How to choose a detent plate?

[Triumphant]

Maybe this info is on the site. If so, please direct me to it and accept my appologies for not finding it.

I will be using a D80 with 18-70 lens, probably at 18 unless you folks tell me that i should use other settings.

Getting an 11 - 16 wide angle in a few days/weeks (when the next shipment arrives). I assume I should use the 11 focal length.

So, how do I determine which plate to use?

Related question: Starting out, I'm more interested in a pano that can be printed on standard size paper, not a full virtual shot. So, let's say I want to print the result on an 11 x 14 sheet or 11 x 17. How do I most easily figure out how many shots horizontally and vertically (camera assumed portrait mounted, unless this is not best) and hence which plate?

Hope this is clear ...

[nick fan]

detent setting for a particular focal length

you need overlap in the images in order to stitch. So you need to know the angle of view of your lens. For making spherical panos, you can use this online calculator
www.frankvanderpol.nl/fov_pan_calc.htm
Then, you need to take photos at a constant angular interval 20-30% smaller than the angle of view of your lens. For the most popular lens, you just refer to vrwave database. Note that the focal length they use is shortest in the zoom range.
www.vrwave.com

As a beginner, you will find these info helpful.

http://www.vrphotography.com/data/pages/techtutorials/techtutorials.html

www.panoguide.com/forums/qna/4576/


nick

[John Houghton]

This thread also contains a lot of very relevant information, particularly if you want to do larger prints occasionally:

http://www.panoguide.com/forums/qna/4082

John