Computer needed?????

[Donald Miller]

I have almost decided to buy a panoramic head and software that will allow me to stitch a fairly large number of digital capture images. This will be on the order of 90 images for a 180 degree panorama. (less for narrower view). I compute this will amount to 1150 MP capture for 180 field of view. What should I be looking for in computer processing capability? I am running a dual core 2.8mhz with 2 MB of ram...is that going to seriously suck wind for this application? I presently have 160 gig HD with 1.5 tetrabite in two external drives. It looks like the file size, if I am figuring this correctly, will be 13.5 gig...is that right?

How would this compare to an 8X10 negative?

Any thoughts or recommendations will be appreciated.

[Brian K]

Donald, I'm not sure if you can even save a 13.5 gig file. I think files larger than 2 gig can not be saved as tiff and I'm, not sure if PS file format will save it. As for photoshop at most it utilizes only 3.5 gigs of RAM, and I would suggest that you have at least 6 gigs of ram anyway.

[Stephen Best]

I have almost decided to buy a panoramic head and software that will allow me to stitch a fairly large number of digital capture images. This will be on the order of 90 images for a 180 degree panorama. (less for narrower view). I compute this will amount to 1150 MP capture for 180 field of view. What should I be looking for in computer processing capability? I am running a dual core 2.8mhz with 2 MB of ram...is that going to seriously suck wind for this application? I presently have 160 gig HD with 1.5 tetrabite in two external drives. It looks like the file size, if I am figuring this correctly, will be 13.5 gig...is that right?

How would this compare to an 8X10 negative?

Any thoughts or recommendations will be appreciated.

I just printed an exhibition set of 360 degree panoramas for a client and the resultant file size was only about 330MB due to it having to come under Photoshop's 30,000 pixel limit for printing, filters etc. The rendering will take a while but you could let it run overnight (depending on what software you use). Irrespective, I'd up your RAM to as much as your computer can hold.

[Donald Miller]

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts.

I am looking at the 360 precision head (www.360precision.com). They have recommended the 60 detent plate for the 200 mm lens and the standard detent plate for the wide angle stuff. It seems to me that with center, down, and up (if desired) it appears to me to be a potential of 90 exposures for 180 degrees...double that for 360 views. The stitching software recommended is found on autopan.net for the 200 mm stuff and ptgui for interiors (16 mm lens).

I know that the fellows that do the gigapixel stuff have found a way to handle the large image files but this is all new to me. It may be time to upgrade to a new quadcore Mac just for the digital stuff because I am maxed out on ram now.

[jb7]

I'd say it would be better to start smaller-
although great detail is available,
it kinda breaks down a bit if you get to see the seams-
and working on files that size will be slow, and laborious, I'm sure-

Whatever you do,
learning how it goes together on much smaller files would probably be a good idea-

joseph