Re: Recommendations for Digital camera and lens to create 360interactive images

[Jason Cozy <jason@xxxxxxxx>]

Nima,
I have used the Kodak Dc-260 and that was good.
A question to ask quick though would be, how much do you want to pan up and
down? all the way, a full 360/180 pano?  if so, i am not sure which camera
or software to recommend. it's not super easy right now, but people are
working on it. here are some thoughts on it.

Photovista has an option that is undocumented where you can shoot a 360
pano, then shoot one shot up and one shot down and stich them all together
into one, but you need to use a 15mm lens.

what you could do is shoot with any digital camera, use photovista to shoot
and then change the default view to be zoomed in a little, this would give
you some play to pan up and down, but you will need reality studio put out
by Live Piture to do this( photovista comes with Reality studio bundle).
it takes some time to learn and figure out, but once you've done it once you
can pull it off in minutes. Shooting digital i can now download from camera,
stitch, link with hotspots and change the default view, export to html in
less then a half hour on a p166 machine with reality studio.
and then anyone on a PC, or MAc with the Live Picture plug-in can view it.
or you can also export to Java.

Smoothmove, you will have to get more details from Julie( she is on this
list) as of right now they don't have a mac plug-in version.
I did See a demo at the BAQTVR meeting in May where they previewed their new
stitcher that would be able to shoot a full 360/180 pano. they claimed
hotspotting would be in there and also claimed a mac version of their
plug-in would be made too. suppossedly due out in the fall. The price they
mentioned though would be more then the camera. let's hope they drop to a
reasonable level.

as far as other digital cameras. the agfa 1680 shoots nice pictures and I
think I have set my sites on the camedia by olympus.

cheers,
jason

----------
>From: Nima & Negin Anvar <allamanda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Recommendations for Digital camera and lens to create 360 interactive
images
>Date: Tue, Jun 29, 1999, 5:22 PM
>

>
> I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a relatively inexpensive digital
> camera to create 360 interactive images. I understand that since I want to
> be able to create images where one can pan down and up I would also need a
> lens.  Does anyone have ideas about what kind of lens I would need and how
> much it would cost? Finally, I'm deciding between Live Picture Photo Vista
> and Picture Works Spin Panorama software. Any suggestions as to which one
> is better?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nima Anvar
>
>


----------
>From: Nima & Negin Anvar <allamanda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Recommendations for Digital camera and lens to create 360 interactive
images
>Date: Tue, Jun 29, 1999, 5:22 PM
>

>
> I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a relatively inexpensive digital
> camera to create 360 interactive images. I understand that since I want to
> be able to create images where one can pan down and up I would also need a
> lens.  Does anyone have ideas about what kind of lens I would need and how
> much it would cost? Finally, I'm deciding between Live Picture Photo Vista
> and Picture Works Spin Panorama software. Any suggestions as to which one
> is better?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nima Anvar
>
>