panoramaXL - Panorama eXtraLarge

2016-06-23T18:20:00.000+02:00

It has been quite a while and this blog remained silent. Roughly the same time I waited for the Giroptic 360CAM that I backed in early 2014 and initally was planned for delivery in late 2014.

I never regret backing it, I was prepared to loose the money and went through all the emotional stages like many other backers, all hoping to get their device much earlier.

Giroptic did a good job, design and build a new product, beta and pilot it, produce and go though any possible pain a company can go through.

Today the camera came and I am charging the battery, looking forward to test-run it.

The shipping is very professional and the packaging looks very well like an off-the-shelf product.

Ricoh Theta m15 First Hands-on and Review II

2015-01-16T16:04:00.003+01:00

The Ricoh Theta is a lightweight companion for outings as it can hide in any pocket. A selfie stick and the mobile phone does not add much to it, and the mobile phone we carry around all the time anyway.

A test image, the first straight from the camera, the second after some tinkering with PANO2VR and image processing. Notice the camera does not correct the roll degree

Ricoh Theta original jpg

Image after postprocessing

And the final image on Google View

Views: Ludwigstrasse Gönnheim by Sven Hafner panoramaXL

Ricoh Theta m15 First Hands-on and Review

2015-01-12T16:46:00.001+01:00

The second release of Theta's Theta camera is certainly a niche product. Quite astonishing that a big camera company ventures into this with a consumer product and price because the camera cant do anything but create fullspheric panoramas, not even a regular 'normal' snapshot. Lets see if this is a long-term thing or a one off, though I must say the updates from the first release are not really that huge, putting video aside (which is currently limited to 3min snippets). I dont think the market for real estate agents creating their own virtual tours is rather limited when you look at target figures of big companies.

There are a couple of independent crowdfunding projects around with similar devices.

In short: Is fun to use the Theta, though after a few shots by hand without phone you get annoyed making selfies all the time and you move on to the mobile app and with a tripod or a selfie stick, that helps you to 'carry' the camera above your head to minimize your own footprints in the final image (beware of bystanders looking at you!).

Some flaws

Fix memory (4GB, ~1200 JPG images)
Fix Battery (~200 images)
Noise (to be expected for such small sensor)

ISO 100

ISO 800

Stitching errors for very near objects

Stitching Error

Flare with direct sunlight (to be fair this is hard to handle anyway with fisheye lenses)

Flare

Problems with 1 lens full facing sun and the other one reverse

Unboxing the new Ricoh Theta M15 Panorama Camera

2015-01-10T20:17:00.003+01:00

I was looking at the Ricoh Theta since it was first launched in 2013. Lucky enough I waited a bit longer and order the latest Theta m15 (I guess that stands for MK1.5 because the changes from the first model are not really dramatic except the additional video feature) launched in late October 2014. The new model is available at Amazon for 299 Euro, that is even 50 Euro cheaper than the previous model. I dont really need this camera, but with my more than 15 years affection to panoramic images and a quite a collection of film and digital panorama cameras and accessories I could not add hesitate any further to add this to my collection. Since I sold an old lens, I got some extra budget freed. Thanks to Amazon I hold the camera in my hands in less than 20 hours.

First impression out of the box: You get a very lightweight stylish looking camera with a lens on the front and the back, a little pouch, one USB cable and a very short manual. That's it.
In the next blog I will review a first hands-on session with the new toy.

Panoramic Bookshelf: Edition Panorama

2015-01-04T19:57:00.001+01:00

Maybe the most well-known publisher (not only in Germany) that does not only carries panorama in the their company name but mainly publish panoramic books. This publishing house does not serve mainstream photography or travel books filled with anonymous images from stock agencies, they rather focus on selected photographs from individual photographers. I got about 15 plus books from them and it is always a pleasure to browse this books. The print quality and binding are of high quality, so are the images, though I cannot always appreciate the selected images, but that is in the eye of the reader. All books come with an few pages editorial in up to 5 languages, the images are only accompanied by the image title.

