Alan, what are the routes you most frequently travel? (so that I can avoid those). :) I have used Ulead 360, a stitching software, it removed the appropriate curvature etc depending on the focal length of the lens used. Some sort of balloon like trigger attached to shutter release of digicams (like old view cameras?) joined (through multi-way splitter) to one flexible tube with other balloon at your end may do the trick. Electronics may be much easier, if it works though. Other thing may be to have your camera mounted on some sort of rotational device, which rotates a fixed angle after each shutter release. Since the panoramas may be distant, actual distance the car travels (from first shutter release to last) may not cause that much of a difference? After seeing your Stop sign picture, I must admit that with my Kodak DC280 I tried similar thing, it produced interesting results. It was, however, not very interesting to my wife, who was worried about me dropping the camera. :) achal Achal Pashine Pediatric Immunology Center for Clinical Sciences Research, Room 2120 269 Campus Drive Stanford, CA 94305-5164 Tel: 1-650-498-7574 FAX: 1-650-498-6077 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan P. Hayes" <ahayes@berkshire.rr.com> To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students" <photoforum@ase-listmail.rit.edu> Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 12:33 PM Subject: Advice sought on Hare-brained Scheme > As part of my death-defying pursuit of pictures from cars in motion I > have for some time wanted to be able to take action panoramas while > driving. > > I think I may have hit on a semi-safe way to do this. I'd like to run > my idea by the camera mechanics on the list. > > It's fairly simple actually. I'm thinking of mounting 3 or 4 digital > cameras so that they would encompass a wide angle of view, shooting > them all off at once and then combining the images in photoshop. > > It would be nice to use Nikon D1s but until I get my grant I figure > on using 25 dollar digicams (there are such things!). > > I've thought of a few possible difficulties. Any comments on them or > anything else that occurs to anybody would be gratefully received. > > I anticipate mounting the cameras on some sort of semicircular rail. > This would give me some flexibility in terms of positioning them. I > understand that this sort of geometry might result in some sort of > parallax issues. I think these are likely to be at a level that I can > deal with post-exposure, judging from the results I've been able to > get combining even hand held images (satisfactory to me). > > Likewise, while it won't be as much of a problem when I get the D-1s, > I plan to deal with distortion through post processing. Again this > has been feasible in my experiments with panoramas so far. > > I would like to be able to set all of the cameras of at as near the > same time as possible. Also my wife would like me to be able to do > this without taking my hands off the steering wheel. I've seen > devices for attaching cable releases to cameras without the proper > fitting and it seems that a similar mechanical system might work for > this application (though it might end up being foot operated!) > > Another possibility given that these are mainly electronic cameras, > would be some sort of electrical arrangement. Since I've got the > possibility of using $25 digicams, it might be possible to sacrifice > one. It would be nice to have some inside information, so to speak, > on these cameras. > > I haven't really worried much about waterproofing, hood mounts, how > to explain to the highway patrol, et cetera. There's a time for > everything. > > Thanks in advance for helping me "stay alive at 55!" > > -- > Alan P. Hayes > Meaning and Form: Writing, Editing and Document Design > Pittsfield, Massachusetts >
