ITCOW 360 [L]

Only had chance to get around to this now since the trip from Putrajaya then almost a week later, a trip onboard Superstar Virgo.

During the trip to Putrajaya/ Kuala Lumpur, I had my trusty Peleng 8mm and a full frame 5D. No, not the MKII that’s seems to be riddled (see end of this article) (Seems fine, see follow up article on 5DMKII) with problems but the first fullframe from Canon.

Panographers faced many problems when taking a 360 pano but with a capable fullframe camera coupled with the necessary lens that produces full circular images:

- It saves a lot of post production work especially on the nadir

- Lesser images, more actions! It allows the panographer to take shots that has a lot of people in them even if they are moving a lot

Putrajaya Hotair Ballon Festival was the perfect place to test out the people shots. Such as the below. Click image to launch.

There was some minor work needed on the right of the red tee guy but that’s about it. A total of only 4 shots + 1 nadir are required with the 5D but I suspected I could need as little as 3 + 1 nadir to make a full 360. I did not risk having an incompleted pano during this shot photography trip.

It allowed me to freeze more action and with lesser shots, it allowed me to do panos at location that seemed restricted like the lift lobby of Petronas Twin Towers.

Click image to launch.

With little shots, I adjusted the camera, had the tripod extended to the height I need, walked over to the center of the lobby and took the above within 15? Maybe 20 secs.

Hight Dynamic Range

HDR with the 5D need some getting used to with me shooting primarily on my 40D for a while now at 6.5fps (according to specs published by Canon). It’s fast in freezing most action and causing less “ghosting” on the final outputs of HDR panos.

With the 5D, HDR returns vibrant colors but I still prefer the lanscape Picture Style on my 40D and the speed was slow at 3fps.

Links:

Unreliable 5D MKII in the cold? You decide.
5D MKII, a risky investment? Decide too.
The full frame advantage. Good read.