Despite most of the panoramic books are dedicated to a city, country or region, they are in no sense ordinary travel books but a selection of panoramic images of the location. These books are about panorama photography as an art medium. Most prominent photographer is certainly Horst Hamann starting with his various New York books.
The bigger coffee-table books are quite pricey with up to a 100 Euro for one book (value for money), but some books are in available in smaller sizes at more budget friendly price, which range from 14,95 Euro for the small ones (25x17cm) to 32,50 Euro (36x16cm) and 48 Euro (39x28cm).
As an alternative source (most of the books are out of print fast anyway) you find the books on Amazon marketplace at often decent prices, sometimes collectibles books hover above the original price.
Edition Panorama also sells calendars, which are quite pricey and even used ones are hard to get any cheaper, as the images are popular to be 'recycled' into frames, which they sell as well.

If you are nearby Mannheim, you can drop by their gallery/shop (info).

Website: www.editionpanorama.com

Some titles from my collection:

Schweiz, Markus Aebischer

Dubai, Michael Nischke

Venezia Panorama, Ernst Steiner

Tokyo Panorama, Micha Pawlitzki

Scotland Panorama, Axel M. Mosler

Ludwigshafen Panorama, Jörg Heieck

New York, Horst Hamann

Panorama Deutsche Bahn, Horst Hamann

Paris Vertical, Horst Hamann

Panoramic Bookshelf: Panorama as Medium

2014-11-11T15:00:00.003+01:00

This category of books chooses panorama photography in its most genuine meaning, showing a wide vista (wide angle view, see Wikipedia) that would not fit into a regular image aspect ratio. These books transport the views that you have at elevated viewing point into a book and make the reader experience the view from his arm chair.

Here I have 2 books from this category, both covering the Alps and published in the 1980's.

Swiss Panorama - Emil Schulthess

This book was published first time in 1982 (32 years ago!) and offers a wide range of panoramic views across Switzerland. Most of the images were created in the late 1970's with a huge technical effort. The photographer had to deal with panorama film cameras, helicopters and tailor-made rigs. He gives a summary of the project in the book and I have to pay greatest respect to this achievement to start this project from the scratch with a genius and scientific approach, many years before digital photography was available and people armed with a mobile phone stumbling on mountain peaks shooting panoramas and uploading them 10 seconds later into some image website.

The book comes high resolution images and great level of details and info about the surrounding area and important points of interest in every image.

Of course this book is out of print but you still get used copies on the usual platforms.

Emil Schulthess lived from 1913 to 1996, his work was given to the Fotostiftung Schweiz, all images below (the images in the book are copyrighted by them) shall only highlight the book and and entice you to buy your own copy.

Swiss Panorama by Emil Schulthess (1982)

Actual Panorama across 3 pages

Panorama Viewpoint and coverage

Points of Interest

Behind the scenes and technology

Panorama Alpen - Willi P. Burkhardt

Published in 1986 it solely focus on views from mountain peaks. Still very impressive panoramas across 4 pages (double fold-out) with plenty of info about the surrounding mountains. Unlike the first title no further information about the panorama cameras or project. Burkhardt choose the same approach as Schulthess, I am sure they knew each other.

You find this title for less than 1 Euro on Amazon. Also highly recommended for any panoramic bookshelf.
Some info here: www.fotointern.ch

Panoramic Bookshelf: Non-Panoramic Panorama Books

2014-10-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

While hunting for panoramic books I bought books just by the title. As long it was named "... Panorama ... something" and I could not find any further info about it in the web I would buy it (provided the price is reasonable) hoping for luck. Most of these non-panoramic titles are related to travel, like books about certain places or regions. The word panorama is a bit misleading, seems some publisher or authors want to highlight the broad scope of the book, or it is showing a lot of pictures from many places or something similar.

Here a selection of my non-panoramic panorama books. You won't find a single panorama image in all of these books.

Berlin-Panorama (deutsche Ausgabe) Farbbildband durch die Hauptstadt
Dresden Panorama (deutsche Ausgabe) Farbbildband durch das Elbflorenz
Rather average picture books, the author published books of many cities and areas in Germany.A bit like must-have-seen in Berlin booklet, to me a random collection of tourist highlights with little detail (text).

