panorama
Latest
LG's Optimus 7 gets previewed by Korean newspaper, has voice to text feature?
You know how we abhor machine translation, but this rumor was too juicy to pass up -- the Korea Economic Daily reportedly got hands-on with LG's Optimus 7 (aka E900) way ahead of release, and if we're reading this right, the Windows Phone 7 device will be capable of writing your text messages, emails and status updates just by hearing you speak. The publication also reports it's got a 3.8-inch, 800 x 480 screen (rather than the 3.5 or 3.7 inches we've heard before), a 1500 mAh battery, 16GB of built-in storage and a 1GHz processor. There's also apparently "automatic panorama" feature where you simply pan the camera to take stills and stitch them together, which sounds a lot like the Sweep Panorama dealie Sony recently added to its Cyber-Shot lineup. Can we expect a US version to have these features? Hard to say. Even should this preview be wholly legit, speech-to-text would probably need quite the overhaul to tell English from Korean -- and let's not even get started on Engrish.
70-gigapixel panorama of Budapest becomes world's largest digital photograph
It's just been a few months since a 45-gigapixel panorama of Dubai claimed the title of world's largest digital photograph, but it's now already been well and truly ousted -- the new king in town is this 70-gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Budapest. As with other multi-gigapixel images, this one was no easy feat, and involved two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras fitted with 400mm Minolta lenses and 1.4X teleconverters, a robotic camera mount from 360world that got the shooting done over the course of two days, and two solid days of post-processing that resulted in a single 200GB file -- not to mention a 15-meter-long printed copy of the photograph for good measure. Of course, what's most impressive is the photo itself. Hit up the source link below and start zooming in.
Sony's latest Cyber-shots boast 3D sweep panorama, background defocusing
It's getting to be that time of the year again -- time for Sony to expand / refresh its Cyber-shot lineup. Say hello to the 14.1 megapixel T99 and the 12.2 megapixel WX5 and TX9. All three feature BIONZ processors and 32MB internal memory (no word on external options). The T99's your underwater-capable option, capable of shooting sweep panorama shots submerged as well as 720p 30fps HD video -- or if you want something of an upgrade, the TX9 is also snorkeling-friendly, but itself can tout Full HD 1080i video recording, a Sweep Multi Angle for "3D-style" imagine, and the 3D sweep panorama with which the NEX series was just graced. Another neat trick of the Tx9 is its "background defocus" that gives you the DSLR-like effect of sharp foreground images with a blurry background (c.f. most of our headlining phone review images). If you're willing to sacrifice water resistance for a 5x optical zoom and Sony G lens (the previous two feature 4x and Carl Zeiss) while still retaining TX9's cool 3D tricks, you're gonna want the WX5. At this point, they carry no price tag, but you've got a bit to wait anyway: the trio will all debut in mid-September. Update: Akihabara News is reporting these cameras also support TransferJet. Additionally, AV Watch has listed some expected prices for Japan, so without further ado: the WX5 for 35,000 yen (about $400), the TX9 for 45,000 yen ($512), and the T99 for a more budget-friendly 29,000 yen ($330). %Gallery-97122%
Sony NEX-5 and NEX-3 can shoot 3D panoramas with new firmware
Think Sony ain't serious about 3D? Think again. The Japanese giant has just outed a promised firmware update for its ultra-slinky NEX series of shooters that will allow users to shoot 3D panoramas. Panorama stitching was already one of the touted features on these cameras, but with a little extra software magic they'll now be able to collect "depth information" as well. We don't know how strong a 3D effect you're going to get, but since this is a free upgrade and a new way to play with your toy, we suggest grabbing the firmware first and asking questions later. Hit the source link for the download.
