since 2004
For firmware version (1)2371.
In MECHA's User Interface, for both C1 and C2 controllers, in complexity levels A3 and S3, there is a
tool that allows you to perform common rotations and specify the extent of partial panoramas by
setting the top-left and bottom-right corners.
Initially, this tool is a horizontal slider.
It becomes a two-dimensional (or two-axis) slider by clicking or tapping on the toggle button on the
right.
The first thing you should do before working with this slider, is to specify the position of the upper rail of your panoramic head by clicking or tapping one of these three buttons: Parked, Level or Raised.
In our case, the upper rail is in the parked position, so we will use the Parked button.
The slider handle jumps to the top, indicating that the camera is facing up.
Normally, you only need to make this setting once in a work session, but there is no problem if you do
it more than once.
Note that this setting is lost when you press the Power button on the controller, so you have to specify
the position again.
MECHA does not know what position the rail is in, so it is necessary to specify it.
Make sure the label of the first button is "SET" when making this setting.
If the upper rail is in an intermediate position, first, you need to bring it into one of these three
positions.
You can do this with the controller buttons, but also with the slider handle.
And only then specify the real position of the upper rail, by using one of these three buttons: Parked,
Level, or Raised.
The slider step can be changed using the precision button at the top of the slider.
The step is the size of each movement (an increment or jump between values).
Horizontally, the slider range is from -180° to 180°, and vertically, from 90° to -90°.
The slider handle allows you to rotate the camera to the desired position, which is, sometimes, easier
than using the controller buttons.
The top-left and bottom-right corners, and also the slider edges, allow you to specify the size of a
partial panorama.
For example, -50° 50° horizontally, and 90° -90° vertically, might be appropriate settings when you
want to photograph a tall building.
These settings are taken into account when there is a script describing the movements of the
panoramic head.
So let's specify the focal length, and MECHA will automatically create the script we need.
And since we have specified corners, MECHA have generated a script with pitch and yaw
conventions, which we will talk about later.
Any script starts with the position for the upper rail, which in our case is level, as this is specified in the /config page of our MECHA.
The upper rail should be in this position before launching the preset.
Position the upper rail in the level position using the slider handle.
What you now see through the camera viewfinder is the centre of the partial panorama.
You can also point the camera towards the corners, to see exactly how far the panorama extends.
But don't forget to position the upper rail in the level position before launching the preset.
The current settings and the script, which controls the movements, represent the current preset.
It can be launched with the RIGHT or LEFT button, even without saving the preset, and without knowing
all the technical details.
However, if you need to change the settings or the script, then you should know more.
The settings below the script area are taken into account by MECHA when generating the script.
The script automatically changes according to the script settings, but the settings do not change if you
change the script manually.
So, it is important to remember that manual changes may be lost when you update the script settings.
The script generated by MECHA, with pitch and yaw conventions, is in a compact form.
"p" stands for pitch, and "y" for yaw.
The first pair of values tells us that the first position is at 0° pitch, and -50° yaw, and the second at 0°
pitch, and -25° yaw.
The last position is at 0° pitch, and 50° yaw.
Instead of all positions being listed, only the first two and the last is listed, and in between we have two
dots suggesting that there are other intermediate positions here.
So where could position three be?
Notice that the second position is 25° from the first. So the third position is 25° from the second, and
so on.
That is because MECHA divides the range from 50° to -50° equally when generating the script.
Of course, if you want, you can modify the script, specifying positions where needed, or deleting some
positions.
Also, the script type can be changed to "T x N", which stands for tilt and number of positions for each
tilt, except that this requires removing the corners, which we are not going to do now.
You can change the position of the upper rail in your script by selecting "Parked" or "Raised" from this
list.
This will not change the position of the upper rail.
To do this in an even simpler way, click the SET button, so that its label becomes GO,
then click the Parked, Level or Raised button, as needed.
The other three buttons - 1, 2 and 3 - work in a similar way.
They allow you to set three other positions when the label of the first button is SET, and go to those
positions, when the label of the first button is GO.
The direction of rotation can be changed in scripts by choosing other option from this list.
The question mark means direction of rotation unspecified.
However, in the User Interface, the direction is given by the button with which the preset is launched.
For example, if in the script the direction is to the left, and you launch the preset with the RIGHT button,
the movements will be executed to the right.
Then why bother specifying a direction in scripts?
A preset launched from the C2's OLED menu is executed in the direction specified in the preset (that
is, in the script).
If the direction is unspecified, then you need to specify it when launching the preset.
Let's save this preset.
A preset created in the User Interface will be displayed in the C2's OLED menu if the preset name
starts with a certain code.
For example, if the code is in the range 020-029, the preset will be listed on page 2 of the Preset
Menu.
Let's name it "022 partial-panorama-28mm".
Here is our preset in the OLED menu.
We can launch it by pressing the center button of the C2 controller.
We will now continue with the row order list. M means "middle", D - "down", and U - "up".
So the MDU tells MECHA that the script should start with the middle row, then the down rows follow,
then the up rows.
MD means that the up rows will be omitted, and M means that both the down and up rows will be
omitted.
Note again that if you modify the automatically generated script, the way the movements are
performed depends on the script, not the settings.
This is the list for nadir and zenith shots. In our script, here we have two positions for zenith and two for
nadir.
We can delete them, or choose the blank option, if they are not needed.
The order of positions on a row can be Normal, from left to right, or Zigzag.
The mapping type options are Sphere and Grid. Grid means the same number of positions on every
row.
The camera orientation can be Portrait or Landscape. Note that the slider handle also changes when
selecting another option from this list.
Select the vertical overlap first, then select the horizontal overlap, if it is different from the vertical
overlap.
Select the crop factor from this list, or FF, which stands for Full Frame.
Let's review the other settings, which we have talked about in other videos.
1 TRG means one camera trigger signal per position.
If your camera is set to manual focus, the AF (or focus) setting will be ignored. However, keep in mind
that triggering some Sony cameras is not possible if the AF is zero.
The pause for camera wake-up is 1s.
There will be no pause before trigger sequences.
The modifier of the shutter button signal is 1, so it will have no effect.
The duration of the shutter button signal is 0.25s.
And there is 1s delay after each trigger sequence.
The exposure set on your camera should be no greater than 1.25s (which is E + A).
This pair of settings relates to the "n x LEFT" and "n x RIGHT" buttons, which are not important now.
Wait and Rewind tell MECHA to wait after the last shot, or to rewind to the initial position, respectively.
But when we have a script, this setting is not taken into account. Instead, notice that MECHA has
added RT at the end of the script, which means return to the initial position.
"No Repeat" means to execute the preset only once.
The values for speed, microstepping and load can be left as in this example, in most cases.
The "Scripted" option needs to be selected from this list to make the script visible and be taken into
account when executing the preset from the User Interface.
Let's launch this preset using the RIGHT button in the User Interface.
Other examples of partial panoramas.
The top-left corner set to -30 40, and bottom-right corner set to -40 30.
Focal length, 100 mm, and we are launching the preset using the RIGHT button.
Let's see the difference between Normal and Zigzag.
And now, just the middle row.
Just the middle row, but to the left.
Another example:
row order: UMD,
Grid instead of Sphere,
camera orientation: Landscape instead of Portrait,
crop factor: 1.5,
vertical overlap: 5%,
and horizontal overlap: 10%.
And another example:
camera orientation: Portrait,
focal length: 28mm,
crop factor: 2.0,
horizontal overlap: 5%, same as vertical overlap,
row order: DMU.
And one last example:
order of positions: Normal,
and we are launching the preset to the left.
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