wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: PT Mac help requested
Mr. Roger Howard 2006-Aug-08 22:09:00
On Aug 8, 2006, at 2:33 PM, Keith Martin wrote:
> Sometime around 8/8/06 (at 14:03 -0700) LaMar-Fridlund said:
>
>> I just purchased a D70 and 10.5 lens as well as PT Mac. Does
>> anyone have a
>> PT Mac calibration template that they would be willing to share
>> with me?
>
> I would appreciate this too. I've been shooting with my well-loved
> 360Precision pano head and the same D70/10.5 combination, but because
> I've been doing a fair bit with uncontrolled people movement I've
> worked with a lot of overlap - 8 shots around. It means I have a lot
> of masking room when working in Stitcher, but I'd like to try PT Mac.
> Does someone have a template which would work for me, or perhaps
> pointers on making my own?
I'm not sure why (maybe it says so somewhere?) that so many people
assume they need a template to get started... but the great thing
about the optimization process is that you can derive just the right
settings for your camera/lens yourself.
For the 10.5 all you need to know is that you should set the lens
type to Fullframe Fisheye, and set the FOV to a reasonable approx. I
have an old project file that says my 10.5 was 87.8 degrees, so set
the FOV to 88 or so to start with.
Drop your images into PTMac. Set the lens type and FOV approx. Click
the Auto Match button to generate control points for your images -
check the Auto Arrange and Auto Optimize checkboxes for the most
automatic process.
Once this is done you should have lens values that are pretty
accurate for your lens. You can refine the project by removing the
least accurate control points, setting some vertical control points
to level the image properly, and reoptimizing.
Once you've done this a few times you'll be able to do it in your
sleep. Personally I think the idea of using templates with the 360P
is both oversold as a benefit and not always even practical - even
with such a nice head I've never gotten perfect results time and
again with templates, but if I just use the automated tools for
control point setting and blending in PTGUI (similar to PTMac) I get
the best results with still barely any manual effort (I found I was
spending more time fixiing things trying to use a template, than just
starting from scratch each time).
Check out the PanoToolsNG group for more help with PanoTools-related
products like PTMac and PTGUI.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/
Cheers -R