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Just got my Nodal Ninja 3 and wondered what the setup should be. I know theres some way to find it using a grid, but it looks a bit confusing. Plus once the camera is setup at the nodal point it should be left that way for all focal settings from 10-22 correct?
Also what would the angle settings be for taking images?
What a well made product, now all I have to do is learn how to use it !
Hello,Originally Posted by Bsmooth
We have settings published here: http://www.nodalninja.com/support/camerasettings.html
If you don't see your settings there are links to tutorials that show you how to find them on same page.
I would start out with single row panos first to learn the workflow - once you can do single row for the 10mm focal length you can build into multi-row. Assuming you have a Canon for full sperical you will need to shoot about 12 shots around times two rows - 1 row about 20 degrees above 0 mark and one row 20 degrees below 0 mark then shoot the up and down shot. Sounds complicated but once you start rolling with it things will fall together quickly.
Ok guys I did a pano of my local park. I used a NN3 and RD-8 Rotator, PTGUI, and a Canon 10-22 lens with my 20D. I'm trying to figure out what settings I should be shooting my 360 panos. Just noticed after looking at the info in Photoshop I shot 8 images at a focal length of 12.1. Could that be the issue perhaps? I think maybe after taking a look at the chart that Bill Bailey put together that maybe it should have been shot at 14mm instead of 12.Would that have made a difference?
The reason I asked is PTGUI had issues with no control points for the 7th shot in the series. Also there were power lines that didn't connect in the pano, once it was done.
If no control points were assigned automatically for one image, assign them yourself manually. Try to get a good spread of points, so that the optimizer can align the images all along the overlap area. Don't put points on anything likely to move between shots - such as clouds, water, traffic etc. Overhead wires may not align well because they are possibly moving about in the wind. Otherwise it will be because of the panohead setup, or (more likely) optimization. Try switching into Advanced mode (via the button on the right of the Project Assistant panel). SElect the Optimizer tab and then choose "heavy + lens shift" in the minimize lens distortion option.
John
Hi,
first thing is, that you have to find out the NNP for every zoom setting of your lens, cause it changes. Cause your lens is not part of the data base, first thing to do is to works out your NNPs. You find hints in john's tutorial.
Having succeded, go to frank van der pol's panorama calculator to find out about the degrees and number of shoots you have to take. I prefer to work with 30% overlap between shots, cause depending on the scene PtGui might not find a control point.
I like to spend more time at the scene and to take 6 shots instead of 4 and have some security for stitching. I fell saver with this than to have to go back to the scene which means you might have lost a nice moment.
Anyway, i feel you can not stitch correctly cause you working with a wrong NNP.
Success
Heinz
Ok I received my new 10-22 lens yesterday, since I thought my first one had focusing issues, still not sure. Anyways I want to get the nodal points correct. I am using the method of using a grid and aligning points in back of it to check for errors.I have all the shots shooting at focal lenths 12,14,17 and 20.Here are the settings:
Settings at Focal length 12
Lower Arm Set at 5.1
Upper arm set at 10.7
Settings at focal Length 14
Lower Arm Set at 5.1
Upper arm set at 10.3
Settings at focal Length 17
Lower Arm Set at 5.1
Upper arm set at 10.3
Settings at focal Length 20
Lower Arm Set at 5.1
Upper arm set at 10.3
Could someone check out these and see If I'm close? I could also send the images as well,I want to make sure I have these right !
Hi,
when we trust the lower rail settings from our colleagues, go to the list of camera settings mentioned by Bill, go to canon, go 20D, open whatever lens you like, you can see the "A" distance for the lower rail setting: NN3 42,5 without camera plate and 52,5 with CP1. So your lower rail setting seams to be off. Set your cam to pitch -60¬?, which means move it down to -60, rotator set to 60¬?, and take 6 shots around. Stich, an compare it to the tutorial by John.
When your lower rail setting is wrong, you have to find out the NNP once again with the right setting.
When you are ready to go and you are not shure, you may send the fotos. You reach me via IM.
Try hard
Heinz
Well I moved it to 5.2 on the lower rail and it seems to be better. I rechecked my nodal point and also took a 360 nodal around the tripod to check for the sawtooth that was in John's tutorial. Thi is the result I got in th picture. It doesn't quite align,but there isn't the one way sawtooth that was in the tutorial. I can't move it any more towards 5.3 because its hitting the stop.Is this ok as far as centering goes in my attached image?
How did you get a stitch looking like that? A rectilinear projection would have nice straight lines for the floor tiling, which gives confidence in the stitching.
John
I just used PTGUI with the basic settings. I thought the lines on the flooring looked pretty good other than the distortion from the lens.I'm not even sure what the settings were. Basically I just brought the 4 images in from Photoshop after I changed them to Jpeg's. Then after I brought them in did an alignment and then turned them into a panorama. I find PTGUI rather strange, because I can bring the same exact images into it 3 or 4 times and get 3 or 4 different looking panoramas. Just now I did it over again and what I got didn't even come close to what i had done earlier today.
But I looked at the control point distances(which are supposed to be close arent they?) and some were 400-500 and I eliminated those and put closer ones in and pretty much got the same image, where all the lines on the floor connect now.
I'm finding PTGUI to have a lot more options than I can understand at the moment. theres not a great deal of info that i can find either, but I'm still looking.
BTW is the shot supposed to look perfectly round just like the tripod looks?
It's up to you to select the output projection and field of view. For the nadir, select rectilinear projection on the Panorama Editor window (green square icon and use the sliders to set the view to about 70x70 degrees. You need to check the assignment of the control points to make sure there are points only on the floor and not on any part of the tripod or panohead or on you. So select Advanced mode vbia the button on the right of the Project Assistant and select the Control Points tab to step through pairs of images 0-1, 1-2, 2-3 ... 5-0 etc. and delete errant points. Then visit the optimizer tab and re-optimize.
John
Well I set it to 70x70 but If i do that you ca't see the floor at all anymore. I also didn't realize it wasn't just 0,1 1,2 2,3 and 3,4 that had matching points. there were also 0,3 0,4 1,4 etc. Its taking me a bit to get my head around this, but even after doing that the tripod head still doesn't look round, it still has bits that don't quite match very well.
I'm not sure at this point whether the camera is set up incorrectly or its just PTGUI not matching points very well
Before you set rectilinear and reduce the fov to 70x70 drag the image in the Panorama Editor window to bring the centre of the panohead/tripod to the centre of the window. The floor should stitch reasonably well if control points are well placed. Place all the points manually if necessary. You don't need a huge number.
John
I really appreciate the help John. Well I redid it again. I eliminated all the control points and did just the floor. I optimized the points and redid the pano again. From what i can see the floor lined up well, but that pano head has a sawtooth look to it going counterclockwise doesn't it ?
This should mean moving the camera ever so slightly to the left right ?
Here's the newest image.
Hi,
now you are on your way. You are right.
Heinz
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