Some thing I noticed after reading this forum for a month or so, is that more than a few photographer who don't understand what equipment works with virtual photography, what equipment they need and why.  
 
The Nodal Point is where the image flips or crosses in the lens. If you look though a lens while its off the camera, that's why the image is upside down. The Nodal Point must be positioned over the Pivot Point of the rotator. If its not and if you can stitch the image at all, you'll get "parallax" where the same object will appear twice in the stiched image, right next to itself. For example, a telephone pole will appear right next to itself. Its like how the view in your left eye is slightly different than the view in your right eye. If you shot a photo, then moved the camera 3 inches to the right, you wouldn't be able to lay them over each other and get then to line up perfectly.
 
Rotators designed to position the Nodal Point over the Pivot Point usually push the cameras way back. The Nikon FC-E8 and E9 lenses have their Nodal Points in the wide, front part of the lens. This has to be positioned over the center of the rotator and tripod. If its forward of the center of the rotator, like a regular panhead would place it, you may not even be able to stitch or if you can, you'll get "parallax" in the final image. The further away objects are, like being at the center of a big, open parking lot with all the light poles on the edges of the lot, the less problem "parralax" will be, but it will be there.  
 
Rotators are either "universal" or "camera & lens specific." Universal Rotators like the Nodal Ninja and Manfrotto 303SPH have adjustments to accomodate most camera and lenses combinations. There is a process to determine when the Nodal Point os over the Pivot Point of the rotator. iPIX built rotators that were designed for a specific camera and lens. The Nodal Point was positioned correctly just by setting the combo in place and tightening the mountin screw. Agnos makes rotators that clamp directly on the FC-E8 and E9 lens. The Rotator for the E9 has camera specific brackets to set the Nikon Coolpix cameras on. Both Agnos rotators position the Nodal Point without any adjustment.
 
Two Fisheye Stitching was build almost entirely around 2 lenses; the Nikon Coolpix FC-E8 and, later, the FC-E9. FC stood for "Fisheye Converter" since they were screwed on over the built in lenses of the semi-professional Nikon Coolpix cameras. They produce a Circular Fisheye Image. There's a fully circular image with black around it. The Field of View is 183° in all directions. On the Coolpix 5400 with the FC-E9 the FOV is 190°. This "greater than 180°" FOV horizontally, vertically and diagonally is what is absolutely necessary for 2 fisheye stitching. The 3° overlap lets the software blend the 2 "hemispheres" together in to a "photo bubble".  
 
Most other Fisheye Lenses don't produce a "greater than 180°" fully Circular Image. The Sigma 8mm has a FOV of 180° on most cameras and the image is usally shaped like a hockey rink. Some people call it a "Cropped Fisheye." The Nikkor 10.5mm is 180° from corner to corner in the image and is called a "Full Frame Fisheye" by some because if fills the full image frame of most cameras. Obviously neither of these workhorses of virtual imaging has more than 180° FOV so 2 fisheye stitching is impossible, let alone the shape of the image.
 
Both the Nikon FC-E8 and E8 have been discontinued by Nikon since the Coolpix line of cameras has become a more Point & Shoot line of cameras as they introduced affordable Digital SLR cameras. The near-pro 8 megapixel Coolpix 8700 was US$999.95 when new. There are now several of the D series Nikons less than US$1000. You can still find good condition Coolpix 8700s and FC-E9s for sale on eBay. Some are factory refurbished with 90 day warranties
 
A Sigma 8mm in a "portrait" position usually takes 4 shots around the horizontal plus Zenith (straight up) and Nadir (straight down) shots to produce a Full 360° x 360° spherical or cubical image.
 
With a Nikkor 10.5mm it usually takes 6 shots around plus a Zenit and Nadir shot to produce a Full 360° x 360° spherical or cubical image.
 
There is a Fisheye Lens still available that produces a 185° Circular Fisheye that comes with a Nikon or a Canon mount from Coastal Optics (www.CoastalOpt.com), but its US$4500.
 
I hope this helps a lot of photographers understand a more about what they need to produce good quality virtual images
 
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM

Just an update;
The Sigma 8mm produces a Circular Image with a Field of View of 180° on most dSLRs with a Full Frame Sensor.  
Its theoretically possible to produce a full 360° x 360° virtual image with 3 shots around plus a Nadir (bottom) shot by tilting the full frame sensor camera and Sigma 8mm lens up 10-15° for the 3 shots.

