Hi all,
 
I am struggling to stitch images taken with an Olumpus 8mm (16 mm equiv) full frame fisheye. Are there any camera profile files available or values for Distortion and Angle (Camera Properties dialog) that would help line things up?
 
The manual does not go into these options much.
 
Any help appreciated.

The software normally does a great job of auto stitching and you don't have to look at these settings. The issue could well be the position of the rotation point of the lens. What rotator are you using?

Hi Andrew,
I use a Manfrotto 302 panoramic head.
 
Generally I have not had good stitching results with Realviz, even at 28mm - I get much better results with Panavue's ImageAssembler, especially on automatic stitching.

Hi Andrew,
 
I should mention that I've only just started using Stitcher on evaluation to replace ImageAssembler so there are doubtless some things I'm missing. I am working through the tutorials and manual.

I am using the same lens (OLYMPUS ZUICO FISHEYE) and the sticher performs great.  

Hi,
 
after using an Olympus e330 and a standard 14-45mm lens (28-90mm on a 35mm Camera) and Stitcher for ages without a problem, I am a bit stuck now.
 
I just recieved my Zuiko 8mm lens (16mm 35 camera), and now Stitcher won't stitch anymore, nor Calibrate High Distortion works...
 
I am not 100% sure if my nodal point is super exact, since it is so hard to find on the small screen and the high distortion of the 8mm lens.
 
How did you guys who get the combo to work, find the nodal point with the Zuiko 8mm fisheye lens?
 
Any tips would be very appreciated, since I got a job in the next days...  
I'm lost.
 
Thanks in advance
 
regards
 
chris
 

Duncan and Chris,
 
Search the forum for threads on finding the nodal point. There's been a lot of information posted about this and I've got a message posted that lists around 5-6 links to info on how to find the nodal point.

Thanks Andrew, I had just guessed the nodal point for the shots I took.

Hi Badders and everyone,
 
thanks for your help.
 
I have already found the Point of no parallax, as I know the techniques to do so, since I am in the VR business quite a while.
 
But still, the images with the 8mm lens (16m equiv) don't work with High distortion calibration, nor does the Auto Stitch do a very good job.
 
I'm going nuts...
 
I also use a Manfrotto 302 panoramic head.
 
I tried with 6 shots + zenith + nadir.  Crappy
 
I got better results obviously with taking 8 shots + Zenith + Nadir, but the goal actualy was to take as few images ass possible...And it's far from good! To much misalignement.
 
It was all so easy before with the stock zuiko 14mm lens(28mm equiv), autostitched an Boom, but now it is the valley of tears ;-(
 
Please help, maybe someone can share Cam Profile.
 
@ Predent: What Pan Head Rotator do you use?
What are your settings / Cam Profile for Stitcher.
 
Or do I need to use the DS version to use it properly?
 
Thanks for any help guys. I'm desperate, the project deadline is approaching
 
Maybe someone from Realviz can lok into my files?
 
Cheers
 
chris

Hi chris!
 
Fisheye lens images do not go through the "High Distortion Calibration" process that rectilinear images do - there is no "cam profile". The fisheye calibration takes place only in the "Properties" dialog ("Camera" tab) when "Fisheye Full Frame" or "Fisheye Circular" are selected in the "Camera Lens Type" pop-up.
 
This calibration step, if required, involves adjusting the fisheye circle on a single proxy image. Page 50 in the printed manual (or "Calibrating Fisheye Lens" in the on-line guide) has the details.
 
Also I find the use of a blending routine such as enblend (Mac only) or SmartBlend (Mac & PC) to be a requirement in the render process for fisheyes.
 
You do not need the DS version for you current set-up. This "Double Shot" version extends Unlimited's capabilities to work with two circular fisheye images with >180 field of view.

Hi chris!
 
One more thought since your deadline is fast approaching...
 
Why don't you e-mail me your images (full res, high quality JPEGs):
wdd3@comcast.net
 
My e-mail hs a limit of 10MB, so in the unlikely event your attachment exceeds this amount please send in two parts.
 
I work with a Nikkor 10.5mm fish eye lens (15.75mm @35mm equiv) - quite similar to your lens.
 
I am up late almost every night. Right now it's 4:30 pm (PDT) here in California.

Hi Chris!
 
Another news flash... I just looked at your member profile (should have done that first!) and noticed that you are using v5.1 of Stitcher. If this is accurate & not a typo then you can toss all of my foregoing suggestions.
 
v5.1 will not work will fish eye images directly. You must first "defish" them to rectilinear. You can get the free "Defish" tool from Apple or PTools. Just google "defish" to find them.
 
Once you have remapped your images to rectilinear then you will need to go through the "High Distortion" process and proceed as with your other rectilinear images.
 