Sony's NEX3 / 5 cameras priced, June release date leaked (update: official)
It looks like Sony's having a field day right now in Japan, making its official reveal of the NEX3 and NEX5 cameras, the "ultra-compact" DSLRs with interchangeable lenses we saw back at PMA. The presentation is going on as we speak, and the rumor sites seem to suggest Digital Photography School posted (and subsequently pulled) a review of the NEX3. Quesabesde, however, still has its preview of the not-quite-Micro Four Thirds shooters live, and is also listing some specs and prices. First with the technical details: the NEX3 has a 14.2 megapixel sensor, support for Memory Stick and SDXC media, 720p / 30fps video, and an articulating 2.95-inch LCD. The NEX5 boasts AVCHD 1080i video, and we're not sure yet as to other differences between the pair. As for pricing, the bodies on their lonesome appear to be worth about €250 and €350, respectively -- that's $320 and $448 in US currency. Throw in a 16mm f2.8 lens for €250 and you're now looking at a minimum of €500 (or $640) to join the fray. The kits are said to be going on sale in June. Sony's official site hasn't updated yet, but with any luck we'll get the legit scoop in very short time. Update: Sony made it official, says a firmware update will be released this summer to capture stereoscopic 3D sweep panoramas. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]%Gallery-92716%
World of WarCrafts: WoW art for your computer
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. If you spend a lot of time at your computer -- and what WoW devotee doesn't? -- you've probably got a soft spot for game-related wallpapers. This week, we've got trio of computer art we bet will have you booting up to a whole new look. World of Wallpapers has been putting out simple yet stunning WoW wallpapers for some time now. The problem isn't finding one you like; the problem is picking a single favorite for your desktop. (Personally, I'm planning to solve that problem with a slideshow screensaver of my top picks.) Go wide with these panoramic views of the wide world -- literally -- of Azeroth. Creator Cybear has been hard at work creating panoramic views of areas that will be changing come Cataclysm. (As of this writing, he had yet to settle on a final host for the files; please be patient should the bandwidth be temporarily exceeded. They're worth checking back for!) While we're on the subject of artwork, if you use Firefox as your web browser, head over to GetPersonas.com and check out the growing collection of WoW personas, which add artwork to your web browser's borders and function areas. We'd been waiting to mention these until more were available, but a tip from reader Akussa (thanks!) showed that the selection is coming along nicely. World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by e-mailing lisa (at) wow (dot) com with your not-for-profit WoW-inspired creations.
GigaPan Epic Pro robotic camera mount shipping in April
We found GigaPan's Epic 100 robotic camera mount to be an impressive if not entirely practical solution when we got our hands on it back in May of last year, but it's unfortunately of little use with a full-size DSLR. GigaPan is set to fill that gap with its new Epic Pro model, which it's just announced will be available in April. This model will accommodate DSLR and lens combinations up to ten pounds, and give you a 7.2V, 4300mAH rechargeable battery (as opposed to the AAs used in the smaller models), along with a few new features like a multiple triggering option to take multiple shots at each image position. Of course, the Pro model also comes with a pro-minded price -- $895, to be specific.
Macworld Expo: Jim Rea talks about the early days of Mac development
When Apple first introduced the Macintosh, there weren't many authorized third-party developers around... even fewer unauthorized ones, when you think about it. One guy did manage to sneak in the back door and ship his app for the original Mac on an accelerated schedule: Jim Rea, the founder of ProVUE Development. The company's original database for the Mac, OverVUE, was the 2nd commercial app to ship for the platform (Microsoft's Multiplan was #1). The DB application later evolved into Panorama, which continues to run on the Macs of today. Jim was kind enough to share some of his memories from the early years, and update us on the soon-to-ship Panorama version 6. Both videos are in the continuation of this post.
One Shots: Quiet night in Old Tarantia
It's been a while since someone has sent in a panoramic screenshot from a game, but we're glad to have a chance to showcase another lovely large image for you. This one comes to us from Zypher in Age of Conan and is quite enormous -- and richly detailed -- at its full size. Since there wasn't much of a note to go along with this other than to let us know it was a "nice view of Old Tarantia", we're going to flesh it out with a bit of back-story, courtesy of the excellent AoCWiki entry: Old Tarantia sits at the end of a huge bridge that leads to the rest of the bustling city, divided elsewhere by high walls and guarded gates. It uses its own docks and has a massive gate sitting on the Road of Kings. All are patrolled regularly, and watched for dangerous visitors. It is the root of the city itself, where the rest of the capital grew outward from, and is the base of the royal palace of King Conan himself. The shining towers of the palace rise high into the sky, overlooking the rest of the city and, some might say, the rest of Aquilonia. Are you leveling through the treacherous lands of Hyboria? If so, we'd love to see some screenshots from you. If not, that's okay -- we can use all the One Shots we can get, from any MMO! Just email those to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit. %Gallery-9798%
How would you change Gigapan's Epic camera robot?
