Hardware
VenueView uses a Nikon D80 Digital SLR with a Nikkor 10.5mm full frame fisheye lens and a Nodal Ninja 3 MKII panorama head. Take a look at Rosauro Ona’s review of the Nodal Ninja head that fully describes shooting a spherical panorama with this setup.
To hold up the gear we use a thirty-five year old Gitzo Studex Performance with double center column. To fire off the 27 bracketed exposures that we use to assemble one panorama we use a wireless remote.
Software
Assembling a high resolution 360° panorama involves a lot of moving parts. We use Capture NX to process camera raw images, Google’s Picasa to manage the images and Bergmark’s EnfuseGUI to merge the bracketed exposures.
We use PTGui to assemble the equirectangular image from the source files, then Garden Gnome’s Pano2VR to process the cube face output that is used by the programmable projector, Flash Panorama Player.
Technique
Techniques for processing and displaying full-screen panoramas are as different as the photographers that shoot them. We have developed a unique cinematic form for our panoramas. Our fully automated tours look, and can be used, like video presentations.
Unlike a video, our presentation offers interactivity. The viewer can control the 360° panorama — pan, tilt and zoom — and jump from one scene to another at random. No video offers you that option.