The best solution though, since you own a fisheye, will be to upgrade to Stitcher v5.6.

Hi Jim
 
first of all; thank you very much for chiming in and helping!
Much appreciated!
 
After loads of fiddling I got it to work without defishing directly in stitcher 5.1
 
8 photos + Zenith (and Nadir in photoshop later).
 
What I did is high dist calibrating 2 images (the last and first one)
I kept on trying until it worked (had many many tries with different combo of images;-) )
Then I saved the Cam Profile and was succesfully applying it to different night shots scenes I did yesterday.
 
Now I need to try whether it will work with 6 images + Zenith with the same profile (I doubt it...right?)
 
If I run into trouble with the 6+1 tests I will more than gladly send you some images for you to try and help even more.
 
I will try to defish them prior to importing them into stitcher, because I guess that the High dist calibration worked on me because I was just lucky, so it might not work a second time
 
So again Jim, thanks gracias merci Danke ;-)
 
I will keep you updated and will post some examples soon.
 
Thanks and the very best regards,
 
Chris
 
PS: You mentioned a defish software for Apple.
I mean is it a software FROM Apple? never heard of it and couldn't find it on google. I own QTVRAS but as far as I remember it doesn't defish.
 
Or is it the software called "DeFish"?
I am new to defish software so any info is most valuable.

oh, btw, thanks for the info on the Nikkor 10.5mm fish eye lens (15.75mm @35mm equiv).
 
I didn't know the 2 lenses were so similar.
I know that a lot of VR Pros use your lens too.
 
 

quote:Jim: "I am up late almost every night. Right now it's 4:30 pm (PDT) here in California."
 
right now its 6:54 in the morning here in Luxembourg, Europe.
 
Been up all night...it's holiday over here, probably the same in the United States.  
Thank God the Simpsons treehouse of horror marathon nights help getting my head cleared a bit of the 360° deadline headaches ;-)
 
But I guess now I'll give myself a nap.
 
good night  
 
chris

Hi Chris!
 
You can get "Defish", the program, here:
http://www.worldserver.com/turk/qu [...] sheye.html
 
Technically this is not an Apple program - it was developed by Ken Turkowski (aka "Turk" ) when he was part of the original QTVR development team - and is offered on the Apple QT tools page as well as the URL sited above, part of Ken's web site. Lot's of interesting stuff here.
 
 
===============
Wow! You got v5.1 to produce a high quality stitch directly with fisheyes. When I was using v5.1 and tried to do the same (using the "High Distortion" tool) I got two error dialogs:
 
"Stitcher will not work with focal lengths shorter than 10mm."
 
I got this message when I tried to enter the true FOV of the fisheye (136 degrees).
The "10mm" in the error dialog was referring to a rectilinear 10mm, approx. 121 degrees FOV.
 
or
 
when I went with the rectilinear equivalent of my 10.5 (approx. 119 degrees) I got:
"Can not calibrate the image."
 
Amazing that you pulled this off!

Thanks, downloading right now.
 
In Stitcher 5.1, in Settings, when I typed in the values for my lens:
 
Film Back: 18x13.5  Focal length 8mm
 
I get the same error message as you "Due to legal issues Stitcher will not work with focal lengths shorter than 10mm."
 
My workaround is simply to use 35mm equiv:
 
Film Back: 36x27  Focal length 16mm (FOV = approx 96.xx)
 
That does the trick with me.
 
I really fiddled a lot with High Dist Calibration, tried everything I could, every image combo etc until it worked. took me all night.
 
The result is super clean, I'd say 99% Perfect.  
The 1% missing is probably because I shoot my Zenith and Nadir "Handheld", so it's not ueber precise.
 
I'm really glad it works now. Hope it was not just luck and the camera profile will still work in the future.
 
As you see I still haven't made it into bed, but tomorrow I will post my results.

Hi again.
 
As promised, here is one of the 2 panos I did with the Zuiko 8mm lens, High Dist. Calibrated and then Autostitched in Stitcher 5.1:
 
www.sunmade.lu/palais.swf
 
It is a VR of the Royal Palace in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
 
Requires Flash 9.
 
Kind regards,
 
Chris

Hi All,
 
Thanks for the feedback. I made the statement earlier that I wasn't getting good results even at 28 mm - well I spent some time yesterday fastidiously setting the pivot point (apparently nodal point is not the correct term although it's what I always used), correcting a slight skew in the Manfrotto L adaptor, and getting everything absolutely right - result was a perfect stitch in Stitcher of two very tight panoramas - very good results.
 
Now I need to get hold of that 8mm (16mm) fisheye and try again.
 
BTW - Chris that's a great pano.