[Leica] To the pano stitchers

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer)]

> Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:32:46 -0800
> From: Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com>
> Subject: [Leica] To the pano stitchers...
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> 
> Other than the difference in number of frames to cover a particular area,
> are there image quality differences in using a longer lens rather than a
> shorter lens? For example, 25, 35, 50 or 75 on a full frame body, which one
> may be better image quality wise?
> 
> Thanks for any advice.

Hi Richard,
Good question! Sorry to come late to this but I am on the digest and on the 
other side of the world.
In sum, you can take panos with any and all lenses - I have from 19mm all 
the way up to 600mm (35mm equivalent in micro 4/3rds).
The stitching programs from CS4 onwards are so good that just about any 
overlap can be stitched together if you
a) shoot in manual so there is less exposure variation between frames. No 
auto white balance either.
b) shoot at a medium aperture (f8.0?) to eliminate vignetting.
b) shoot portrait (vertical) to add up and down space to the frame while 
increasing the number of panels for left right views.
If you shoot with superwide lenses you will get a roundness to the frame 
which you may or may not like;

Here's an example with the 19mm Elmarit V 1 on the Nikon D700. Look at the 
bowl like shape of the sand in the bottom of the picture.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/R+lenses+on+Nikon+D700/3panelPuiO19ElmaritW.jpg.html>

http://tinyurl.com/d3k7sh

I've looked at my panos posted to the LUG and many have been made with 
lenses in the 28mm to 90mm range.

Here's an 11 panel example of the HK Harbour at twilight with the 90mm 
Summicron on the Nikon D700:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/R+lenses+on+Nikon+D700/HKHarPano8203-13W.jpg.html>

http://tinyurl.com/ydtocx5

and lastly here is an example using a longer lens - the 100 - 300 panasoninc 
zoom on the GH2 from my African safari last fall.
This is 8 vertical panels hand held standing in a jeep and processed in CS4: 
The zoom was at about 150mm (300mm equivalent)

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Kenya/8PanCrossingW.jpg.html>

http://tinyurl.com/3mjka4p

I would recommend starting with the less extreme lenses in the 28mm to 90mm 
range and then after you are used to their results moving on to what 
intrigues and pleases you.

Good shooting.
Howard.