Does anyone here do 360* Panoramic VR tours?

[BiikeMike]

I am looking at getting into 360* Panoramic tours, and would like to see if anyone here does them. What camera/lens setup do you use, and which program?

Thanks,

--Mike

[ChicoWeb]

Hrm, curios to see the answer to this as well. I posted something similar in the Web Design forum, but no dice.

[rendezvouscp]

I've done a few before, but I'm not a professional photographer (or anything like it). I used the software that came with my Canon to stitch the photos together and make the QTVR; it came out surprisingly well.
-Chasen

[scotthayes]

Same here, I use photo stitch that came with my canon. Was very pleased with how it came out.

[njmac]

Cooknn (http://forums.macrumors.com/member.php?u=20643) does them. You may want to shoot him a pm.

Good luck :)

[scotthayes]

OK, forget photostitch, find out what ever he is using and get that.

[BiikeMike]

I've been trying out a bunch of software, its cool they all have free trials! It looks to me that the best matchup for ease of use, good workflow, and price, is PTgui and Cubic Converter.

I just ordered a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, and now all I have to do is decide on my pano head. I'm looking at the nodal ninja 3.

[kylos]

I tried the ptmac package. Not user friendly at all.

Realviz Stitcher has a solid workflow with an uncluttered interface. You can spend between $100 and $600. The $600 package allows adding hotspots to the qtvr.

I tried Stitcher, Panofactory, and, PTMac. Stitcher was by far the easiest to use and still maintains a lot of functionality. I found that critical if you're doing this for a business and need to get things done.

I'm still testing, so I'm not sure if Realviz also eliminates the need for cubic converter, but CC looks to be a handy package to have, especially for post stitch touch up. Realviz does provide the ability to mask out areas with "stencils" though, so editing out tripods and moved objects between shots doesn't require external editing.

I picked up a Panosaurus head and am shooting with an 18mm Pentax lens. Fisheye can be nice since you have to take less shots, but a wide-angle will give you higher resolution images. Since it's going to be compressed so much for the tours, it's probably not necessary to have so many images, but it is nice to have the ability for high resolution prints.

The Panosaurus is probably the cheapest head out there, but seems reasonably strong. All critical parts are made either out of aluminum or are aluminum reinforced, so it's reasonably stable. It takes a few minutes to set up, but does the important thing well: pivot your camera about its nodal point. If money is no object, then you might as well look for a top of the line head, but the Panosaurus is a decent head.