Well, I think I’ve finally figured out how to get a pretty good panorama stitch in one try. Here are the details:
I’m using my new Canon 5D Mark II with the Sigma 8mm 3.5 fisheye lens. Since the 5D has a full sensor, I’m getting a significant amount of overlapping information in the 6 shots, each 60º from the previous shot. This alone made an enormous difference in stitching ease!
I also purchased a new pano head, the Adjuste, from 360Precision. The older pano head, the Absolute, would not work with my new 5D. Rather than purchasing a new arm for the Absolute, I just bought the new head that will work with any camera/lens combination. I like this pano head far better. It’s adjustable and half as heavy as the Absolute–which is really heavy.
The Adjuste posed a new problem I hadn’t had before: this pano head has an adjustable arm across the bottom so it can accommodate any camera/lens combination. The base arm is rather obvious in the base shots. Removing it in Photoshop is a total pain!!
To remedy this issue, I am now shooting 12 shots: 2 rows of 6 at 60º distance each. The bottom row is angled down 30º. The top row is angled up 30º. Now I don’t need to shoot any base shots at all, and the duplicated information is used by the stitching program so the pano base arm is calculated out of the bottom of the stitched image–wonderful!
So get ready. I’ve made some quick panos today and am about to post them…