Gigapan's Epic camera robot is an interesting beast, and calling it a niche device would be understating things rather dramatically. We had the opportunity to take an Epic 100 for a spin earlier this year, and we're guessing that a few of you adventurous photographers have managed to pick one up since. If so, we're curious to know how you're enjoying things. Are you satisfied with the panoramic results? Is it snappy enough? Versatile enough? Any modifications you'd like to make if you were leading up the redesign? Toss your thoughts in comments below, cool shutterbug?
Super-panoramic showdown for Mac
There are several photo-stitchers available for Mac (and several for iPhone as well), and most do a stellar job for stitching together 3-4 images into a panoramic image. However, I recently completed a project that required stitching together hundreds of images into some very large panoramas of several locations around beautiful Peoria, Illinois. What I found is that some of the programs which do admirable work on small stitching jobs performed very poorly on larger-scale panoramas. I tried several programs with varying results, and you can check out my showdown below.
GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style
You're already well aware of what GigaPan's wild camera robot is capable of when its in masterly hands, but have you ever wondered if such a device is practical for folks who don't have excellent seats for events such as Presidential inaugurations or the Arirang Mass Games? We've been toying around with an Epic 100 for the past week and change, and now that we've had a moment to upload a few of our own panoramas, we figured we'd toss our two pennies into the ring. Eager to know if this gigapixel image creator is really worth its avoirdupois in cold, hard cash? Head on past the break to find out.
One Shots: City of Trees panorama
Springtime blooms lush and green, as new growth replaces the barren trees and plains of winter. In the meantime, if you want to enjoy a land, rich with luscious foliage and beauty, you could do far worse than playing Lord of the Rings Online. Today's One Shots is a panoramic treat that has been sent in to us by Pontifax Stanis, and really needs to be seen full-size to be appreciated for all it's detail. Pontifax writes in: As promised some days ago, herewith goes a rather large picture made from a collection of shots, a good way to show the magnificent landscapes in Lord of the Rings Online. Caras Galadhon is the Fortress in the Trees (or City of Trees), the magic place for the Galadhrim Elves in LotRO. Somehow Turbine has managed to recreate the Tolkien atmosphere within the game, with light changes playing an important part into the mixture. I've been wandering the land, like an Ansel Adams from hobbit era, taking pictures wherever I go. This is one of the panoramas you get within the Galadhrim realm. Try to keep the music on while in the area and just let your senses take you into the magic. It's worth the time you spend there. Have you tried your hand at making panoramics of a particular area in your favorite game? If so, we'd love to see them. All you have to do is attach them to an email and write up a quick blurb on what we're seeing, then email it to us at oneshots AT massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
Now even wider -- Pano 3 for iPhone
Pano, a fun iPhone app for taking panoramic photos, has been around since last fall and the developers at Debacle Software have been hard at work improving the app ever since. While the first iteration stitched together a maximum of 4 photos, the 2.0 version of the app upped the limit to 6 photos.Now Pano 3 (click opens iTunes) rewrites the rules for taking panoramas with your iPhone. The new version can automatically meld up to 16 photos, providing 360 degree panoramas. The team at Debacle added a way to resume interrupted panoramas, so if Mom called right as you were taking the fifth shot in your series of sixteen, you can pop back into Pano 3 and start right back up. While the capabilities of Pano have increased, the price remains the same low $2.99US. I use this app a lot, and it's just about the most fun that you can buy for $3. If you have an iPhone and love to take photos, Pano's deserving of a place on your home screen.After you've shot a few panoramas with Pano 3, take part in Debacle's I Love Pano Pano Panorama Contest. A group of TUAW bloggers are judges, and there are some great prizes.
Sony's panorama-shooting DSC-HX1 camera handled on video
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.
