I'm not certain exactly how many batteries I
went through that day, but I can give you some
idea of the arsenal of batteries that I carried
with me. I had two GigaPan units along - a Beta
and an Epic100 - though there was only one point
when I used the two simultaneously. I also had
three cameras - the SX10 and two S5 ISs. All but
one of the GigaPans I shot on the August 5th was
shot with the Epic100 SX10 combo. I had no less
than 60 AA NiMH rechargable batteries along for
the day - 8 Canons, 8 Eneloops, 12 Duracells, and
all the rest Sonys. With 4 in each camera and 6 in
each GigaPan unit, I also generally had 6-12 in
spare GigaPan battery holders (Thanks Erin!) ready
to swap in as required and 8 in the charger
running off the inverter in my Jeep at all times.
Throughout the day I'd continually swap spent
batteries into the charger and rotate recharged
batteries into the cameras/GigaPan robots as
necessary. I shot the 1900 image GigaPan of St.
Helens - Spirit Lake (scheduled to stitch this
weekend) on a single set of freshly charged
batteries in the Epic100/SX10 rig, though I had to
swap in fresh batteries for a 200 shot pan right
after that. Needless to say, I'm rapidly
building an expertise in "battery
management". ;-)
I looked for the filter accessories for this
camera and did not find any. You would probably
need to tape a filter on once you achieve critical
focus. This is NOT something that I would want to
do : ) Ron, I understand the time thing. I am
amazed that you took so many panoramas. 16 panos
in a day. That is a lot! How many batteries did
you use?
Thanks for the suggestion, Stoney. I think a
polarizing lens is a great idea here, but I'm
not sure if one is available for the Canon SX10 IS
- it doesn't have any threads for additional
lenses such as a teleconverter, so I'm not
sure how one would affix a polarizing filter to
this camera. If I do find a solution that works
with the SX10 IS I think it would be a good
addition to my kit. The sunrise/sunset suggestion
is well taken, as well, though you probably
realize that I was shooting lots of GigaPans on
this trip and on days such as this I took the
shots whenever they presented themselves. (August
5th was my most productive day on the trip with 16
GigaPans shot, so I was really hustling between
them.) I wish I had the luxury of hanging around
to shoot each one at the optimal time of day
(perhaps someday when I figure out how to make
GigaPanning pay the bills I'll do just that),
but at least on this trip I could only plan my
days to optimize one or two of the shots - the
others fit in where they were available.
You'll note that I took the Windy Ridge shots
of Mount St. Helens in the morning when light was
more optimal there, and these Rainier shots in the
afternoon, simply because that's when I got
there. This one might have been better a couple of
hours earlier, for example. I'll have a better
idea next time I get up to the Pacific Northwest
how to plan my shooting. Hopefully I'll be
blessed with "severe clear" weather,
too. I do appreciate the suggestions, Stoney -
please don't take my explanations as
defensiveness. I'm still striving to improve
my photographic technique and I welcome your
constructive feedback.
You probably already know this, but I thought I
would mention it just in case. Using a polarizer
helps reduce glare. Also, photographing near
sunrise and sunset helps, but you cannot take a
large gigapan, because the light is changing
quickly. So using a polarizer would help reduce
the haze. You can also make an adjustment to the
midtone level and black levels in Photoshop to
reduce the haze. Greg ward included a PSF function
for reducing flare ( haze ) for light sources, but
I do not know if it would help for this situation.
GigaPan Comments (4)
Toggle Minimize gigapan_commentRon Schott (September 04, 2009, 02:51PM )
I'm not certain exactly how many batteries I went through that day, but I can give you some idea of the arsenal of batteries that I carried with me. I had two GigaPan units along - a Beta and an Epic100 - though there was only one point when I used the two simultaneously. I also had three cameras - the SX10 and two S5 ISs. All but one of the GigaPans I shot on the August 5th was shot with the Epic100 SX10 combo. I had no less than 60 AA NiMH rechargable batteries along for the day - 8 Canons, 8 Eneloops, 12 Duracells, and all the rest Sonys. With 4 in each camera and 6 in each GigaPan unit, I also generally had 6-12 in spare GigaPan battery holders (Thanks Erin!) ready to swap in as required and 8 in the charger running off the inverter in my Jeep at all times. Throughout the day I'd continually swap spent batteries into the charger and rotate recharged batteries into the cameras/GigaPan robots as necessary. I shot the 1900 image GigaPan of St. Helens - Spirit Lake (scheduled to stitch this weekend) on a single set of freshly charged batteries in the Epic100/SX10 rig, though I had to swap in fresh batteries for a 200 shot pan right after that. Needless to say, I'm rapidly building an expertise in "battery management". ;-)
Stoney Vintson (September 04, 2009, 01:56PM )
I looked for the filter accessories for this camera and did not find any. You would probably need to tape a filter on once you achieve critical focus. This is NOT something that I would want to do : ) Ron, I understand the time thing. I am amazed that you took so many panoramas. 16 panos in a day. That is a lot! How many batteries did you use?
Ron Schott (September 04, 2009, 12:53PM )
Thanks for the suggestion, Stoney. I think a polarizing lens is a great idea here, but I'm not sure if one is available for the Canon SX10 IS - it doesn't have any threads for additional lenses such as a teleconverter, so I'm not sure how one would affix a polarizing filter to this camera. If I do find a solution that works with the SX10 IS I think it would be a good addition to my kit. The sunrise/sunset suggestion is well taken, as well, though you probably realize that I was shooting lots of GigaPans on this trip and on days such as this I took the shots whenever they presented themselves. (August 5th was my most productive day on the trip with 16 GigaPans shot, so I was really hustling between them.) I wish I had the luxury of hanging around to shoot each one at the optimal time of day (perhaps someday when I figure out how to make GigaPanning pay the bills I'll do just that), but at least on this trip I could only plan my days to optimize one or two of the shots - the others fit in where they were available. You'll note that I took the Windy Ridge shots of Mount St. Helens in the morning when light was more optimal there, and these Rainier shots in the afternoon, simply because that's when I got there. This one might have been better a couple of hours earlier, for example. I'll have a better idea next time I get up to the Pacific Northwest how to plan my shooting. Hopefully I'll be blessed with "severe clear" weather, too. I do appreciate the suggestions, Stoney - please don't take my explanations as defensiveness. I'm still striving to improve my photographic technique and I welcome your constructive feedback.
Stoney Vintson (September 04, 2009, 10:14AM )
You probably already know this, but I thought I would mention it just in case. Using a polarizer helps reduce glare. Also, photographing near sunrise and sunset helps, but you cannot take a large gigapan, because the light is changing quickly. So using a polarizer would help reduce the haze. You can also make an adjustment to the midtone level and black levels in Photoshop to reduce the haze. Greg ward included a PSF function for reducing flare ( haze ) for light sources, but I do not know if it would help for this situation.