Full-spherical 360 degree panoramas: how do they do it?

[Moses on the Street]

Hey guys,

My dad just bought an amazing 6900 square foot house (well, mansion) that is just absolutely top notch in terms of crafstmanship, plushness etc... it has some ceilings that are on the order of 55 feet tall. Anyway, he is the kind of guy who has everything he would ever need and so is impossible to buy ANYTHING for. I'd like to take some really cool Full-spherical 360 degree panoramas for him so that he can put them on his little website for friends and family around the world to see.

They would be something like this:


http://www.panomundo.com/panos/panam...aurant_g2.html





My question is how is this done? What combination of equipment and software is used? It's something that is really cool and something that would be something that NOBODY else would ever think to give him for his birthday, which is in about two months.

Many thanks in advance if anybody knows how these incredible shots are taken.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Moses on the Street

Hey guys,

My dad just bought an amazing 6900 square foot house (well, mansion) that is just absolutely top notch in terms of crafstmanship, plushness etc... it has some ceilings that are on the order of 55 feet tall. Anyway, he is the kind of guy who has everything he would ever need and so is impossible to buy ANYTHING for. I'd like to take some really cool Full-spherical 360 degree panoramas for him so that he can put them on his little website for friends and family around the world to see.

They would be something like this:


http://www.panomundo.com/panos/panam...aurant_g2.html







My question is how is this done? What combination of equipment and software is used? It's something that is really cool and something that would be something that NOBODY else would ever think to give him for his birthday, which is in about two months.

Many thanks in advance if anybody knows how these incredible shots are taken.

Quicktime has a plugin that does this.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/qtvr

Here's an older tutorial. I'm not sure how up-to-date the links may be.
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/teachnet/qtvr/

[bburton]

There's an outfit in Fort Worth doing these 360 degree panos: 360Texas.com. They have a "Tips" page which offers some insight.

http://www.360texas.com/tips/index.htm

Good luck.

[Dudleyh]

Check with any realtors you know. This is very common in the real estate sales community.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

There are some actual 360 film cameras out there that turn on the tripod as they shoot then just take the negative and have it scanned in.

360 degree cameras have been around for a long long time, some of the earliest actually shot as wide as 14 inches wide by several feet long. The camera had a clock work mechanism that rotated the camera on it's large tripod and then also fed the negative through the film plain for exposure.

There were some guys from NY At the Expo with a small booth who are enthusiasts with some of the early 1900's cameras.
http://www.cirkutpanorama.com/Timelin.html
http://www.zenit-camera.com/panoramic_cameras.htm

Also the guys who had the patent on full spherical shooting have gone bankrupt but they still are protecting their patent.
http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/cirkut.html

[mike78628]

I thought this was a pretty cool looking lens. I liked it as it only required one shot rather than stitching together multiple pictures.


http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=101

Mike

[merock]

You can do it with some software a wide angle lens, and a Pano head. PM or email me. Here's some that I've done (Quicktime Required):

Pure Austin Fitness:
http://www.merrickales.com/pure-austin/pano.html

Home Interior
http://www.merrickales.com/interior/pano.html

Guadalupe Mountains; McKittrick Canyon
http://www.merrickales.com/guadalupe-pano/pano.html

McKinney Falls Rock Climbing
http://www.merrickales.com/mck-360/pano.html

Full screen of Austin Captial:
http://www.merrickales.com/capital-pano/pano-fs.html

[merock]

Originally Posted by mike78628

I thought this was a pretty cool looking lens. I liked it as it only required one shot rather than stitching together multiple pictures.

http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=101

Mike

I've shot with those for an old company that I used to contract for. The 2 drawbacks that I saw of that lens was quality and you cannot go full 360 spherical. But it is reallly easy to use.