I am in the process of doing a very informal file comparison between images created with the H3D 39 Mp camera and the Seitz D3. There will be obvious caveats and considerations to take into account, but never the less it will be interesting to compare file quality trying to keep things as simple as possible. I am mostly interested comparing color noise, color accuracy, White Balance and sharpness of RAW files. I should have sample images by early next week.
I just added a new Portfolio called Giga Pixel Panorama. It is a small collection of the better images that I managed to capture using the Seitz Roundshot D3. Unfortunately the ‘tiny’ size of the images on the web do not give an idea of the huge size and detail of the originals. To do justice to these photographs you would need to print them using one of the large format (44″wide and over) Epsons, Canons, HP, ColorSpan etc. to really appreciate the sheer amount of detail the camera can capture. I printed a few at 44″x 110″ and a few well over that size. Ironically, the problem becomes to find walls (or surfaces) large enough to view the prints from a correct distance. Having said that, I should also remark that the quirks and the V.1.0 nature of the camera, software combination almost drove me insane. Seitz is working hard on providing something that doesn’t require the patience of a Swiss watchmaker in order to shoot a good image, something that unfortunately now is a mandatory requirement. The quality of the images is phenomenal if you manage to hit the sweet spot, though not without trial and error attempts. Right now the images are prone to excessive color noise and blooming artifacts unless the lighting conditions are ideal. High contrast areas are also a source of issues, night shots are a coin toss 9 out of 10 times. Despite all these shortcomings, the D3 is a remarkable piece of equipment that will be in a class of its own once all the imperfections get fixed.
Anyone interested knowing more details about the images and/or publishing rights, please contact twistedpixel@gmail.com
I have been toying for a few weeks with a Seitz Roundshot D3. In case you haven’t heard of it, the Seitz is a state of the art super high resolution panoramic camera based on a DALSA scanline sensor. Just to give an idea, the resolution that one can achieve is staggering. Vertically the sensor captures 7500 pixels, while horizontally, 360 degree panoramas are well in excess of 30,000 pixels on average! The resulting images have an average size of 500Mb in RAW format at 48bit. The image size is dependent on the lens used and the degrees of the panorama. It is also possible to use up to 50mm of vertical shift, thus merging 2 shots and creating an effective vertical resolution of 13,500 pixels. The Roundshot comes bundled with a tablet PC that needs to be tethered to the pano head motor of the D3 via gigabit ethernet connection.
I won’t delve into specifications as those can be obtained at the Seitz website. I will offer a few impressions based on some tests that I performed in order to get familiar before I start using it on the road. First and foremost the build quality is truly outstanding. Mechanically it is on the same par as cameras from ALPA and Linhof. The outer body of the sensor housing as well as the battery and pano head motor units have a special rubber coating that help prevent the camera body from overheating in direct sunlight, and it actually works.
The camera body is precision machined to very small tolerances. Under practical use, levers and latches provide a very reassuring clicking sound when tightened. The camera body is attached to an optical bench similar to that of a Large Format camera. Each lens has different rotation nodal points that need to be set on the optical bench. The lens I have been using most during my testing is a Hasselblad CFi 40mm, that requires an extra long optical bench as seen in the photographs below.
The operation of the camera is completely driven by the bundled software application that in the case of the system I am using is a Motion Computing branded Tablet PC. In my opinion, the weak link of the whole package is the tablet PC; while the processing power is adequate (the CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.5Ghz) the screen on the other hand is virtually unusable outdoors and completely pointless in sunlight despite I use a screen sunshade. During my testing I found myself having to disconnect the Ethernet cable and find a spot in the shade or indoors to check exposure and correct focus; something that is less than ideal when using the camera in a field or on top of a mountain, let alone in relatively crowded areas. I feel this is a severe limitation, something that Seitz should have put some more thought on when offering this solution. I guess one could eventually switch to a better Tablet that has a better screen contrast. The other weak link as of now is the software controlling the camera. Despite being quite functional and easy to use it is still a V.1 release and it shows. There is nothing wrong with it per se, although it is too basic for such a powerful and complex camera as the Roundshot D3. It needs to be more flexible especially since as of now .DNG files in excess of 30,000 pixels can’t be processed using Adobe Camera Raw or anything else out there. Larger files need to be processed using the Seitz software which is frankly not comparable to ACR when it comes to fine tuning control.
