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Hi,
New to the forum & world of Gigapixel imaging too. I want to set foot into Gigapixel imaging and looking for a budget setup. From what I could understand from the forums Merlin Sky-watcher seems to be a good budget option. Some queries on this front(which I couldn't clear from the older threads)- What are the options to tether the Merlin head to a netbook? I read somewhere that Merlin head is not as fast as the Panogear one, is that true? What may be a typical shoot time @ 200mm on an APS-C for say 180(horiz) x 90(vertical)? What might be a decent PC configuration to stitch a 38x19(assuming 200mm with 25% overlap on APS-C for 180x90) using APG? Thanks a lot in advance,
Regards,
Raghav
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Welcome to the forum...
ksraghavendra wrote:
Hi,
New to the forum & world of Gigapixel imaging too. I want to set foot into Gigapixel imaging and looking for a budget setup. From what I could understand from the forums Merlin Sky-watcher seems to be a good budget option.
Yes, I believe it offers unrivalled price-performance.
What camera body do you plan to use and which lenses?
Do you plan to shoot outdoors exclusively?
Some queries on this front(which I couldn't clear from the older threads)- What are the options to tether the Merlin head to a netbook?
You have two main options for controlling a Merlin/Panogear mount from a Windows netbook using the Papywizard software. You can use a wired connection, or a wireless connection using Bluetooth. The term 'tethered' is normally used to describe a wired connection. Do you really want wired connection?
I read somewhere that Merlin head is not as fast as the Panogear one, is that true?
The Merlin mount and the mount offered by Kolor under the Panogear 'branding' are identical.
The performance difference you may have read about concerns the controllers. The stand-alone wired Touch Controller (made by T&C) marketed by Panogear is said to offer greater performance - faster positioning - than using the cross-platform Papywizard software to control the mount.
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Hi Andrew,
Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. I plan to use a T2i @200mm to begin with, I don't intend to try too big one, I am guessing with a Canon T2i with a 70-200mm(@200mm) I will end up with ~6.5GP for 180x90(with 25% overlap) I plan to shoot, hope my maths is correct. I will be shooting only outdoor till I get some understanding of gigapixeling. I was considering a tethered option as I have a Windows netbook at my disposal, are there any shortcomings of the tethered setup? I will not be using a pole to begin so I thought wired would be fine, kindly correct me if I am wrong. What are the wireless possibilites, I saw references to Nokia tablets & some recent android mobiles. Kindly enlighten me.
Thanks,
Raghav
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ksraghavendra wrote:
I was considering a tethered option as I have a Windows netbook at my disposal, are there any shortcomings of the tethered setup? I will not be using a pole to begin so I thought wired would be fine, kindly correct me if I am wrong.
The issue with a wired connection is that there is no off-the-shelf cable available - in the case of Netbook I expect you have no serial connector so you'd need a USB-TTL cable - and you'd need to source the components and make a cable yourself, or find someone to make one for you.
What are the wireless possibilites, I saw references to Nokia tablets & some recent android mobiles. Kindly enlighten me.
Thanks,
Raghav
Wireless requires a TTL-Bluetooth adapter for the Merlin mount - available from Kolor or from here:
http://www.papymerlin.com/interface-%C3%A9lectronique/
And obviously Bluetooth support on the Papywizard host platform. Perhaps your Netbook has built-in Bluetooth? If not just use a low cost Bluetooth-USB adapter.
In my opinion the Bluetooth option is easier to put together than a wired connection.
The Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets offer a handheld wireless capability. They have built-in Bluetooth. Neither model is still in production but they are usually available secondhand on eBay.
Where are you located?
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ksraghavendra wrote:
Hi Andrew,
Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. I plan to use a T2i @200mm to begin with, I don't intend to try too big one, I am guessing with a Canon T2i with a 70-200mm(@200mm) I will end up with ~6.5GP for 180x90(with 25% overlap) I plan to shoot, hope my maths is correct.
You can run the Papywizard software in simulation mode without having a Merlin mount and it will calculate an estimate of the pixel resolution of the panorama.
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Hi Andrew,
I am located in India, I was unaware that there are no off the shelf wired connection options. My netbook has bluetooth so I guess TTL-Bluetooth adapter should work fine. Any hints about decent processing I may need and how long it may take to stitch?
Downloaded Papywizard & played around with the simulation, got a fair idea of how Papywizard works. Papywizard created an xml file with a lot of details when I ran the simulation. Can APG take this xml as input and automatically arrange the tiles? Thanks again.
Regards,
Raghav
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ksraghavendra wrote:
My netbook has bluetooth so I guess TTL-Bluetooth adapter should work fine.
Yes. In some caes the built-in Bluetooth doesn't work too well, but then all you'd need is a low cost USB-BT adapter.
Any hints about decent processing I may need and how long it may take to stitch?
Well, a netbook will not be sufficient for stitching. What else do you have?
Downloaded Papywizard & played around with the simulation, got a fair idea of how Papywizard works. Papywizard created an xml file with a lot of details when I ran the simulation. Can APG take this xml as input and automatically arrange the tiles?
Yes. Papywizard records the co-ordinates of the each shooting position in the XML file. APG uses that data to assist with positioning images when stitching This enables APG to stitch images even if they offer no detail to place control points betwen overlapping images, such as areas of clear blue sky.
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Hi Andrew,
Sorry if I dint put my question clearly, I don't intend to use my netbook for stitching unless I plan to spend the rest of my life on a single giga pano 
I use an AMD triple core with 8GB DDR3 Windows 7 64-bit, if that will suffice for decent stitch times(in hours/days??). I use this setup with Ptgui for my regular panos. I dont mind adding an SSD if that can speed things up. If I can attract some commercial interest I don't mind procuring a higher spec'ed desktop.
Just curious, are there any server farm kind of thing for gigapixel stitching? I don't know about the other users here, I may not be doing gigas on a regular basis like ordinary panos, so spending on hardware for stitching alone would be a sleeping asset for me, so just interested if there are such server farms or any users here who don't mind sharing their hardware(for some cost) for stitching the GPs.
Thanks & regards,
Raghav
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