panoramics & printing!

[jmublueduck]

so I've gotten a new idea to go out and shoot some "panoramics" w/ the D60. after seeing some darn cool examples of multiple stitched photos, I figure it shouldn't be too difficult to get some great/interesting results... I'm not 100% sure of the best approach though... & if they turn out well, I'd love to make prints. Here's what I'm thinking... I welcome any feedback.

- shoot w/ a lens w/ a focal length of 35mm or greater, to eliminate wide angle distortion on each frame.
- shoot in portrait orientation: if I stitch these together anyway, it'll give me more vertical space (& pixels) to work with (obviously also create a slight overlap on each frame).
- shoot in manual mode, keeping exposure and focus settings consistent throughout all frames.

so there are my shooting ideas... but printing is another story. For those of you who own an Epson 2200, Canon S9000, or similar, can long sheets of paper be fed through these printers? I'm thinking A3+ size for the possibility of making prints greater than 8" high. I would assume there are labs out there as well, but something tells me custom prints like this would get pricey.

thanks!
~ scott

[chris maddock]

Here's how I do it with my S9000 and QImage.
http://www.canons900.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18

Note that I'm using Win98, which does allow you to set the printer driver to Banner Paper and Photo Glossy print mode - the Windows XP driver doesn't allow this, nor does the Win2K driver AFAIK. If you don't have Win98, try a search on the DPReview Printers & Printing forum, I'm sure that people have had success with XP but not using QImage.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1003


Note also that I wrote the notes when I was using an earlier version of QImage - the controls have changed a bit, but the principles are the same.

For what it's worth, the largest prints I've had so far have been 88"x8" and 50"x12". As far as I know, there is no physical limit to the length that the S9000 can do, however there will be a limit which is related to your PC - RAM, disk space and possibly Operating System limits (eg Win98 files are limited to 2Gb IIRC, I assume that also applies to the printer spool file)

HTH
Chris

[robertwgross]

chris maddock wrote:
Here's how I do it with my S9000 and QImage.
http://www.canons900.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18

Note that I'm using Win98, which does allow you to set the printer driver to Banner Paper and Photo Glossy print mode - the Windows XP driver doesn't allow this, nor does the Win2K driver AFAIK. If you don't have Win98, try a search on the DPReview Printers & Printing forum, I'm sure that people have had success with XP but not using QImage.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1003


Note also that I wrote the notes when I was using an earlier version of QImage - the controls have changed a bit, but the principles are the same.

For what it's worth, the largest prints I've had so far have been 88"x8" and 50"x12". As far as I know, there is no physical limit to the length that the S9000 can do, however there will be a limit which is related to your PC - RAM, disk space and possibly Operating System limits (eg Win98 files are limited to 2Gb IIRC, I assume that also applies to the printer spool file)

HTH
Chris

I originally had my Epson 1270 printer on a Windows 98 machine. When I migrated to a Windows XP machine, the printer and the old Windows 98 printer driver for the 1270 migrated as well. I ended up with 1270 printer drivers for both operating systems, and there are certain things that are good about the old one and certain things that are good about the new one.

I print up to 13x19 inches in the 1270 printer, but I could add in roll paper to go longer.

So, most of the limitations of printing will be in the system memory, etc.

---Bob Gross---

[jmublueduck]

Bob & Chris, thanks for the input... Chris I'll look into the forums on dpreview more... good idea.

I use OS X, however.... Qimage is only windows-based from what I understand... oh well, I'll dig around & see what I can find. there's gotta be stuff out there that works well ;)

keep the ideas coming! & if any of you have thoughts on technique for taking multiple-frame panoramas... let me know!

~ scott

[mebow]

The 2200 will do 13 X 44 with roll paper.

[jmublueduck]

mebow wrote:
The 2200 will do 13 X 44 with roll paper.
unortunately i just read on steves-digicams.com today that the 2200 doesn't have full OS X support yet (including roll printing), but true.... the 2200 appears supurb.

thanks..
the "duck" ;)