PanoMachine Panorama Calculator Operators Manual
Copyright by Josef Ehrler
5
1.2 MultiRow Panorama
The MultiRow technique nearly eliminates the sensor resolution limitations of a
digital camera. Taking photographs represented in a number of columns and rows
is the base for a stitch program to assemble the single images into a giant seam-
less panorama.
To secure a fix horizontal and vertical step size over an entire panorama a tripod is
strongly recommended to adjust the tripod head in its horizontal and vertical axis.
Depending on the demanded precision a wide palette of tripod and panorama
heads are available such as:
- A simple tripod with its common 3-way panorama head. This kind of pano-
rama heads is recommended for MultiRow panoramas only.
- A panorama head which can be locked in any position, horizontally 360° and
vertically ±90°. Additionally this head has a gimmick to adjust the “Pivot
Point” to avoid parallax distortion between single images. For MultiRow
panoramas it is not mandatory, for Spherical panoramas it is a must. More
about that in chapter 1.4.
- A panorama head with different raster rings or mechanically programmable
to adjust horizontal positions for a specific panorama. Vertical positioning is
done on a special elevator unit e.g. Manufacturer: Manfrotto 300N (pro-
grammable) and Kaidan (different rings for fix step sizes). It is important to
know the sensor sizes and the focal length which is required for a specific
horizontal raster ring. The vertical positions are adjusted on a mechanical
elevator by hand.
- A motorized panorama head to adjust computer controlled horizontal posi-
tion. Vertical positioning is done on a special elevator unit. As an example
for these kind of panorama heads are the „
PanoMachine“ from MK Pano-
rama, Deutschland
"
and the
Roundshot VR Drive from Seitz, Switzerland.
In this documentation I describe the PanoMachine from MK Panorama.
- A fully motorized panorama head as the RODEONmodular from Dr. U.
Clauss, Germany, to adjust computer controlled horizontal and vertical posi-
tions. The panorama head control is done with a PDA (Personal Digital As-
sistant) via Bluetooth.
When all images for the panorama are taken and saved on to the memory card the
stitching process on the PC can start. Special stitching software allows the user to
define control points between two adjoining images to fit them seamlessly into a
single high resolution panorama. Most of the actual programs also provide an
automatic stitching process to stitch dozens or hundreds of images into a giant sin-
gle panorama. To generate control points between columns and rows an adequate
overlap is required. With overlap values between 25 … 35%, stitch programs will
deliver good results.
