First of all, I truly appreciate what you have done here. The information is amazing!

I am a working pro dipping my toe into digital. For many reasons over several months, it looks like I will go towards the Nikon 990. A request of one client is to do 360 degree panoramic VR for the web. I have seen Quick Time VR...my question is with this camera, do I use the "Movie Mode" or shoot several stills? If the later, I'm guessing that the software will allow me to stitch the single images together. Are there any VR or Panoramic forums around?

Many thanks!

-- George Von Kantor (photohause@aol.com), April 18, 2000

Answers

You would shoot 4-18 overlapping single shots depending on which lens adapter you were using. The wide angle adapter would probably require 12 shots. There are half a dozen or more stitching app.s which could build that into a panoramic single long image, and then into a QuickTime/VR.

-- erik goetze (erik@outre.com [www.virtualparks.org]), April 18, 2000.

or if you have a coolpix, you can have the option of getting a fisheye lens that takes a 180 degree view thus only requires 2 shots. a couple caveats here... one is if you plan to use the ipix software, they charge by picture and it's rediculous, the other is that the resolution is not as high as if you stitched 10-20 pictures together

-- Keat Lim (keatlim@my-deja.com), April 18, 2000.

Just a quick word on ipix....

Yes, you pay a fee for each use that you deploy to the web. But the advantage is that you get a "bubble" that allows users to see in all directions, including up and down. Distorition and image quality is an issue, though.

My company (iExplore) has been using them to highlight travel destinations. You can find a sample at: http://www.iexplore.com/trip/egypt.jhtml.

-- Jace Mouse (jace@jacemouse.com), May 07, 2000.