Hardware

In January 2004 I began using an Olympus E-1 (5 mega-pixel) digital SLR with a 14-54mm lens as my primary VR camera. In December 2005 this camera was replaced with the similar, but higher resolution (8 mega-pixel), Olympus E-500. These have proved to be well suited to my needs, especially with their dust-reduction and splash-proof features. For scenes with greater vertical field of view I sometimes use the ultra wide angle Olympus 7-14 mm lens.

In 2003 I used (almost exclusively) a Nikon d100 (6 megapixel) digital SLR, with an 18mm f2.8 Nikon lens (effective focal length about 27mm). It was an excellent camera, well designed and with acceptable quality. But dust on the sensor (even though I seldom change lenses) was a recurrent problem.

The camera is mounted on a Kaidan QuickPan III Pro (with quick release). It is sturdily made and very accurate, but a bit heavy. For cubics I use the Kaidan Spherical Adapter (also with quick release). See the Kaidan web site for details and newer models.

The QuickPan is mounted on an Acratech Ultimate Ball Head. This ball head is superb: easy to use, light and strong - highly recommended.

I generally use a Velbon carbon-fiber tripod (now discontinued). It is as sturdy as the Bogen it replaced, but weighs half as much. I also sometimes use a walking staff with an L-bracket from KirkPhoto as a monopod.

The camera, mount, and other essential items are packed in a waterproof Pelican case. This protects them from both shock and the elements, but is bulky and heavy. It fits into a travel-pack, which makes it much easier to lug around, either suitcase style, or as a backpack.

The items in the Pelican case are: camera body with detachable strap and standard lens, one extra camera battery, remote control, QuickPan III vertical unit, QuickPan III horizontal unit, gps unit (global positioning system), tiny flashlight, USB cable, waterproof pen, waterproof notebook, lens brush, eight 1 gb CF film cards in protective cases, a hex wrench for the quick release plates, business cards, and a Pelican padlock.

The travel pack's outside pocket also carries a battery charger, firewire and usb cables, CP card reader, a combination cable lock, a large ziplock bag (to protect the camera from rain and mist), and a bandana (ditto).

Alternative Hardware

For overnight hiking trips, where weight is of paramount importance, I now use a walking stick as a monopod. A center-bubble level is attached to the staff. (All the panoramas of Santa Cruz Island were made with this combination.)

A few years ago the prospect of carrying sufficient batteries (or a solar charger) and enough memory cards (or some way of uploading in the field) was a serious deterrent to taking a digital system backpacking. But new rechargeable Li-Ion batteries and higher capacity memory cards have changed that. With my eight 1 gb CF cards and two batteries I can shoot up to 20 standard panoramas plus miscelleaneous photos. The closest I have come to this was a three-day backpack trip to Waterwheel Falls in Yosemite, total ten panoramas.

By switching from TIFF (42 exposures per 1 gb card) to JPEG high quality (160 per card) I could take more than 150 panoramas and 150 miscellaneous shots. On the three-day backpack on Santa Cruz Island I shot 28 panoramas, alternating between TIFF and JPEG formats.

Two years ago I invested in a new film-based system, a Voigtlander Bessa-L with 12mm and 25mm lenses, and a Kaidan Kiwi VL specially designed for it. It is very compact and light, simple to use, and the lenses are superb. But the difficulties of scanning from film have kept me from making much use of it.

Computers and Software

Stitching of cylindrical panoramas is still done with the venerable Quick Time VR Authoring Studio from Apple. It gives great quality and supports an efficient work flow. It would be nice to have an OS-X native version, but it runs fine in Classic.

For cubic (spherical) panoramas I use RealViz Stitcher, which I hate. Bad interface, poor documentation and support, lots of quirks and bugs, and expensive.

In the field I use a Macintosh G4 PowerBook. At home I am using a 20-inch flat-screen G5 iMac. I sometimes also use my computer at work, a dual G-5 tower with 23-inch flat-screen.

Most of my panoramas are of natural areas and remote historic towns, so I usually camp while travelling. For summer 2003 I traded in my Nissan Pathfinder for a Chevy van. I can't do all the back roads anymore, but the extra comfort in camp is worth it. A metal toolbox, cable-locked to the floor and padlocked, provides secure storage for valuable equipment.

A motel every fourth or fifth night is a longstanding tradition - reliable power and a convenient work surface are now as important as a shower and laundry. I find I need about two extra half-days per week to catch up on maintenance, both personal and digital.

At each panorama site I take a gps reading and record the date, location, and other details in a notebook. It is important to write down (or better yet photograph) information that may be on signs, pamplets, historical markers, etc, at the site - this can be impossible to look up once you are home again.

I have a charged battery in the camera, and another one charged (or in the charger) at all times. The battery charger and computer run off a two-outlet inverter plugged into one of the van's power outlets. A few years ago I had a problem running the car's battery down overnight (and once almost got stranded in a deserted campground up near the Arctic Circle), but that hasn't happened recently (better car battery?).

