Tutorials

Perhaps the most common preset setting is the number of shots. The Custom option in the Shots list allows you to specify either a desired number of shots or a focal length.
Let's see what the difference is between Custom 50mm and 50mm2.
When entering 50mm in the Custom field, MECHA will compute a shooting pattern for a 50mm rectilinear lens (FF equiv.) using a script in MSS format, which is easy to modify and adapt to your needs.
If you enter 50mm2 instead, MECHA will compute a shooting pattern for a 50mm rectilinear lens (FF equiv.) using the Repeat feature with a list of angles and positions for each repeat. In this case, the panorama is technically made of many panoramas repeated for each row. While it can be modified, it is not as easy as with the MSS script. And because it uses the Repeat feature, the whole panorama cannot be repeated automatically.
However, the coverage of the sphere is the same, regardless of whether mm or mm2 is used.

Note: If the firmware version is older than 12434, the mm2 setting will not be displayed in the Shots field.

When should you use 50mm and when 50mm2?
In most cases, mm is recommended, as it’s easier to understand and modify.
mm2 has some advantages when creating a panorama from a very large number of positions. With a 50mm lens, the number of positions is typically small, so the recommended setting is mm.
As a general rule, for values up to 200, the simplest and recommended setting is mm.
For values over 200, mm2 will offer better performance if the preset needs to be exported as a MAP or Template.
Note that for values over 1000, MECHA will produce a script in py format.
That's all for today's video.