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360
panoramas using motorized tripods, video
cameras, or digital cameras
Aug
16, 1999
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Q:
I want to be able to film continuously 360 degrees
with a camcorder attached to a battery powered
motorized pan head controlled by a Macintosh. Any
suggestions on where I can purchase this type of
pan head and what kind of software I should use to
distribute the panoramas?
Mike
A:
Since I don't know exactly what it is you want to
do I'll provide a number of different suggestions
in the hope that one of them will answer your
question or at least point you in the right
direction.
The
first candidate is Surveyor Corporation's
Transit RCM (robotic camera mount) which
provides accurate remote pan/tilt positioning for
video camera systems via computer control. They
provide software for PCs, but since it's a standard
serial connection you should be able to write your
own controller using something like
SuperCard. <www.surveyorcorp.com>
But
buying a remote control pan head seems like an
expensive solution to your problem. If you're going
to use a video camera, you might want to look at
VideoBrush Panorama software. This will take
a video sequence that is shot by rotating the
camera while it is recording. It then turns this
sequence into a QuickTime VR movie! It works; but
is limited by the angle of view of the camera; you
should get a wide angle adapter. Unfortunately,
it's Windows software, but it might run under
VirtualPC. <www.videobrush.com>
If
you go that route, all you need is a tripod that
makes it simple to rotate the camera smoothly,
ideally around the nodal point of the lens. The
panoramic tripod heads from Kaidan and
Peace River might work:
<www.kaidan.com>
<www.peaceriverstudios.com/ppindex.html>
Of course, you might find that one of the regular
tripod manufacturers makes a tripod head that does
the job:
Manfrotto
<www.manfrotto.com>
Sima Products Corporation <www.simacorp.com>
Slik Corporation <www.slik.com>
Velbon <www.velbon.com>
There
are definitely powered tripod heads around; but
they are expensive. They are often used for remote
control of television cameras in small studios,
meeting rooms etc. (televising the local council
meetings.) I'm not sure where you would find
information about them; you might want to try a
professional video gear supplier. Unfortunately, I
suspect that these are not battery powered units;
though you could possibly rig up some way of
powering them vis a large battery.
I
suspect that you're looking for something small and
light; which is all you'd need to rotate the camera
360 degrees. Unfortunately, Most tripod heads
assume that you'll be moving the camera in other
dimensions, making them much more bulky and
expensive.
Sony
makes a special video camera that is controllable
by computer. I don't know too much about it, but
Rearden Technology, the developers of
SiteCam for the Macintosh sell it as
SiteZap, which is a remote controllable web
cam software with the camera.
<www.sitezap.com>
One
of the problems you'll find is that the video
camera will produce a comparatively low resolution
image compared to a film camera or even the low-end
(under $1,000) digital cameras. If you've going to
do a lot of these you might want to look at a
different solution. Cyclovision makes a low
cost (~$900) lens that takes a panorama in one shot
working with a digital camera.
<www.cyclovision.com>
Then
there is a company that has shown an immersive
video system, though they haven't formally
announced it. I know that's not what you want to
do, but it's cool none the less: "Immersive
Media and Enroute announce first
immersive video system" <www.immersivemedia.com/press/99-03_lasvegas.html>
As
to which software to distribute with, there's
really only three solutions to consider;
QuickTime VR (www.apple.com), IPIX
(www.ipix.com) and SmoothMove
(www.infinitepictures.com). IPIX only works with
images taken with a 180 degree lens, and charges
per node, so if I were you I'd go with QuickTime
VR. If
you end up needing stitching software, I'd
recommend either Live Pictures PhotoVista
(if they still sell it) or Apple's QuickTime VR
Authoring Studio. Either does a great job of
stitching panoramas. Apple's tool is best if you
want to do object movies.
But
wait! There's also a free solution; Some software
called Panorama Tools by Helmut Dersch. It's
free, but requires that you have Photoshop
since it is a Photoshop plugin. You've got to check
out this URL which shows an example created using a
Nikon CoolPix 950 and a fisheye
lens:
<www.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch/coolpix/coolpix.html>
So
all you have to do is take two pictures (each half
of a hemisphere) and it produces the final image.
Much faster and easier than most other methods.
Image quality is fine for web use; maybe too low
for print or scenes with lot's of detail that you
want to be able to zoom in on (but that kind of
thing is for CD rather than web.)
I'm
thinking about buying the fisheye lens for the
CoolPix 950 just because of this
software.
Helmut
actually recommends the RealVR (now Zoom
3.2) viewer from LivePicture and SmoothMove because
they are smaller players than QuickTime VR, and
they support spherical projection.
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