Blog of Batman

Virtual Tours are an organization that provide virtual, often 360º views of various sites, amongst them Nelson Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island.

One of their most spectacular creations is the so-called “Highest definition picture ever taken of Cape Town” – click here to view. It really is a mind-blowing photographic achievement. Since this photo (the word ‘photo’ somehow seems so inadequate), they have been commissioned to do similar projects of scenes in Gautend and Durban – the start of great things i feel.

Some details as to the size of this image (taken directly from their site):

• It was created by stitching 1850,fully zoomed (x 20 optical zoom), 10 MegaPixel images together.
• The time it took from the first shot (top left) and last shot (lower right) being taken, was about 3 hours.
• It’s 205 000 pixels wide.
• That equates to a printout of about 90 m x 15 m!
• The end result was a 25 GigaBytes RAW file which takes about an hour to open on my Macbook Pro.

Enjoy – I certainly did. It just reminds me once again why Cape Town is considered one of the most scenic cities in the world!

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I have had my Canon EOS 350D for some years now, and have finally decided to upgrade my standard “kit” lens – the 18-55 mm cheap, plastic one that many wouldn’t want if you gave it to them. It has given me many good photo’s, but I must admit to looking longingly at those exquisite photo’s in the glossy travel mags, and wish that mine could look a little more professional, and a little less entry-level.

So far it seems that my upgrade options are the following:

• Canon EFS 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM (ZAR 6,200)
• Canon EF 17-40mm f4.0 L USM (ZAR 9,300)
• Canon EFS 17-55 mm f 2.8 IS USM (ZAR 11,800)

To put this into perspective – photography is a hobby. I try to take photo’s that are interesting, unusual and “correct” – if there is such a thing. But I get no remuneration for my hobby (I can’t call it my work if I don’t get paid for it) – and from this point of view spending almost ZAR 12,000 (which in South Africa can get you a small, second-hand car) is difficult to justify, if not downright unaffordable.

I first started considering the 17-85 mm (because it is the cheapest “proper” lens). I am not yet considering Sigma and Tamron options, because I would dearly like to have a Canon lens, especially if I am paying a significant amount on it.

I would be prepared to pay the ZAR 6,200 for the 17-85 mm, but would really like to hear from fellow photographers if it would be worth my while spending this money to replace an 18-55 mm with a 17-85 mm lens – in other words since I am not gaining anything in lens length, I would need to see the results in quality of picture alone – would I get that with the 17-85 mm?

Although a lot of people love this lens, almost as many don’t. Many would suggest spending the extra money to get the 17-40 mm, but I need to find justification in spending an additional ZAR 3,000. This is an “L” lens, so has extremely top quality glass, but then again doesn’t have Image Stabilization.

The 17-55 mm is admittedly the cream of (this) crop – fast, with IS, USM and incredibly clear pictures – few would dispute this. But it is perhaps too expensive for me.

Would someone like me – an amateur photographer – be happy with and enjoy the 17-85 mm? It would be my walkabout lens, i.e. the lens that I would leave on the camera, and use it for kids birthday parties, the occasional sunsets and as often as possible – wide-angle landscapes? I have also dabbled with portraits, and so would use this lens for that as well.

Any comments would really be appreciated.

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I took these photo’s while doing the Fish River Canyon hike in Namibia

I have a Canon EOS 350D, with standard 18-55mm lens.

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Photo Stitching is a process whereby several photo’s are taken in sequence, and then using a software package (I have used Canon’s Zoombrowser EX, which came with my Canon 350D) to “stitch”, or join the photo’s together, to form one, wide (or high if you want) photo. These are some examples of what I have achieved.

Photos these days can be quite large – my 350D of 8 megapixels yields photos in the order of 3 Mb minimum. Merging about 5 of these photos can easily result in a stitched photo of 15 Mb. For the purposes of this webpage I have had to reduce the size and quality of these photos quite substantially in order to make it render in a reasonable timeframe. Rest assured – the originals are of a much higher resolution!

Stitching can be used to create a panorama (5 wide x 1 high), but can also be used to create much higher resolution e.g (3 wide x 3 high) with an 8 megapixel camera will result in an image of roughly 8 * 9 = 72 megapixels, for you to do with as you please.

I am by no means an expert, and these were accomplished with minimal hassle – I seriously believe that anyone with a decent camera and software can produce images like these within minutes.

Some tips & tricks:

• Try to keep a constant line through all of them e.g. the horizon works like a charm
• Rather have too much overlap, than too little
• Try to keep all photo’s equi-distant i.e. don’t have your leftmost photo closeby, while your rightmost one is far away – you’ll get undesirable curvature effects
• You will need consistent lighting across the entire sequence e.g. avoid bright sunshine at one end, and shade at the other end
• Naturally all of the shots must be taken with identical camera settings i.e. don’t fiddle with your focal distance, apertures or shutter speeds between sequences
• Unexplained hiccups do occur – see Yzerfontein below
• Practice makes perfect – the fun is in the trying and experimenting

The Orange River, Namibia

St Helena Bay, South Africa

Yzerfontein, South Africa (almost good)

Bains Kloof, South Africa

Table Mountain, South Africa (taken by renowned photographer Shafiq Bailey, CT) – Canon 1000D

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I took these photo’s while on vacation on the South Wild Coast, South Africa.

I have a Canon EOS 350D, with standard 18-55mm lens.

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