One iPhone in a very large crowd
In traditional photography, the time elapsed between the shutter snap and the careful, loupe & light table examination of the captured images for some unexpected surprise or Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" might be days or weeks. With photographer David Bergman's massive panorama of Tuesday's presidential inauguration, the challenge wasn't in waiting for the darkroom process to complete (although the Gigapan software did crank away on his MacBook Pro for over six hours to generate the 1,474 megapixel, 2 gigabyte master file); it was combing through the enormous image to discover those moments Bergman didn't even know he had photographed. Several commenters on Bergman's blog have already found themselves or family members in the crowd. One moment that Bergman did discover quickly: a prominent attendee of the inauguration, 'bow-syncing' cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was caught in the panorama making an image of his own, using a familiar-looking smartphone. See the video zoom below for the context of Ma's snapshot in the larger image. As digital imaging has replaced film photography for newsgathering and journalism, there have been counterexamples of newsworthy images that would have long been deleted except for the fact that they were shot on film instead of on memory cards. In this case, the image of Yo-Yo Ma and his phone wouldn't have been preserved, except that it was captured by chance and 'mined' out of the massive, frozen decisive moment. Image & zoom video used with permission of the photographer; all rights reserved.
Bowers & Wilkins officially unveils $2,200 Panorama soundbar
Itching for brutal honesty? It's pretty difficult for us to get all riled up over a $2,200 soundbar, Bowers & Wilkins logo or not. Yeah, B&W swears that this thing is so good you won't even need a subwoofer for the best faux surround sound experience of your life, but for over two large, we can certainly think of a few alternatives. Nevertheless, the "groundbreaking" audio bar, which we caught in the wild at CES, has now been officially unwrapped, and there's a needlessly long-winded press releases telling us so just after the break. For those adamant that this will change their life, it should start shipping around March.
Hands-on with the Bowers and Wilkins Panorama soundbar and XT8 speaker
Remember the "groundbreaking new product" that Bowers & Wilkins promised us for CES? We wouldn't have expected it from the Abbey Road Studios-approved speaker brand, but it turned out to be the Panorama soundbar. It certainly will break some ground in pricing (and wallets) when it ships for $2,200 in March, though. The all-in-one speaker packs three amplifiers, plenty of inputs for your Dolby Digital and DTS sources (2 analog, 2 Toslink and a SPDIF coax), and selectable settings for tuning the virtual surround effect based on the wall surfaces and whether you mount the Panorama on a wall or shelf. Also on show was the new design of the XT-series speakers, with the top-to-bottom grille -- quite handsome, but unfortunately silent.%Gallery-41522%
Pano version 2.0: even more widescreen goodness
Pano, a panorama photo app for iPhone we reviewed back in October, has been updated to version 2.0. What's in the update of the $2.99 app (click opens iTunes) from Debacle Software? The ability to make panoramas of up to 6 individual pictures (version 1.0 maxed out at 4 pics) New stitching algorithms and color correction that resolve the dark bars that sometimes appeared at the "seams" between photos A new portrait mode Better memory management for more stability Reduced processing time when merging photos Pano 2.0 was supposed to ship with a new icon, but the icon police at Apple apparently had issues with the updated design. If you already own Pano, be sure to download the update to take advantage of the nifty new features. Debacle Software is hosting a panorama contest in the near future with lots of fabulous prizes, and featuring several TUAW bloggers as impartial and unbiased judges. Start taking those panorama shots soon!
Panorama Enterprise Server
When I saw the words Provue Development and Panorama in a press release this morning, I felt like I was suddenly transported back to the 80s. When the Mac first came out in 1984, Provue was there with the first real database manager for the Mac (OverVue). It's great to see that they're still developing innovative products like Panorama Enterprise Server. The $399 Panorama Enterprise Server is a RAM-based database server for Mac OS X 10.4 and above. Panorama Enterprise Server works with Provue's desktop database application Panorama 5.5 to create network-based databases. It distributes RAM-based copies of shared data across a network in a mesh architecture. By distributing the load of common database actions over a number of machines, speed is improved dramatically.Another unique feature is that users can disconnect from the network, work offline, and their database changes sync back up to the rest of the meshed computers when they are reconnected. Panorama Enterprise Server has remote configuration, management, and debug tools to keep DBAs happy, as well as automatic backup of live databases. Designers will like the visual design tools for building HTML and CSS-based forms, and support for Google Analytics.Provue offers a 45-day free trial of both Panorama 5.5 and Enterprise Server.
