Fish-eyes and panoramas

[steveash]

Does anyone know anything about fish-eye lenses and producing panoramic images from them? I am looking into buying one after never really bothering with them before. I'd like to experiment with doing 360 degree panoramas as well as just very wide photos.

There seems to be quite a range to choose from so I was wondering what the pros and cons are. I would probably use a Canon EF mount and assume the distortions and aberrations are lower with a full frame camera as the lens doesn't need to be quite so extreme?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Does anyone know anything about fish-eye lenses and producing panoramic images from them? I am looking into buying one after never really bothering with them before. I'd like to experiment with doing 360 degree panoramas as well as just very wide photos.

There seems to be quite a range to choose from so I was wondering what the pros and cons are. I would probably use a Canon EF mount and assume the distortions and aberrations are lower with a full frame camera as the lens doesn't need to be quite so extreme?

What software are you planing on using?
DXO have a version that will straighten out a fish eye image very well. Can't remember if it's viewpoint or optics pro. I'll check later if your interested as I have them on my Mac.

 

[steveash]

I was assuming Photoshop would do it but haven't looked into it. It has no problem with stitching normal images together but I don't know if it can de-fish them. I guess circular fish-eye lenses would need something extra?

 

[Laird Knox]

I use Autopano Giga to create panoramas. It is magnitudes more powerful than Photoshop at creating panos. A couple of years ago I was experimenting with some long exposure panos and Photoshop couldn't stitch some of them. I gave Autopano a try and it is amazing. The Giga version adds (besides gigapixel panos) complex masking and editing features. You can include or exclude individual objects from each image before stitching.

Here's the latest project I used it on. These are intentionally twisted panos and use a few different projection methods. Trip-Tychs

I don't believe that Autopano Giga does 360 stitching -- unless you want a flat image. They do, however, have another product that does stitch 360 virtual tours: Panotour.

 

[USAntigoon]

I use a Nodal Ninja rotator on my tripod and stitch the pics together with PTGui Pro. Love the set up and its amazing how many corrections you can do with the PTGui Pro. The Nodal Ninja brackets allow you to setup the camera at the lens nodal point (avoiding parallax errors)

 

[Steve-F]

I too would recommend PTGui for stitching images together - it's great even with hand held panoramas. I've also dabbled with Pano2vr which will take the stitched panorama and output and create interactive web based versions and virtual tours.

 

[Teon]

I bought a $ 2 aliexpress lens Fish-eye and macro filming . Very satisfied.

 

[steveash]

It gets ever-more complicated! I am going to download demos of both Autopano Giga and PTGui to see which will suit me best. Autopano is looking particularly good but PTGui does seem to be the more widely used. I'm a bit dissappointed that the Samyang lenses don't have any electrical connections for Canon cameras. This would make exposure bracketing very slow and also slow down processing if there is no exif data. Looks like it is either the Sigma 8mm or more versatile but expensive Canon 8-15mm.

I looked at the Nodal Ninja heads but the 360Precision Atome looks better quality from what I can see. Although its hard to tell without seeing them in the flesh.

It is all getting a bit expensive considering I only wanted to have a play!

 

[robgendreau]

It gets ever-more complicated! I am going to download demos of both Autopano Giga and PTGui to see which will suit me best. Autopano is looking particularly good but PTGui does seem to be the more widely used. I'm a bit dissappointed that the Samyang lenses don't have any electrical connections for Canon cameras. This would make exposure bracketing very slow and also slow down processing if there is no exif data. Looks like it is either the Sigma 8mm or more versatile but expensive Canon 8-15mm.

I looked at the Nodal Ninja heads but the 360Precision Atome looks better quality from what I can see. Although its hard to tell without seeing them in the flesh.

It is all getting a bit expensive considering I only wanted to have a play!

Well for panoramas it shouldn't matter if the setting of the aperture is slow since the subject isn't going anywhere...heh. Assuming you aren't using shutter speed to vary it. And I believe that in PTGui you only have to enter a few parameters manually if say focal length isn't in the exif (obviously there's other exif). With some Sigma's you might have to manually enter some exif info as well. It shouldn't be too tough. I found this when I was researching it for my Rokinon lens (same as the Samyang I think): https://www.cgtrader.com/forum/topi...tings-for-superwide-lenses-and-fisheye-lenses

 

[Laird Knox]

0

It gets ever-more complicated! I am going to download demos of both Autopano Giga and PTGui to see which will suit me best. Autopano is looking particularly good but PTGui does seem to be the more widely used.

Autopano has a bit of a learning curve but I keep finding new things and more powerful tools.

BTW: The twisted panos were all shot with a Rokinon 15mm ultra-wide. It is an excellent lens and worth considering. The funny thing is that Autopano thinks it is a fisheye. I was getting odd stitching until I told it the Rokinon is a standard lens.

Talking about odd stitching - This is what Photoshop did with one of them:

I found this when I was researching it for my Rokinon lens (same as the Samyang I think): https://www.cgtrader.com/forum/topi...tings-for-superwide-lenses-and-fisheye-lenses

Yes, Rokinon, Samyang, and Bower are the same. They experiment with different marketing and positioning for each "brand."

 

[robgendreau]

Speaking of panos and fisheyes, does anyone know of software that can not only do 360 like PTGui but can also break it down for use in VR headsets, a la Google Cardboard?

And BTW, in seeking "fisheyes" lenses note that there are different types that are often lumped together under that rubric. Some very wide angle lenses aren't really "fisheye" and in fact are rectilinear (which I'd think would be better for panos but whadda I know). Other "fisheyes" can be equisolid area (equal area) vs stereographic, like the Rokinon 8mm. For some good examples see http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/ultra-wide-showdown/rectilinear-vs-fisheye.html

While these comparisons focused on Pentax lenses some, like the Rokinon, come with various mounts.

 

[rodedwards]

You can shoot 360 panos with a mobile phone and Google Street App then upload them to the web - all for free !

360 imagery is a pretty complicated affair. Unless you want to dedicate a lot of time and money, you will find you've opened up a pretty big can of worms.

 

[robgendreau]

You can shoot 360 panos with a mobile phone and Google Street App then upload them to the web - all for free !

360 imagery is a pretty complicated affair. Unless you want to dedicate a lot of time and money, you will find you've opened up a pretty big can of worms.

I'm aware of smartphone apps to do that. I have lots of photospheres on Google Street View. But looking for better solutions. And you can get 360 cams for less than $200, although I'm still looking for stitching with the use of UWA images.

 

[steveash]

Well for panoramas it shouldn't matter if the setting of the aperture is slow since the subject isn't going anywhere...heh. Assuming you aren't using shutter speed to vary it. And I believe that in PTGui you only have to enter a few parameters manually if say focal length isn't in the exif (obviously there's other exif). With some Sigma's you might have to manually enter some exif info as well. It shouldn't be too tough. I found this when I was researching it for my Rokinon lens (same as the Samyang I think): https://www.cgtrader.com/forum/topi...tings-for-superwide-lenses-and-fisheye-lenses

I'll have to experiment if my camera will auto-bracket shutter speeds with a manual lens attached. I'd assumed it wouldn't and wouldn't want to be tweaking the shutter speed manually for every shot. I'll be using a 5Dii with Magic Lantern installed.

I've decided to start off using my 16-35mm lens and a panoramic multi-layer head for now and then if it looks worth it, to go for the 8-15mm Canon fisheye at a later date, to speed up the process. I'm also wondering about buying a Ricoh Theta S to play with as it would do the job very quickly although at a lower resolution. It seems there are apps to allow you to bracket for HDRs although the aperture is fixed so these may be a bit limited in strong light.