Thanks for the comments. My next blog posts will be regarding some of my musings with putting this camera into use:
I think it helps to think of this project as being more of a view camera, than a solid-bodied camera. From a design standpoint, the most important thing is that I be able to achieve infinity focus. In practice, I may be using the hyperfocal distance with most of my landscapes (the primary thing I expect to use this camera for). Theoretically, one would hope that one could focus once then not touch the focusing again as one slides the camera across for all 6 or 7 exposures. In practice however, it might be necessary to fine focus between each segment's exposure. Whether live view will be sufficient, or I will need to pop the Olympus Varimagni on the finder for focusing assistance, remains to be seen. Regarding exposure, Fotodiox says to expose each segment letting the camera control the exposure. I'm not sure if that will be good advice or not. Normally one is counselled to lock the exposure across segments of a panorama or exposure differences will occur. So that is one area where I expect a little experimentation to be my final guide. Regardless of the exposure method used, I plan to normally make a series of bracketed exposures for each segment. The main "pain" is in setting up the shot and the focus, so why not do some auto-bracketing while I'm at each position? In addition to making sure I get the best single exposure, the others could be used to create HDR panoramas if the dynamic range of the scene exceeds that of the camera (and I mean HDR in the most photo-realistic way possible. I normally HATE the "dialed to 11" stuff that passes for HDR these days). I also think that this could help in the sharpness department since, in addition to a lot of total pixels you will have LAYERS of a lot of pixels for any sharpening algorithm to work with. I'm not an engineer, but I work with one who is a good friend at work and generous with his advice. I've been mentally going through the build process of this thing in my mind. I've made a decision regarding the sliding tracks that the back plate will move on. You want the back plane to slide smoothly across the entire length of the movement (Goldilocks style: not too tight and not too loose). If I bolt both tracks on, the odds of getting that perfect placement are almost nil (due to "manufacturing" errors). So I have decided to bolt the bottom track on the backside of the front plate, but the top track will be fine-adjustable and held on by an external clip which can be loosened for adjustment and then tightened again to hold that adjustment. Once correctly adjusted, this should not have to be messed with very often, unless travel jostling or something knocks it out of alignment. I hope to be going to Colorado at least once in the coming month, and I'd love to have the HippoCam ready to take with me and put it to work. I might make a solo trip out when the Aspens turn golden and another one with my wife during her semester Fall Break. On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 1:52 AM, mike wilson <[email protected]> wrote: > On 20/08/2013, Darren Addy <[email protected]> wrote: > >> For those interested, I started a blog to post my progress: >> http://pixelsmithysforge.blogspot.com/ >> >> For those who wish to start at the beginning, here's the first post: >> http://pixelsmithysforge.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-few-random-thoughts-about-fotodiox.html > > I, too, had the dribbles for one of the 6x17 machines but never could > justify the considerable cost. I'll be watching your prograss with > interest. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - Peter Galassi -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
