopano recognizes bracketed shots and can combine best exposed pixels or deliver HDR output! Still, the Gigapan robots are really simple to use and all the angles will be correct every time. I also use the Really Right Stuff pano head as it is also great as a gimbal for shooting birds.

Asher
 
Working my day job is taking up a lot of time so I don't get on here or get to shoot nearly as much as I want to. I'm hoping to start working on the pano stuff this week. I decided to get the 10-18mm Canon lens and also got the Ricoh Theta S. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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