Question about Camera

[Jackass]

Hello all, i know virtually nothing about cameras or photography, but im currently involved in something that i need to be able to take a 360 degree photo....simiular to what you will find on this website. I believe the camera used on this shoot was a Nikon 950 coolpix with a 180 degree fish eye lens. The problem is that i dont have a particularly large budget for this, and im curios about how to achieve this effect?? Does anyone know if this can be achieved from a regular digital camera? possibly pieceing 4 pictures together or something? Or is that just stupid?
But basicly im trying to achieve that 360 degree, virtual tour type photo.

So Here's what i need to know:

If i do need a simular camera, what is the price range? And can they be rented? If so where/how much? and is it complicated to take the pictures, or to upload/create a 360 degree photo.

All help is REALLY appreciated. Unfortunatly, my "research" has achieved nothing, as you can see by my lack of knowledge...so im kind of stuck!!

luketheone

You can do it with a regular camera and a piece of software called Stitcher . Its not free but you might be able to do it with a demo version, i don't know. There are also ways to do it by photographing a spherical mirror and unwrapping it, but its probably even more hassle! I had some notions to do something similar so hopefully someone can give some more help.

FX Meister

As far as I know the one on that website uses a software plugin to pan the image. It's easy enough to take a 360 degree photo, just take the first picture and turn to you left/right and take the second picture but including a small bit from the previous picture to overlap and then continue till you have all 360 degrees. As mentioned above there is software to piece them together but if you have photoshop and some simple skills it's probably better to put them together yourself with this program.

Gyck

This is a bit off your requirements, but would be an interesting alternative to try...

shaystyler

The image did not load for me so i didnt see it but here is a link straight to an item on my own site.

I took around 8 shots then stiched them together in photoshop and imported it in to flash to create the 360 panorama, you just move left or right with it.
Want more info on it just ask,no problem.

Shaystyler.

http://www.illustriousworks.com

http://www.illustriousworks.com/allpages/3601.htm

[Jackass]

Hmmm...Thanks a million for the replys. Deffenatly some food for thought there. I really like the images Shaystyler. Very smooth and appears flawless (certainly a great standard for what im aiming for, that would be perfect, what method/software did you use? and does it take much shoppage skills?)

Gyck, that seems like a decent option also, but as i said, budget is a factor, so i'll only be willing to buy if all else fails.
I will DL some of this stiching software and mess around with it, but unfortunatly, my skills in that department are nil, so i'll be learning as i go.

Thanks again for help...im sure i'll be back with more questions after a few attempts

Gyck

I've used the PhotoStitch software that's bundled with Canon cameras and it's really good. I tried it with a sea shot: just sea and a beach, and it did a pretty good job of matching the images and an excellent job of equalising the tones across the various individual shots.

shaystyler

I used Photoshop and Flash, you would need to have a decent knowledge of photoshop to stich the images and fix corrections and color tones as for flash it's the same, a decent knowledge is required, any more help needed, give me a shout


http:www.illustriousworks.com