Has anyone tried to use a Raynox 185 degree adaptor lens for stitching two images?
 
http://www.buy.com/retail/product. [...] caid=17902
 
A fabulous 185-degree Circular Fisheye conversion lens was introduced from Raynox, called DCR-CF185PRO. Once again, Raynox filled the need of advanced image creators. Upon mounting on the zoom lens, it opens the field of view to the ultra wide angle, the diagonal fisheye angle and to the circular fisheye images. A very interesting feature of this particular lens makes it possible to change the scenery from an ultra wide angle view to a diagonal fisheye and to the circular fisheye or the other way, by zooming the lens. An adapter ring RA6258 for 58mm filter size and a RA6252 for 52mm filter size are included with DCR-CF185PRO Fish-Eye lens. Upon mounting on the zoom lens, The DCR-CF185PRO opens the field of view to the ultra wide angle, the diagonal fisheye angle and to the circular fisheye images.It's a completely new high definition lens made of the high index optical coatedlens with a 4-group/6-element formula to obtain the maximum resolution power of 500 lines/mm at center (MTF30%), while it has low dispersion. All of Raynox conversion lenses are proudly made in Japan. At our wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary, every stage of production is rigorously checked and tested so that the lens elements compensate effectively for astigmatism, distortion and spherical aberration.... for an excellent image quality.

Doesn't work. See my other threads about this. I've met with Raynox they demonstrated to me why you can't use this lens for 2 shot fisheye stitching. It's because this lens uses "non-conformal" projection across the surface of the lens.

gatherlight
My understanding is that none the stitching programs, including RealViz, can stitch images from the Raynox 185° fisheye lens.

Hi djaurand,
 
I am using STICHER Unlimited. I am using Raynox 185Pro. I tried to stich a 2-shot panorama but it does not work since the edition I have let you set an angle of 180 max. The lens is 185 - so I shall upgrade to the Dual Stich edition of Sticher Unlimited - I read that they support Fisheye lenses that have more than 180 degrees angle. I shall inform you if I succeed.
 
Predent

Predent
I'll be looking forward to hearing about or seeing your results.
 
Good luck

If you get it to work it'll be a miracle, 'cos I sat with the Raynox engineer at Photokina and he showed me two raynox shots from this lens and they couldn't stitch because of the issues I've described above.

Hi!
 
No news...bad news. I asked Realviz team if I can create a 2-shot panorama with Raynox and Sticher Unlimited DS. They did not reply my post. The problem is that Sticher Pro does not work with Raynox Fisheye 185 even with 3 or 4 shots. I used Panoweaver 5.0 by easypano and they have a special stiching option for Raynox. It worked very well. But I need 3 shots.
   
 

Exactly. You can't stitch 2 shots in RV Stitcher from the Raynox 185 deg lens, but you SHOULD be able to stitch 3 x shots. I'd be happy to take a look at them if you can post them online to download.

predent
I'd like to see them too

Thanks for starting this thread Djaurand and for your information, Badders. I have just recently invested in an old Nikon Coolpix 5400 (5 mpixels) and a FC-E9 lens to try to learn about and create panorama shots. My wife is also interested in learning about this fascinating aspect of photography. We got the camera, lens and adapter and proceeded to take a few shots around the house and at work. The results were no where near the quality that Badders showed in his post on another thread: http://www.360tacticalvr.co.uk/sho [...] flash.html  
 
This is my 1st attempt:
 
http://www.happed.org/panotest/index.html
 
This was a 3 shot pano. Can anyone tell me if this grainy pano is a problem with the camera's 5mpixel resolution, the lens or operator error.
 
Thanks alot for your valued opinion.

Firestorm
That's actually a pretty good scene for some one who just getting into virtual photography.
 
There is a limit to the quality of the photos from the small CCD sensors used in point & shoot cameras, even "pro-consumer" cameras like the Nikon Coolpix line and Canon G and Powershot series.
 
Without knowing your workfow and settings I can suggest a few things from my experience using a Coolpix 5400/FC-E9. Some you may already be doing;
1. Shoot in Manual
2. Make sure you have the Image Quality Size set to FINE and 5Megapixels)
3. Set the Sensitivity to 50 or 100
4. Turn the Noise Reduction ON.
5. Set Image Sharpening to LOW. It seems to add Noise
6. Set the Aerature to f/7.9. This will give the maximum Field of Focus the 5400 can do.
 
If you're using the Lens setting FISHEYE, you should try it on NORMAL, and using the Zoom to make the Circular Image bigger. That way tou get more pixels and therfore more resolution. The extra resolution will make the image clearer. Don't forget to turn the flash off
 
The link to Andrews sample isn't complete (I think you copied the cropped text rather than the underlying "shortcut" ) but if its the one I think it is, its an outdoor scene with bright sunlight in front of a building. My Coolpix 5400 always gets sharper crisper images with lots of light when compared to lower light scenes like the sample you have. I think he used a Coolpix P5000 or P5100 for those so the sensor is similar to the one in the 5400 although it has twice as many pixels. So I assume the bright sunlight helps the P5000/5100 produce sharper images too
 
This link is a set of photos I shot with my Coolpix 5400/FC-E9 that came out nice with a little work. (I still use the iPIX format a lot, hope you don't mind)
 
http://www.do222.com/iPIXIndex.htm
 
Hope that helps