Panorama

[sonwolf]

I need a digital camera that possesses a panorama mode which stitches the pans in camera. Ideally, I am looking for the highest image quality and least distortion in the pans. Currently, I either use a D-Lux 4 in 16:9 format or stitch photos in Photoshop. I am spending too much time at work stitching panoramas and need to streamline the process.

I realize Olympus, Sony, Kodak, and other companies produce cameras with built in panorama stitching. Does any of these cameras approach the D-Lux 4 in terms of image quality?

 

[samoksner]

Have you tried photoshop's automatic panorama stitching utility or some of the free utilities available?

The reason i ask is because I've never found a point and shoot that had decent distortion control or had the computing power to blend an uneven sky properly for example and they usually overly distort the edges of the panorama frame.

In photoshop, go to File > Automate > Photomerge and select your images or open them before hand in photoshop and ask for the module to use the already opened files, select auto or whatever mode is appropriate (i find auto perfect for 95% or applications) and within a few second, TADA, it's done. Save it as a psd if you ever want to mess around with it, re size it and save it as a jpg and you're done.

I've just done this from start to finish with 4 10mp images from a canon xti and it took me under a minute. Give it a shot.

 

[sonwolf]

I use Photoshop's Photomerge on a regular basis. The amount of time to completely process is greater than just stitching. Taking into account loading the images into photo merge, stitching the images, applying cropping, flattening, and saving the final image takes 2-3 minutes. When you multiply this by 40-50 pans, the time commitment is not insignificant.

I can easily achieve high quality pans. The combination of the R-D1, 21mm Biogon, and PS photomerge produces a lovely result. Unfortunately, many days there is not enough time for a lovely result. For those times, I am searching for the best P&S with panorama stitching. I realize there currently might not be a perfect choice, so which camera might be the best choice.

 

[samoksner]

I do see your dilemma... Hopefully someone can chime in with a specific model, i know that my mother's Casio something or other did alright but had issues with stitching the sky.

 

[sonwolf]

The reason i ask is because I've never found a point and shoot that had decent distortion control or had the computing power to blend an uneven sky properly for example and they usually overly distort the edges of the panorama frame.

The one advantage I have is my pans are only about 100-120 degrees. The camera's panorama software will only need to process a moderate amount of camera rotation. Hopefully, this will be a reasonable task for a camera with a decent panorama mode.

 

[sonwolf]

I do see your dilemma... Hopefully someone can chime in with a specific model, i know that my mother's Casio something or other did alright but had issues with stitching the sky.

The Olympus Stylus/Super Zoom cameras and most of the Kodak models have in camera panorama. Judging by the reviews, none of these cameras are an obvious best choice. I am open to any suggestions.