Your photo gear?

Q&A about the latest versions
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Hrvoje
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:34 pm
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
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Hi

I'm wondering, which gear are you using for taking panoramas?
Currently, I'm using Olympus e-30 + Zuiko digital 8mm fisheye lens, Vanguard Tracker B-100 tripod with Nodal Ninja 5 panoramic head.

I'm not satisfied with e-30 because it doesn't perform good in low light conditions for panoramas with peoples.
High ISO produces visible noise, and long exposures blurry people. Also, I simply cannot force people to freeze in time so that I can make my 10 shoots in peace, therefore I need to be very fast which often produces focus errors.

So I was thinking (when finance permits) to upgrade to full frame camera: Canon 5d mkII + Sigma 8mm F3.5 EX DG Circular Fisheye
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/8mm-f35- ... heye-sigma

Fullframe Sigma fisheye would mean much better lens coverage which would result in only three (or 4) shoots per pano needed,
while Canon's good high ISO vs noise performance could give me drastically better crowd shots in low light.

Yes, this is pricey upgrade, but after that Ill have full frame camera :)

Do any of you have same or similar camera and lens combo?
Anything other to recommend?


Also, to make spherical pano, 1st I need to take 6 photos around, with camera in portrait orientation. Than I'm shooting the sky - 1 shoot.
After that pointing camera down, shoot 1 photo, rotating it 180 degrees and taking another photo,
than removing camera from tripod and shooting ground where tripod was for patching (tripod removal) process.

I'm using Photoshop to process last three images for removing tripod from ground, PTGui for stitching em, Photoshop again to fix some impurities or ghosts, than finally Pano2VR to make finished pano.

That means that for each pano I need to take 10 photos + editing time, which may be faster or slower, depending on panorama or light complexity.

With fullframe circular lens I would need only 4 photos, which ends with faster photographing times, faster pano creating, and lesser disk space used.

Thoughts?

Regards,
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Hrvoje
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:34 pm
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Contact:

No single answer?

I can think of three possible reasons to this:

1. I'm keeping my gear as top secret
2. Not using any photo gear at all
3. Too busy with making panos to answer here

:D

Cheers
Mdholl
Posts: 158
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 11:43 am

hi.
I use canon 400d + sigma 10-20mm + self made head.
At the begining I used kit lens (@18mm) :)

I think thal FF camera + fisheye can help a lot.
About noise - I use iso 800 and lightroom. Often I do can reduce noise. Try to play with it.
Carl Lamb
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 6:00 pm

Nikon D200 & Nikon 10.5mm dx fisheye lens eye with nodal ninja head and stitcher unlimited software.
ThomasK
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:40 am

Think about the 5D MKII and a shaved Tokina 10-17 Fisheye. Tobias Vollmer in Germany can shave the sunshield.
http://www.360pano.de/en/tokina-sigma-nikon.html
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Hrvoje
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:34 pm
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
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Hi

Well I never considered "shaving lenses" before, so idea with Tokina sounds interesting.

Thanks for other answers as well.

Regards
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jobes
Posts: 87
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:34 am
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Canon EOS50D, Sigma 10mm lens, Nodal Ninja 5 with RD8 rotator

Think I'm one of relatively few shooting with the Sigma 10mm (I also use the 8mm but it's so 'soft' in comparison… unless I'm shooting busy crowds I much prefer the 10mm) and I love its crispness and the extra resolution a 6 shots around solution brings… it's also good for 'creative' non-pano shots too…
Sebastian
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:08 am
Contact:

Nikon D700 with shaved 10.5mm Nikkor lens
Nodal Ninja R10 lens ring clamp & monopod - for easy go around
Nodal Ninja 5L attach to tripod - for commercial work
jeroen
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:36 pm

My photogear (for pano's; rest I skip :wink: )

- Canon 5D Mark II with 17-40mm
Sometimes the 1D3 Mark III with same lens (this 1 can make 7 "shots" at bracketing; but has a crop of 1.3)

- Manfrotto 300N with a MK Panorama head (sometimes I use a robot; Panomachine V4.0; the pano head was a part of the robot-set) I do not like this head to much; Every time I have attach the camera to the set I need to check if its on the optical center (noodle point). It has a cm-scale but I think it should be possibe to fix the position even when u detach the camera!

- a Gitzo G1326 tripod (with a G1378M head ) (around 6 or 7 kg)

I mostly take 3 * 11 = 33 shots. In high contrast I bracket; using 3 * 3 * 11 = 99 shots.

I have to admit I mostly make pictures inside (dark) building with little or no people around. I'm still thinking about a fisheye but the experience with a (cheap Russian :evil: ) lens was so disappointing that I did not looked at fish-eyes for over 2 years now :mrgreen: ...

Anyway; I know you will love the 5DII; I use it a lot more then the (more expensive) 1D3.
Jeroen / Amersfoort / The Netherlands
immersivepix
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:06 am

Hi,
Sometimes it is good to find out what other people are using as camera setups can be expensive. I use Nikon D90 with the 10.5 fisheye lens as I read good reviews of it. Home made head - very cheap and easy - just aluminium angle and builders spirit levels. I am extremely happy with results. 6 photos in portrait mode see setup at www.anzacbattlefields.com/about.htm It takes an excellent photo in almost complete dark see the ones taken inside the german pillbox. Panoramas at www.anzacbattlefields.com Photos were taken quickly and I don't have time to rework them in photoshop. Some resolution is sacrificed for download size.
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