Berlin and Dresden Panorama

Naturpanorama Norwegen (Panoramic books)
Another coffeetable book about Norway from the 1990's. Publisher Ziethen-Panorama (they got panorama even in their name). Nice images but no panoramic views though.

Naturpanorama Norwegen

Ägypten Panorama
Same as the Norway book, same publisher, same style.

Ägypten Panorama

Berliner Panorama

This is quite an interesting book because it was published in the former GDR (DDR), in east Germany. Without any independent publishing available even this book had to be in line with the east German ideology and policies. You get the book for less than 10 cents but it comes with bw images from a long passed history. You might notice there are no images of the wall (which was still there in pre-1989).

How to publish a photo sphere to Google Maps ?

2014-10-01T19:29:00.001+02:00

You won't. It is not an automated process, there someone (or something?) reviewing the submissions and enable to be shown the Google Map. My submission took about 2..3 days to appear.

Worldwide Panorama 2014: Ruins

2014-10-01T17:00:00.000+02:00

The site is live, in its 10th years with the topic 'Ruins'.

My contribution after 6 years not joining this, the Hardenburg Castle in Bad Dürkheim.

VR Hardenburg - Treppenturm mit Lilienportal

2014-09-28T19:14:00.000+02:00

Views: Hardenburg - Treppenturm mit Lilienportal by Sven Hafner panoramaXL

How to embedd a Photo Sphere

2014-09-28T18:35:00.001+02:00

Embedding is straight forward, provided your blog provider does allow embedding of HTML into your posts.

Open the photo sphere you like to embed and click on the share icon.

Open the post where you want to add the photo sphere, switch to html view and paste the html code with the iframe tag anywhere.

The result:

Views: Hardenburg - Ausfallgarten by Sven Hafner panoramaXL

How to upload a Photosphere to Google Map View

2014-09-28T18:21:00.001+02:00

Since Google is retiring the panoramio service, is worth to look at the new platform Google Maps View. Of course you are required to create a Google account but that is fairly simple process. I did not manage to upload a photo sphere successfully straight away so I summarize the steps here.

It is not enough to create a equirectangular image and upload as photo under the +.

A panoramic image has to deliver specific Photo Sphere XMP Metadata in order to be recognized by Google as a Photo Sphere. You can either do it manually by tinkering the Exif info of the file with a tool like ExifTool or use the easier way by using this Google App. This is a detour which is not straight forward (unlike other Google tools), I guess they will migrate this feature into the upload process sooner or later.

After this step your photo sphere has not yet been put up for Google Maps. The app only adds the basic meta data to your image. Click on the download to get back the image file. You have to download this image and add the image. Now it will be recognized as photo sphere and properly rendered. Note, it takes a while before it actually pops up on Google Maps (not only in your profile).

Panoramio shutting down

2014-09-27T20:20:00.002+02:00

The image platform showing about 60+ million of images (and spheres), collected since 2005 by thousands of photographers and acquired by Google in 2007 is going to be closed down.

As reason Google gave is to merge with the View platform, they announced the geo-relevant content would be migrated.

I never uploaded any image to the platform but it was always present in Google Maps, often interesting for places without Street View Coverage. But I have to say the panoramas, they call it spheres, are often of low quality, badly stitched or exposed.

There is a petition going (initiated by the original founders of panoramio), though I doubt Google will listen to it, is a corporate decision, it does not make sense to have competing platforms under the same roof.

This should be a learning lesson about relying on services provided for free, you simply can't assume your work won't be lost or the service available for ever.
In this case Google will certainly try to migrate all content, so you did upload images for many ears in vain.
But there are other cases where services are ceased because they company goes down or the service as such was not successful or profitable enough. Google Orkut is also shutting down. (Discontinued Google Services at Wikipedia)

Wikipedia about panoramio.

Overview Panorama Cameras and systems in 2014

2014-09-22T15:30:00.000+02:00

I created an updated overview of digital panorama technology and products at this page.

Gigapan: Lindaunis Brücke

2014-09-21T16:19:00.002+02:00

Bridge near the village of Lindaunis in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (Wiki)

Panoramic Bookshelf: How-to and History Books

2014-09-20T19:03:00.001+02:00

This type of books either gives an overview of panoramic photography or guides you through the process of picking up panorama photography.

