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Showing posts from 2011

Montreal, Boston and Maine Panoramic Photos plus new 'Viewer'

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Continuing the theme of panoramic photos I thought I'd share my first attempt at a 'Flash Viewer' (You'll need Flash Player 10 to view these) for scrolling the large panoramic photos I've been making to them show off, So enjoy! I welcome comments on improving the viewer, I'd like to add mouse moving/dragging and also turning 360 degrees once i have the right set of photos to try out. First up is a daytime panoramic photo of Old Montreal and the harbor which was taken last summer (August '10).   Second up is a nighttime panoramic photo of the view from our hotel room in Montreal, also taken last summer. This one is a very bad photo, the individual photos taken were exceptionally noisy even before stitching and post processing. These next 2 were taken at the Maine Country Fair last October and ideally would be one large panoramic but I didn't do a very good job of taking this series of shots. So here they stay as 2 separate shots and unfortunately it&

Mass. Ave. Panoramic Photo Stitch of 25 frames shot in burst mode (Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS)

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One of the unique features of the Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS camera is the ability to shoot off a bunch of reduced resolution images in a fast burst mode. I wanted to try this out earlier today while walking by the Capitol Theater on Mass Ave in Arlington MA, the results can be seen below of a panaromic stitch of many fast burst mode shots stitched together. The first thing to note when you put the camera in to burst mode it is going to capture images at 8.8 FPS according to Canon but to accomplish that the Camera drops from the maximum 10 Megapixel shooting capability down to a meager 2.5 Megapixels. This is something you should be aware of if considering purchasing this camera and at first I thought it would be a restriction that would make the option much less appealing to the masses. However, after experimenting some more with this mode and utilizing it to make a 'quick sweep' panoramic I can certainly see it's benefits when all of the frames have been 'stitched'

Canon SD4500IS - Worried about Wide angle shots?

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So after some many weeks of researching various manufacturers long zoom P&S shooters I drive to Best Buy for the Canon PowerShot SX210IS but ended up leaving with the Canon PowerShot SD4500IS after the slimmer form factor of latter won me over. Note: I already have a DSLR which is too bulky to carry around on ad-hoc walks & family vacations and I wanted a camera to fit in my jacket pocket. I had read lots of reviews of the Canon PowerShot SD4500 after which I was more confused than ever if my choice was a good one. There were lots of positive reviews about the quality of the glass and of course the Digic 4 processor but lots of negative (or neutral) reviews about the lack of a wide angle available on the camera. In 35mm equivalent the SD4500 starts at 36mm zooming in to 360mm, and those of us with DSLRs all know that 36mm is not very wide at all, competitors offerings started at 26-30mm which might not sound much better but if you take a lot of landscape photographs, like I d