Spherical = Equirectangular? Also, 350d+10-22mm or wait for fisheye?

[gavb]

Spherical = Equirectangular? Also, 350d+10-22mm or wait for fisheye?

by gavb » Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:05 pm

Hi,

I've been playing with autopano 120beta3_03_1606 on a mac, and it is fantastic. So easy, and does such a wonderful job. I've tried about 20 approaches to stiching (Planar) and APP kicks all their butts.

I was just wondering if APP's spherical projection is what cubicconverter calls equirectangular?

I'm now on a mission to create some 360 QTVR's and I'm really hoping I can use APP.

I'm so excited by APP that I'm buying a new lens for my 350d. I was wondering if anyone could advise me whether the really wide 10-22mm canon lens would be a good decision (for 360 qtvr's) or if I should get the 8mm sigma fisheye and wait until APP has fisheye support?

Thanks for any help,
very excitedly,
Gav.

[GURL]

by GURL » Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:04 pm

I was just wondering if APP's spherical projection is what cubicconverter calls equirectangular?

spherical projection = equirectangular

The meaning of the word "equirectangular" is (roughly): a rectangle having a given area in the subject is rendered as "something" having a constant area in the image (this area don't depend of the rectangle location in the subject provided it's at a given distance of the camera.)

I'm so excited by APP that I'm buying a new lens for my 350d. I was wondering if anyone could advise me whether the really wide 10-22mm canon lens would be a good decision (for 360 qtvr's) or if I should get the 8mm sigma fisheye and wait until APP has fisheye support?

It depends ...of the subjects you want to shot:
- Using 10-22mm Canon lens lens you will need a minimum of 12 images to cover the 360°x180° sphere and will get a resulting pano of 11600 x 5800 pixels. This could be fine for landscape and other still subjects.
- Using Sigma 8mm f/4 EX DG Circular Fisheye you will need a minimum of only 3 images but will get a lower image definition. A low image number is very useful for subjects where many moving people, cars, etc are found.

Very useful Panoramic photography lens database is to be found there: http://www.vrwave.com/panoramic/photography/lens_database.html

[gavb]

by gavb » Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:25 pm

Thanks very much GURL, and thanks for the links.

Regards,
Gav