The new wide angle? Sony sweep panorama mode

[andyoxon]

Have a look at this panorama mode... http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030307sonydschx1.asp  It might be 'convenience' panorama to some extent, but a pretty neat facility anyway...

[LEE]

It looks very interesting.

This is one enhancement away from turning your camera into a virtual high-resolution camera.

Imagine being able to zoom right in (too close) to a subject and then "sweeping" the entire area into multiple, autostitched images.

Instead of getting a 10Mp image of a scene you could generate a 100Mp composite of 10 x 10Mp images.  My Canon does a variety of stitch modes including one enabling exactly this with 4 frames (but it's a PITA to line things up).

[andyoxon]

It looks very interesting.

This is one enhancement away from turning your camera into a virtual high-resolution camera.

Imagine being able to zoom right in (too close) to a subject and then "sweeping" the entire area into multiple, autostitched images.

Instead of getting a 10Mp image of a scene you could generate a 100Mp composite of 10 x 10Mp images.  My Canon does a variety of stitch modes including one enabling exactly this with 4 frames (but it's a PITA to line things up).

Yes - and eg. on the bike/walking, perhaps with a mini tripod on a gatepost or something...2x 200°+ sweeps, and you have quite a panorama - with a single stitch of two long images...

[mike]

doesnt quite add up to 'full size panaramics' though.  It says 'The maximum resolution is 7152 x 1080' so it's twice as wide as a normal pic, but about 1/2 the height.

10fps with a mechanical shutter is damn impressive though.

[andyoxon]

doesnt quite add up to 'full size panaramics' though.  It says 'The maximum resolution is 7152 x 1080' so it's twice as wide as a normal pic, but about 1/2 the height.

10fps with a mechanical shutter is damn impressive though.

I wonder how many images it stitches for a given sweep because you could I suppose, for greater horizontal res, do two 100° sweeps and then a single stitch.  But that res is pretty good, I did a 340° ish (sony 224°) panorama ~7000 by 700 ish (after cropping) panorama on a 5MP and I was happy... 

[andrew_s]

I can see it leading to an awful lot of wonky horizons

[bikenerd]

Couldn't you achieve a similar effect by taking lots of photos and using something like Photosynth or does Photosynth need a huge number of photos to get anything workable?

[Jaded]

I guess the reduced height of the image will allow for the camera not being entirely level during the take.

Since I got Stitcher I have modified my approach to taking landscapes and buildings. If I can't fit it all in or I don't have the right lens on I consider stitching several frames together - horizontal and vertical.

[andyoxon]

Couldn't you achieve a similar effect by taking lots of photos and using something like Photosynth or does Photosynth need a huge number of photos to get anything workable?

I've had a little go at photosynth, and see it more of a web viewer of multiple single images in context.  There's nothing quite like a really good panoramic image...  IMO   but biggest not necessarily best...

[LEE]

I can see it leading to an awful lot of wonky horizons

Wonky horizons are normally the result of shooting shitched panoramas using a wide-angle lens.  Each image will have a curved horizon due to 'fish-eye' effect producing a wobbly horizon when stitched.

Zooming in reduces this and, somewhere between the barrel distortion of a long focal-length and the fish-eye distortion of a short focal length, lies a perfect focal length.  (I think a 35mm equivalent of 50mm f/l will be OK usually)

[Rob S]

Zooming in reduces this and, somewhere between the barrel distortion of a long focal-length and the fish-eye distortion of a short focal length, lies a perfect focal length.  (I think a 35mm equivalent of 50mm f/l will be OK usually)

Barrel distortion is at the short end too....it's pin cushion distortion at the long end...but yep it always makes sense to zoom in slightly for the component shots to lose distortions and any vignetting that some wide angle lenses have.

I take a lot of panorama shots which I put together with Paint Shop Pro and not all of the are to get a panorama but often they were to get rid of the horrible soft edges from my old Canon Ixus I took on bike rides. Now I have an LX3 with 24mm and 16:9 aspect ratio I find I'm not taking so many 

[Really Ancien]

It sounds like another surveillance feature to me, combine it with the face recognition feature and you can see where your subject is standing in a crowd.

Damon.