Here a few books, some of them I own:

Stretch: The Art of Panoramic Photography
by Nick Meers (2003, english)

One of the first panoramic books I ever bought. A very nice collection of panoramic images of different times and an overview of available technologies (at the time of 2003). The book shows pictures of various photographers.

Panoramic Photography
by Lee Frost (2005, english)

A comprehensive walk-through panoramic imaging with mostly film based technology. Here the author solely uses own images.

Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook
by William Rodarmor (2005, english)

A typical how-to book for digitial panoramas solely. Given current tools, already outdated, though the basci concepts still apply.

A few more titles with similar background:

Interaktive Panoramafotografie
by Christ Witzani (2009, german)

Digital Fotopraxis - Panoramafotografie
Thomas Bredeneld (2012, german)

Panoramafotografie - Der Meisterkurs
by Stefan Gross (2011, german)

Profibuch Panorama Fotografie
by Klaus Kindermann (2011, german)

Panoramafotografie: Theorie und Praxis
by Harald Woeste (2008, german)

Digitale Panoramen: Tipps, Tricks und Techniken für die Panoramafotografie
by Corinna Jacobs (2003, german)

Consider buying these books from Amazon by clicking on the tile. This helps me collecting more panoramic books and buying film for my old panorama cameras. Thanks

Panoramic Bookshelf

2014-09-19T08:57:00.000+02:00

Selection of panoramic Books

I love panorama photography, though it became much more popular and mainstream the last few years because of easy access to the masses. While last time only special cameras could do panoramic shots, today any mobile phone can do it, most of the times with questionable quality but sometimes with decent results.

The greatest achievement for a panoramic image is to be presented as print at the wall, either framed or mounted as dibond print. Another fantastic representation is in book form, usually as coffee-table style books. Over the years I collected some 30 or more panoramic books, and recently I started hunting for panoramic books on the various used-books portals where you can get books at a few Euros which originally cost 10 times more when purchased new. Not quite easy task, as sometime the word panorama as keyword alone does not result in books with panoramic images, but without further hints on sometimes years old books it is a bit like lucky draw.

I will discuss the book categories and the individual titles in upcoming blogs. So stay tuned.

Back in 2014

2014-06-06T12:13:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since my last post here. More than 2 years and a move from one continent to another (now back in Europe) in between.

Panorama Photography is getting bigger and more main stream than ever before, though I need to say the number of high quality and pleasing panoramas still is a small percentage only.

The stitching software around is getting matter and progressing, the underlying concept of course wont change, take individual images and stitch them to a large wide panorama or virtual panorama.

If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_photo_stitching_software, it still list about 30 software packages for various platforms. For me these remain relevant as I still use them:

Amazing are the changes on the hardware sector, we are moving from cameras that could somewhat assemble images to a panorama or sweep a panorama, from panorama heads and robot heads to mobile phones with panorama apps to dedicated panorama devices. What previously was done by bulky and expensive devices can now be done by a gadget that finds in your hand (thoug at a lower quality one might comment).
Amazing too, many of them are crowdfunded:

Panono Ball
Bubl Cam
Full HD 360 CAM by Giroptic (I am backing this one)
Centr (I backed, but it failed to reach goal)

Kodak: End-of-Life'd

2012-01-27T11:53:00.002+01:00

I cant believe that one of the most traditional or historical photography equipment and film companies (Kodak on Wikipedia) is going down the drain (link) and filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company made photography accesible to the masses in the early years and introduced or invented a couple of fantastic things. To name a few:

1900: The Brownie Camera
1935: Kodachrome
1963: Instamatic Camera
1975: The digital camera (Engineer Steven Sasson)
1986: First Megapixel Sensor

More than a few time Kodak missed the train with their products and the competitors happily overtook.

They just announced the Kodak Polaroid SC1630: A camera based on Android, something I was waiting for. Instead of having a phone with an inferior camera build-in, we would have a (bit) more serious camera based on Android, allowing to use all kind of camera applications, almost unlimited possibilities, not being restricted by a manufacturer's firmware updates.

