A Bit of Fun...

Now this is simply a little bit of fun. The ever-reflective webcam image. It is a bit like a fractal image ever vanishing into infinity, or, in this case, as far as the camera resolution can take it. Easier to do than the opposing mirrors.

Panoramic Earth Meets the Google Dance 2006

Between July 7^th and July 8^th 2006 Panoramic Earth encountered the Google Dance, which resulted in over 50% traffic loss as Google re-arranged the web and updated itself. This is not a new phenomenon by any means. Often the large webmaster forums have their busiest times as panicked SEOs watch in helpless horror as months of careful grooming dissolves before their eyes (See Webmasterworld forum). Sites that were highly ranked vanish for unknown reasons into the internet ether, sometimes never to be seen again.

Unfortunately, Google is the major search engine around so placement here can make or break a site. Google does this to keep us on our toes. The aim is to ensure that the most relevant sites come back for search terms entered. Certainly if this removes various sites that are themselves simply returns of meta search results then so much the better. The algorithms are tweaked to try to remove abuses of the system. Unfortunately, sometimes honest hard work can get caught out as well. Sometimes all that remains is for the irate webmaster to begin again or wait until the next algorithm update and subsequent dance.

In the meantime it is back to the drawing board trying to figure out now where it is safe to submit the site to, will we be penalised for being listed in specific other directories or search engines? Directories and search engines come and go on the internet. They are born and die faster than you can say 'hey here's a new directory', which makes the task of site submission ever ongoing. For that reason we are always grateful when other sites like our content enough to link back to PanoramicEarth.com on their own. It is always good to know you are appreciated, so a big thank-you to all of you.

Our own woes continued for about a month, whereupon suddenly all was resorted, we had been forgiven whatever offence we had caused and were placed once again in our former positions. Happily, our position and traffic are now back to normal and seem to be stable. This is a bit of a relief to say the least, so now we can breath again until the next Big One…

Shooting Rome

Rome, city of around 1000 churches. It not just feels like that when walking around, this is a fact. On almost every corner you will stumble upon another one, often heavily decorated inside. The trip to update and expand the Rome content for Panoramic Earth was completed a short while ago. We have managed to cover all the famous sites again and add a huge collection of other places. Quite a few of them are, yes, churches.

But if you want to have a wonder around the Colesseum, St.Peters, see the Font di Trevi or the Pantheon, then these will shortly be added to the Rome tour. It just takes a little while to put together over 100 panoramic photographs and then add them to the map. So please be a little more patient with us, it is coming, but we still have to eat and sleep in between times staring at a computer screen.

Some of the observations I had while there – Rome is mostly cobbled roads. These have potholes in them and are uneven to say the least. Spending 6+ hours a day on a bike cycling round the city to collect the photographs does not make you friends with your butt. Neither does working non stop for all that time in temperatures often exceeding 35º! Rome also lacks from imagination when it comes to squares, there is nothing planted out in the plazas, just expanses of black cobbles.

That aside it does have the Pantheon, Colessuem, forum, St.Peters and hundreds of other fantastic buildings. And the evenings can make up for it, the food is fantastic, and walking around the centre late at night can be quite relaxing.

Part 3 - Panorsaurus Head Review

Previously on PanoramicEarth (as so many US series start off with any episode before immediately switching to a bunch of ads) – we covered some of the differences between the Panosaurus panoramic head and the Manfrotto MN303 panoramic head. Neither alone fully met our needs for a light weight system that could be quickly packed away and transported with minimum setup time at a new location.

System Combination:
Thus an amalgam of the two was used, providing a more lightweight (and cheaper) system than upgrading to a Manfrotto MN303SPH system. The combination worked, in a ‘thigh-bone connected to the hip-bone’ fashion, thus:

• Manfrotto 055PRO tripod with Assy support plate connected to-
• Manfrotto 438 Compact Leveling Head connected to-
• Manfrotto 300 Pan Rotation Unit (allows ‘click stop’ rotation required) connected to-
• Manfrotto 3/8” to ¼” thread adaptor connected to-
• Panosaurus head.

In this way the whole of the panoramic head combination was easily detached from the tripod in one easy maneuver and stashed in a backpack along with the camera for easy transport. All that was needed was to simply slide the camera off the horizontal arm and pack that away with the Panosaurus plate still attached to it. Setup time at a new location took less than a minute including leveling of the camera. The Panosaurus does have a base plate marked with regular divisions for rotation, but I wanted to be able to rely on constantly having the same rotation angle every time as this made post processing easier.

Yes, there are other systems available, but for a relatively cheap option, having already invested in the Manfrotto 303 gear, this seemed a reasonable way to progress to be able to shoot 360 spherical images if required. It would be interesting to obtain a King Pano system to have a look at as well.

Thus far this new system has been used to shoot over 600 panoramic images in Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Rome, Barcelona and Bratislava. The results of all this mad rushing around is currently being processed and will be added to the PanoramicEarth.com city tours in due course.

