G6 and the PANOSAURUS (adapter to take panos)

Hi all,
I recently bought the relatively low-cost panosaurus adapter to take panoramic pictures with my Canon G6.
http://www.tawbaware.c​om/panosaurus_review.h​tm
http://gregwired.com/p​ano/Pano.htm

Based on the review of the unit and the pictures that the author had taken, this seems like a "beautiful thing." It appears to be a more precise way to take single shots that will be stitched together by software later.

Although the G6 has a PANO mode, I was not real happy with the result -- even after stitching it with the easy to use (and very powerful) Panorama Factory software (http://www.panoramafac​tory.com/).

Anybody have experience using the PANOSAURUS and would like to share it? thanks.

DBump has a panosaurus:
https://photography-on-the.net …=68617&highligh​t=panorama

And so does Baflobill.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=96210

I am assuming you checked at the forums at www.tawbaware.com

Have fun with your new toy. Panos can be addictive.

Tom

You don't need to use the stitch-assist mode. Just meter manually and set white balance for the first frame, so all frames are exposed identically, then make your pano by overlapping frames by about 30% by eye. Your G6 will be in portrait mode on the Panosaurus. Try Autostitch (freeware) for stitching rather than PhotoStitch.

Have Fun
Nigel

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Question -- what is the best way to meter manually with the G6? Put the camera in P mode, focus on a white card in the ambient light, and set the white balance as a custom mode setting?

Also -- I discovered PTGUi as a panorama assembler. It is just incredible in making panoramas! It even made them from multi row prints that were in a jumbled order!

Hi!

As Tom said, I have a little experience with this. I also own a G6 and I bought a PanoSaurus also. I have used it a few times now and it works great.

Some hints (maybe already known):

It is important to lock the whitebalance and aperture/time otherwise it will be very difficult to get them blended. You can do this either by using the panorama mode or going fully manual. Another way is to use the RAW output and when converting the files choosing fixed values.

For landscape pano's with no (vertical) objects nearby a tripod is enough to get good material to stitch. Otherwise you will need a panohead to avoid the paralax errors.

I have learned very, very much at the tawbaware forum. Loads of information there and many experienced people to answer questions.

There are many stitchers. Be prepared to test a few of them. PTGui is a good one and PTAssembler also. Apart from stitching, you will need blending software also.

Hope this answers some of the questions. I have put a few of my panorama's on my site (see signature)

If you have more, let me know. I do visit this forum every day so it may take a few days before I answer.

Hans

Looks like you've already gotten a ton of good advice here!

I generally set the camera to (M) manual mode, and I shoot in RAW (if you're not already familiar with RAW, check out www.pixmantec.com for an awesome, free RAW converter, and also hit www.LuminousLandscape.​com and search for "raw" for some good info on what it is, and why it's so useful). Also, lock the focus using manual focus--in fact, it wouldn't be bad to set it using hyperfocal (tons of info on this forum about that), so you know that everything from X to infinity is sharp.

Often, before I set to M, I cheat a little, and meter several of the portions of the pano by half-pressing the shutter button while in P mode, and noting the aperture/exposure settings that it automatically calculates. Then I switch to M, and set it to a compromise between the values I metered in P. Probably slower than just starting out in M and noting the exposure +/- indicator for the same portions of the pano, but it seems more intuitive to me.

Everyone,
thanks for all of your great suggestions!

I'm still going through the setup instructions for the PANOSAURUS with my G6 and would appreciate any specific info on what values (marks on the PANOSAURUS scales) had worked for others at different focal lengths while shooting in PORTRAIT mode.

Also -- setting white balance - should this be done as a custom setting for the "P" mode using a white card?

One thing which is a minus of the PanoSaurus is that when you mount the G6 on the adapterplate you have to either use a marking or some other way to have it on the plate everytime on the same place. Also you need a screwdriver to fix it.

What are your ecperiences on this?

I will tell you the markings I use this evening, I am at work now.

Regarding white balance, the same rules apply is with normal photography. What is important is that the white balance is the same in all pictures that you want to stitch.

Search here for "nodal point" but disregard my measurements--I think they're wrong I sorely need to recalibrate my pano.

Ditto what Hans said--use anything but Auto WB. Your idea of custom WB with a grey card would definitely be better than one of the presets though.

I can't say this is the "best" way, but the following is a method that I often use if I am shooting only one image per frame (as opposed to shooting multiple images per frame at different exposures). I meter my G5 to expose right using the following steps:

Set camera in Av and Spot Metering
Set camera at f4.0 to f5.6
Set exposure compensation to +1-1/3 to +1-2/3
Point camera at the brightest image in the scene
Depress shutter half way and read the shutter speed.
Set camera in Manual using the same aperature and shutter speed.
Shoot RAW or set WB to the scene.

It is much faster than it reads. Doing this should allow you to expose right without blowing out highlights. It usually works first time so you do not spend a lot of time shooting, checking histogram, adjusting, repeating.

If you have a DSLR you should (from what I have read) be able to set the exposure compensation to +2. My experience with my G5 is to set as shown above.

If, after following the above steps, I see the histogram is heavily weighted to the left, then I usually will make the decision to shoot at two different shutter speeds (one for the highlights and one for the shadows) and blend my images / panos in post processing.