If you're looking to craft an epic, 1,500 megapixel panorama image, something like the
Gigapan Imager is your best bet. But, for those of us who want to capture a little wide-angle action and then move on before the tour bus abandons us, Sony's upcoming DSC-HX1 could be the solution. The nine megapixel shooter, releasing in April, comes with a unique (for the moment) panorama mode that allows it to capture 224-degree horizontal or 154-degree vertical shots automatically. Just push the shutter release and then slowly sweep the 20x lens across that wondrous vista before you. The camera internally fuses everything together to create a single 7152 x 1080 image; no post-processing required. It's demonstrated in a video below (on a quaint little diorama), and while $500
is on the pricey side for a non-SLR digi cam, if you've ever tried to stitch photos manually you might think it money well spent -- assuming it still works that well without a tripod.
posted Mar 10th 2009 7:46AM
I throw panoramas and HDR in the same annoying gimmicks basket.
You seem like a gimmick too.
So basically I buy an expensive camera and end up with a photo that's lower res than five shots I stitched together from my ten year old two megapixel camera?
do you also think that more MEGAhertz also means a faster computer?
Well can your ten year old two megapixel camera also do 1080p video recording,10 frames per second 9 megapixel photography, has a 20x optical zoom lens and Exmor CMOS sensor? If not, shut up.
Touched a nerve did he?
This is awesome for people who don't want to spend time or own software to do post processing. Although stitching has become easy and powerful enough that I handhold really close up panos all the time with my G9. I guess it does help that I know what im doing and know to pivot the camera on its nodal point as much as possible but still, anyone can handhold these things and stitch them together pretty easily.
Photoshop + Photomerge :)
Although it does look pretty cool, wouldn't mind having a camera that did it for me, albeit that even with photomerge I still only do it about once a month. I did one once that photomerge managed to make a 25,000x3,000 image out of, was very impressive.
Autostitch is all you need - http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html
Does it all for you, just input the images.
I just tried that program, WOW really easy and the final product is really nice!!
thanks for the link!
The camera has still some feature that are nice like the 10fps at 9mega pixel and the video recording plus the 20x zoom.
I just think this is a not really a pocket camera. I will get the sony W290 instead.
I have been using AutoStitch for years, works a treat and its free :D
Complete 360 degree panoramas, up and down, no limit on size
The panoramic frame alignment is horrible:
http://www.infosyncworld.net/... .../sony/sony_cyber-shot_dsc-hx1_s02.jpg
Although I can obviously give a pass to image issues caused by subject movement during the pan, I'm not at all impressed with the stitching of some static objects (see the "Quick AF Live View" text on the Sony sign in the center of the photo). Verdict: Gimmick.
I'll stick with the excellent freeware AutoStitch.
What interests me far more is that it apparently does in-camera HDR processing from six photos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnBp8LjNZZ4
The frame alignment will be far easier than in a panorama, so there is more of a chance that this will be done well.
I've seen examples from other cameras already, and they do a pretty bad job at the self-stitching business...
It's good enough for most people that wouldn't stitch panoramas anyway.
I'm still holding my breath to see what CMOS can do for small sensors, after Canon has converted everyone to their religion in the SLR world.
I've seen examples from other cameras already, and they do a pretty bad job at the self-stitching business...
It's good enough for most people that wouldn't stitch panoramas anyway.
I'm still holding my breath to see what CMOS can do for small sensors, after Canon has converted everyone to their religion in the SLR world.
The problem with in camera panoramas is that sometimes you have cars, people cross the frame while you are panning. If you do post processing you can reshoot some frames while panning and discard the ones you don't want.
For stitching panoramas on a Mac I use doubletake. http://echoone.com/doubletake/ You drop your image files on the application icon and they are stitched. It's that easy.
I think it looks pretty fucking sweet. I would get one if i had the money. I'm not even a photographer, it would just be awesome.
For anyone that wants to know, Microsoft Research (totally different than "regular" microsoft) releases a free download called "Image Compositie Editor" for doing panorama compositions that is very advanced... Its astounding that it has Microsofts name anywhere near it..
That's all well and good for well lit panoramas, but any movement (panning?) on a slightly dim panorama and there will be blur. Still a nice added little feature, at least they're innovating, but it's still not going to make me choose this camera over another similarly priced camera.
Nice. Well it's about time they finally got this going in software. Now they just need to up the res a bit and this'll save me a lot of time in post processing.
Convenience is an issue to me. I think its great to be able to do stitch in the field and make adjustments on the fly. I know I will be much more interested in using the feature when I don't have to wait until I get home to do it on a computer. Especially when I am on vacation and may return with a 1000+ pictures.
For a panoramic photographer using this camera would be great does half the job for them. The only problem is the HX1 doesn't have a wide angle lens accessory out yet.