Part 2 - Panorsaurus Head Review

The Panosaurus, designed and manufactured by Greg Rubottom, is a light weight self-assembly system and detailed instructions. It can be used to take both cylindrical and spherical panoramic images. It is made of light weight materials (aluminium upright arm and PVC for the other parts), and therefore is unsuitable for cameras over 1.5kg in weight. Both Red Door and Tawbaware have written reviews on the product. It is a fully adjustable system, very flexible and light. That said we have found the following limitations with the system. On the whole though, for the money the Panosaurus is a light weight, durable, flexible and relatively cheap system for taking spherical panoramic images. It is well worth considering as a possible system, but be aware of some of the limitations.

Looseable Leveling Indicator
The Panosaurus does have it’s own level monitoring system. This is a spirit level held by a magnet to the centre of the base arm. Obviously, this is removable, and the user must take care not to loose it. In our hands, the magnet quickly came detached from the level bubble as the two components are simply glued together. It would be better if this could be permanently fixed to the unit somehow. Most people will use an additional leveling unit on their tripod to make life easier, and often these will have their own spirit level in them.

Tripod Attachment Issues
The Panosaurus screws directly onto the tripod head. If you are wanting to detach the system quickly then you will need to combine it with another system that allows for rapid detachment from the tripod. For our uses this was essential, as we were quickly moving form one location to another, often shooting over 20 locations a day. With the Manfrotto system this is taken care of by their own quick release mechanisms and attachments. However, most of the Manfrotto gear has 3/8” threads.

The Panosauraus only has a ¼” thread hole in the base for attaching to a tripod. If you want to attach to a 3/8” bolt then you will need another adaptor. It would be better if the system came with a 3/8” thread and contained an small screw-in adaptor that could convert this to a ¼” thread if needed. That way it would be able to fit all accessories and tripods without having to purchase other equipment. We needed to attach this to the Manfrotto 438 ball leveling system, and therefore had to buy an additional thread converter.

Click Stop versus Full Adjustable Head Rotation
The Panosaurus has not ‘click-stop’ as you move the head round. If you want to use a click-stop system then you will need to add it on. Again you may need a thread adapter to do this. We know the number of shots needed for our use, that this would always be consistent and wanted something that would always align in the same manner. The click stop method of taking panoramic shots also helps in low light conditions, or where the camera has had to be raised above head-height when it would not be possible to see the markings on the base plate easily.

Horizontal Arm Indicator
The vertical arm has a groove in the top to help align the horizontal arm to the required angle. It would be an improvement if this indicator groove progressed down the vertical arm a short way, and was painted white.

In the next post we will show how we combined the Panosaurus with some Manfrotto components to suit our needs of a light weight spherical imaging system that could quikly be packed away.

Panosauraus Panoramic Head Review #1

Manfrotto Panoramic Head

Up till now, most of the images on Panoramic Earth had been taken using a Manfrotto (MN) 303 panoramic head system. The MN303 can only be used for cylindrical panoramic images, but not those that can pan up and down – spherical panoramic images. The MN system has proved very reliable in every situation we have found ourselves – and this includes from snow-covered mountain tops to volcanoes and caves. It is made of metal throughout, thus is very durable, and can hold quite heavy equipment. The release system to mount it onto the tripod is all a quick release locking system allowing it to be packed away rapidly, knowing that it can be re-assembled just as fast in exactly the same nodal point configuration next time round. The price you pay for this is weight. When considering to upgrade for spherical images this became, as well as the cost, a major consideration. For the work done in cities and on rugged terrain saving weight makes for happier backs.

With this in mind we looked at a number of other options. including the Panosaurus, which is promoted as a low weight, low cost option - an ‘Affordable Fully Spherical Panoramic Head’ and available in the UK through Red Door VR Ltd.. We have now used this system to shoot over 300 panoramic images in both city and outdoor situations.

In the next couple of posts we will look at various aspects of our experience in using the Panosaurus panoramic head, snags encountered and observations made.

Panoramic Paris

Paris has become the next European capital city to be photographed for a Panoramic Earth tour. The wide boulevards, open squares and classical architecture of the palaces and churches will all feature. The tour will feature roughly 80 different museums, churches, parks and other locations in the city. Yet despite the fantastic architecture, there are also a few quirks about Paris.

The centre of the city has more congestion than London. Cars jostle so much that the traffic lights are often accompanied by whistling police to ensure they are obeyed. Not that it seems to help that much. Most of the roads are one way – and often the wrong one. Even some of the tube stations are uni-directional.

Paris is also a place where wine with the food is likely to cost less than a soft drink, and either could end up doubling the cost of a cheap meal. Soft drinks here cost 2, if not 3, times the prices of equivalent drinks in London.

One recommendation for visitors is, instead of visiting the Notre Dame, visit the Sainte Chapelle and St. Louis en l’Ile churches. Both are nearby and far less busy, but quite beautiful. The only way to see the Mona Lisa without being jostled by upwards of 200 people is to get to the Louvre at opening time.

The challenge of this trip has not so much been trying to find what to photograph, but what to leave out given that you can drop a tripod almost everywhere and have a beautiful building in sight.

The large bus lanes and designated cycle lanes make getting around on a bike very easy. And even when cycling in the traffic, it moves so slowly (and, yes, chaotically) that weaving around will get through. Bike hire at excellent prices can be found at the Roue Libre located in Les Halles.