Panoramic option with 5060s

[SuPrBuGmAn]

How do you get the feature to work? I'm using a 512mb Olympus brand xD card so the option is supposed to be available. Using M mode I cant get into the feature while in the camera portion of the mode menu - but I can get to the option while the camera is in 'landscape mode' - however - when I enter that option is puts lines and arrows on the screen(don't know what they mean) and when I take a pic - the pictures don't look any more panoramic than my normal shots?

 

[herman]

Basically, what you do is to take a series of shots in the field that don't look any different than a regular picture. The lines are for you to use to make sure that the pictures overlap. Back at your computer, you use the camedia software that came with the camera to stitch them together into one file. I find it works ok if you shoot from a tripod where you can pan without changing the elevation of the camera but otherwise it's more fluff than useful feature.

 

[jlyle]

Go around the lame Camedia software. Just take some overlapping images and use autostitch.net freeware to piece them together. A google search will turn up other products.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

lol - here i thought i was getting a feature that actually worked

thanks for the links

 

[dmax tim]

how do u like the 5060 other than that?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

This is actually my second one - I bought another because I liked the camera itself so much. The first flooded inside an Olympus PT020 housing. Be sure to insure your camera

 

[Charlie99]

while the camera is in 'landscape mode' - however - when I enter that option is puts lines and arrows on the screen(don't know what they mean) and when I take a pic - the pictures don't look any more panoramic than my normal shots?

Those lines in the display are simply framing marks to help you get the proper amount of overlap. In panorama mode, the camera will lock into a single exposure to make the stitching together more seamless -- that's probably why it locks you out in the M mode.

The stitching together is done after the fact in the Camedia software, but of course, you can use any other software, such as Photoshop.


Charlie Allen

p.s. The above comments assume that your Olympus 5060 panorama mode works the same as the Olympus Stylus 400 mode. You could always read your manual

 

[bob1dp]

The lines and arrows you are seeing may be framing guidelines. Many cameras that take “Landscape” mode photos often just crop your original shot so there is much less top and bottom making it appear wider. The arrows, if they seem to be defining lower top and higher bottom, are doing just this. When you take the photo it may just be recording the wide inside area. Or you may have to crop your photos to match the landscape framing. If your frame lines seem to make your picture narrower from the sides then it is probably some sort of overlapping guide from shooting panoramic photos. My Cannon actually places half the frame of the previous picture as a matching guide. Using this kind of matching has really improved the quality of my panoramic pictures. The “stitching” programs require quite a lot of overlap, like 25%, to match the pictures. This is very different from the film style where you wanted a minimum of overlap.

I use http://www.panoramafactory.com/ as my stiching program. I am very happy with it. It is Freeware but I liked it enough to spend the money to own it. I get very professional results.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

hmmm

Thanks for the comments, I'll have to play around with the feature more as well as look into some of the freeware available online. The owners manual really doesn't cover much on panoramic, that was the first place I looked...

 

[Shasta_man]

This wasn't obvious to me so I mention it.

Panoramic means standing in a single point and taking a series of pictures across a "horizon". In other words, stand on river bank. Take series of shots panning across opposite bank. These will assemble into a decent panoramic.

This is opposed to taking photos in a half circle around yourself and assembling them.

The problem with the latter is that all of the shots will be taken showing the same curve to the horizon. When you put them together, at each picture intersection, the horizon will start a slight arc, ending at the next intersection, which will again arc. So you won't get a continuous arc or flat horizon, but a lumpy one.

I used Photostitch I received with my Canon DSLR. It does a good job and, transparently showed one photo over the other to allow me to easily line up everything. But it resulted in the lumpy horizon I described.

hmmm

Thanks for the comments, I'll have to play around with the feature more as well as look into some of the freeware available online. The owners manual really doesn't cover much on panoramic, that was the first place I looked...