wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Nikon 2.8/10,5 Sigma 3.5/8 or Tokina 10-17 ?
Alex Makienko 2009-May-11 23:00:00
First, I apologize for starting this off-topic. I obey the WWP group rules
and will not continue this thread here. However there are some points I
would like to state very clearly.
I will use Hans' message as it contains very common points. I will try to
comment the main statements below.
> Panoguide.com forum
> PanotoolsNG group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsng/
> Both english forums and with all kinds of panorama discussions, tech
> or other.
You bet. I may also add a few more. And even more than few. This is exactly
what I wrote - many sub-groups, local tech discussions etc. But no common
place to discuss general issues. That's why sometimes we have spontaneous
discussions here. We may need, say, a kind of "Conference center"....
> Panorama creation is today also very much a viewer and stitcher
> discussion and as they are very specific for each of them discussions
> are at their own forums.
Not at all. This statement is equal to the follows: "Still film photography
is very much a film developing discussion, enlargers, photographic paper
etc". No art photography, no composition, no artistic impression etc.
Nothing. Tech issues are important but in pano photography it is not a big
problem since theory had been well developed and wide set of tools became
available. Beside of tech there are plenty of issues which nobody even think
about. Sure, if you do not mean panoramic photography as an art, if you do
not want to establish VR-pano photo as an art, you may forget about anything
else but stichers and viewers and do real estate job. Good luck! But IF pano
is not just a technique but an art too, there are tons of issues which are
very specific to VR-pano and need to be discussed, but the only person I
know who tries to think about it seriously is Russian pano photographer
Nataly Kovarskaya from St-Petersburg. If I do not know about someone else it
is not because I was hidden somewhere in the Canadian forest, but is also
the issue of a lack of communication and information space. By the way, if
you did not hear about Nataly, it is the same issue. :-)
I do not even touch tens of other issues which are also not related to the
tech but affect everyone of us like high-quality VR promotion. Don't be
surprised if in a few years all we will be beaten and the Net will be
flooded by Google-like "panoramas" despite of musch better quality and
better impression which many of us are able to provide. Nobody learns the
history - there are tens of examples how and why a best product had been
beaten by a poor one. If we do not want to do anything about that - get
ready to lose...
> Flashpanoramas.com forum - KRPano.com - Pano2VR forum - PTGui group
> - Autopano forum.
And what I should do if I use my own software but none of the listed above?
Do you think that the status quo will last forever? Is the present set of
tools final and stable for the end of the sentury? What if tomorrow another
stitcher will come? We'll have yet another forum or mailing list?
> And there are also a German and some French forums
> http://www.panophoto.org/forums/
> http://www.panorama-community.net/wbb/index.php?page=Portal
You may also add my Russian forum and gallery. :-) I repeat, this just
confirms again and again what I wrote about multiple local communities
without any common communication space. Of course, I am not against all
these groups and furums, the only thing I want to say is that we may think
about the problem (IF you agree that it is a problem). But if everyone is
happy with the present situation, please disregard what I wrote, I will not
be upset.
Cheers,
Alex
PS: If anyone is still interested to continue this discussion, please find
the proper place and I will join. I will not continue here.