I have found it very important to have enough film cards to last for a whole day of shooting - uploading in the middle of the day is not only inconvenient, it wastes precious panorama-taking time. Currently I carry eight 1 gb Compact Flash cards. On a really productive day, though, I still have to stop and upload.

Once I am in camp in the evening I use a FireWire CF card reader to upload the data from all cards. The images are previewed and put into folders with each panorama's accession number and base name. The number is merely the date (year, month, day) and pano number: for example 030704-04 would be the fourth panorama taken on the 4th of July, 2003. The base name is as understandable as possible: for example MainStCedarville would be Main Street in Cedarville.

I set up a project file in QTVRAS to automatically stitch the panoramas, which typically takes all night. The preliminary panoramas are reviewed in the morning (or when I next have a chance), and changes made to the script if necessary. I try to bring home a full set of stitched images from each trip, ready for final production.

A productive day's shooting will often fill a DVD (4.7 gb) with raw image data and preliminary stitches. So it is necessary to burn DVD's almost daily. They go into binders in the metal tool box. When time allows, I burn duplicates and store them separately (or mail them home).

Every couple of days I make simple spreadsheet entries for the panos I have been taking, recording basic information, and organizing them into guidebooks and localities (as used on the Virtual Guidebooks web site). A hopelessly rainy day once a week or so can be a blessing in disguise, allowing me to catch up on such tasks.

Like everyone else who has done VR for a while (in my case since August 1994) my equipment has continuously evolved. For the record, here is what I have used.

1994 - Olympus OM-1 with 28mm lens, home-brew VR mount (flash rotator bracket on a macro-positioning stage), on two double-decked pan-tilt heads, and a really heavy Bogen tripod. Kodak Photo-CD processing (excellent, but expensive), and stitching with the command-line (MPW) QuickTime VR Authoring Tools (major learning curve)

1995 - Olympus OM-4T with both 28mm and 17mm lenses, Kaidan Kiwi Plus VR mount, a more reasonable Bogen tripod, but no pan-tilt head (the tripod had to be leveled by adjusting the legs). Scanning with the original Nikon CoolScan (utter crap), then a Polaroid SprintScan (better), still stitching with MPW

1996-98 - Nikon N-70, N-60, and N6006 bodies (all of them poorly designed and unreliable), with 28mm and 18mm lenses, same Bogen tripod, Bogen ball-head. I also moved "up" to a Polaroid SprintScan 2000, better quality but endless headaches, the promised batch mode was a lie.

The main problems of the film era were the high cost of film and processing, and the infinite labor of scanning the negatives (with mediocre results). My last few hundred panoramas on negative film (mostly of Hawaii) have never been scanned. But my photography was excellent, right from the beginning, so re-scanning old negatives may be worthwhile (someday).

1999 - My first digital system, an Olympus C 2020-Z with a wide angle lens adapter, on a Kaidan Kiwi-2000 VR mount made specifically for it, plus a new Bogen tripod and ball-head. No more scanning, but had to archive the digital images somehow - on Zip disks and an MO (magneto-optical), also upgraded computer hardware and software (to QTVRAS)

2000- moved up to Olympus C 3030, but it lasted less than a year.

The major problems with these early (consumer grade) digital cameras were limited resolution, terrible lens flare, and difficulty reading the LCD in bright sunlight, making exposure and focus tricky. Also poor reliability - on my Alaska trip in 2000 the C-3030 shorted out in high humidity so I went to my backup C-2020, which broke down a few days later, leaving me with my second backup - film again. Nonetheless I got some classic panoramas with these cameras.

2001 - Olympus E-10 with wide angle lens adapter, back to the original (by now much battered) Kiwi Plus VR mount. Larger more expensive equipment required the Kiwi case for protection. I also upgraded computers (laptop and home) once again, and began to backup on CD-R.

The E-10 gave me nearly professional quality equipment at last, but there were problems with lens flare, and with washout by light coming from behind (through the viewfinder). Two years of successful trips and panoramas with this setup until it shorted out on the last day of the last trip of summer 2002 (what great timing).

2003 - A massive upgrade, in January, to the Nikon d100 with 18mm lens, the Ultimate Ball-head, and carbon-fiber tripod, then in May to the QuickPan III and external CD-R burner. Not quite a complete new start, though - the 18mm lens dates back to early film days.

2004 - Problems with dust on the sensor and a need to have a camera/lens combination that could take non-panorama pictures led me to the brand-new Olympus E-1 with 14-54mm lens. This camera has dust/moisture seals and gaskets, like a professional camera, and a special dust removal system. The zoom lens allows me to take panoramas at its widest setting, and is excellent for general photography (equivalent to 28-108mm). Image quality at 5 megapixels is better than the Nikon d100 at 6 megapixels.

2005 - Added a super wide angle (14-28mm equivalent) lens, great for high vertical field of view subjects, but found that I seldom use it. This was a record year, with over 800 VR panoramas taken. Began to back up onto DVD-R.

The camera swinging on its strap gradually wore through the brass lugs and in December the camera suddenly broke free and fell to the ground. This resulted in an emergency upgrade to the Olympus E-500.