Let's see who gonna grab the leftovers and patents...

Canon Angle View Finder

2012-01-16T12:02:00.000+01:00

Quite a few times I wished I had screen to tilt or an angle finder for the Canon 5D MKII, but I am not willing to spend 200 U$ on an accessory that I will use only once in the blue moon. Luckily there is some cheap alternative from Seagull, a Chinese company selling a variety of photo equipment (inclusive of a range of large format cameras!). You find the angle view finder with a range of adapters for Canon, Nikon, Sony,.. cameras on ebay for about 50U$. There are different models for 2 to 3x magnification, you can switch from 1x to an alternative magnification factor with a mechanical switch, useful to check focus.

My first impression:

It works.
The adapter is a bit flimsy, you cant easily slide in and out the view finder.
If you dont use an angle view finder permanently you can work with this one.

The items in the box

On a Canon 5D MK II

I dont know about any shop in Singapore selling it off the shelf.

Canon TS-E 17mm shift and tilt lens

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000+01:00

I fancied TS lenses for a long time, even bought a 4x5 to experiment some years back, but thats not exactly the kind of camera you carry around with 2 to 6 exposures. Yes, we can use Photoshop and tilt and warp images, fake miniature scenes, etc. but is not the same as using a TS lens. There are only few in the market and they are all expensive (though you can try a shift adapter for MF lenses on Canon or Nikon DSLR). Finally I got one from DDElectronics in Singapore (almost 400 SGD cheaper than other shops in town !), and just start to enjoy this new lens and learn to create images again in a completely new way. I spare you with technical details, as the web has quite a number of reports, tests and comparisons about this:

I highly recommend to read Peter Hills' introduction about tilt and shift here:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/peterh111/journal/5713153-an-introduction-to-tilt-shift-photography

Drop by the TS-E 17mm Flickr group with plenty of real-life sample images:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/canontse17mmf4l/

My first personal impression:

Its a fantastic lens, a prime lens worth every cent.
Crisp sharp.
You can shoot handheld, its a myth a shift lens always requires a tripod and a big screen.
Lot of glass without protection, you will take care of this lens !

A quick comparison to get an idea what it means to shift:

Shifted 10mm, camera levelled
Not shifted but camera tilted up to capture rooftops
Not shifted but camera levelled

Stitching Software 2012

2012-01-15T10:43:00.000+01:00

Some 1.5 years back I visited last time this topic. What are the current stitching software products in the market ?

There is not much movement in terms of new players (rather some disappearing), but the leading (2) existing companies keep their software updated and it is fantastic to see how much they still can improve (at least that ones I use).

From my point of view the important ones remain in 2012:

PTGUI (curr. Version 9.1.2)
Autopano by Kolor (curr. Version 2.6)
Hugin (active opensource project, stable version 2011.4.0 from December 2011)
Microsoft ICE (curr. Version 1.4.4 May 2011)
I am not sure about their strategy, the tool is free as part of their research but the proprietary display software like HDView and Photosynth is based on Silverlight which is shelved by Microsoft for further development)

Others:

Photoshop Panorama Merge Feature
Panorama Factory (Jan 2011, ?)
Easypano (still selling at a unreasonable high price, no further comment)
Realviz (acquired by Autodesk, also expensive)
iSeemMedia (?)
Panavue (?)
Some OEM software bundled with cameras
A list of panoramic software apps for iPhone and Android
(Personally I dont believe in phones making serious panoramic images)

Sideline: Seems, since the history of patent wars (creation of fisheye based panoramas) around IPIX (defunc since 2006) is closed, even the patent is owned by Sony now.

My recommendation: Stick to Hugin and ICE if you want to use something for free, otherwise PTGui and Autopano are great products at a reasonable price, up to you to decide which one you prefer, both offer trial versions.

Gigapan: View from Pinnacles @ Duxton 2

2012-01-15T09:24:00.000+01:00

Another viewpoint.

Gigapan: View from Pinnacles @ Duxton

2012-01-11T12:02:00.004+01:00

Gigapan: Pearl Bank Apartments

2012-01-10T12:02:00.001+01:00

Seen from Pinnacle@Duxton rooftop garden.