Seitz keeps updating the software and will eventually get Adobe to support the larger .DNG files, but that’s probably still several months off. Bottom line the Roundshot D3 is an amazing system that once all the kinks are removed will set the high end standard for digital panoramic photography. In the coming weeks I will begin posting a portfolio section dedicated to panoramic imagery.
I’ve been purchasing regularly every issue for the last 3 years of Chinese Photography Magazine.
I think it’s worth mentioning that it is one of the best magazines in the world dedicated to general photography. The quality of the paper stock it is printed on, including the essays on photographers, subjects and equipment make it a must buy even for those that can’t read much Chinese (like me).
It has been many months since I updated the site. Finally, my travel schedule has slowed down a little allowing me to focus more on updating the the portfolio sections as well as the blog. Since last year I have traveled extensively easily exceeding 100k air miles. One of the places that stood out on a trip I did to India was Hyderabad. Charminar is one of the top spots of any tourist visiting Hyderabad, although to tell you the truth I haven’t seen any, making me as it happens quite often, one of the main attractions. The monument itself is quite impressive, although my main focus wasn’t as much the landscape rather the people. The surrounding area is an incredible mix of cultures, although the majority of the population is Muslim. Charminar and the area around it is a cluster of prominent landmarks in the city’s history. Its neighbourhood is extremely densely populated and around this architectural axis are a multitude of colourful bazaars. Obviously toting a camera around my neck attracted attention, but after spending time in the area, my presence began blending with the crowd. I spent at least an hour just standing at an intersection waiting for the right moment. That morning there was a large contingent of para-military personnel patrolling the area, as not long ago a bomb set by extremists exploded at the historic Mecca Masjid killing 10 people and leaving at least over 50 injured. Despite tension could still be felt even after a few months after the blast, I was almost constantly greeted by friendly people that approached me in curiosity.
I’ve been adding a few more photographs I have taken recently during a visit around the Wenzhou countryside.
Some are added to the Wenzhou section and a couple in the Portraits portfolio.
I’ve been offline for almost 2 months due to a very hectic schedule and frequent travel. I finally managed to have some bandwidth to update the Shanghai City Life and Shanghai After Eight sections.
I’ll be traveling across Asia starting today and updating several sections of the portfolio over the next couple of months. Hopefully I’ll be lucky enough to take some interesting photographs while in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. The photograph above was taken while I was traveling from Fuzhou to Shanghai, on a spectacular evening flying on Xiamen Airlines.
I added three more photographs in the Malta gallery. These were taken at Fort St. Angelo a well known location throughout the Island. Here’s what the site Visit Malta has to say about it:
Fort St Angelo is the jewel in the crown of Malta’s military heritage. According to tradition, it stands on the site of a fortified Roman settlement. Certainly, the nearby harbour creeks were in use since Phoenician times. In medieval times, the Castrum Maris as it was known, was occupied by the Aragonese and the Angevins. In 1530, when the Knights arrived on the Islands, the Fort became the seat of the Grand Master of the Order. It was to play a heroic role in the Great Siege of 1565, when, against all odds, it managed to repel a formidable Saracen armada. The epic resistance of the Knights during the three-month siege, gave the Fort its legendary status. In the 19th century, the British took over the Fort and in 1912 it was officially listed as a ship, first as HMS Egmont and then in 1933 it was renamed HMS St Angelo. More recently, the Government granted the Order of the Knights of St John the upper part of the fort, comprising the magisterial palace and St Anne’s Chapel.
The area is now closed to the public for renovations, I guess I was lucky to be there while it was still open.
Today I added 2 more photographs I took while I was visiting the temples of Jiuhua Shan.The first one is a pool of molten wax reflecting one of the intricate roofs of a temple.
The second is a pool of hardened wax mixed with rust sediment from the tray that collects molten wax deposits of votive candle altars.
Nikon has updated Capture NX to v1.0.1. The latest version of Nikon’s image editor and NEF processing application for Mac and Windows adds the support for the new D80 NEF files and improves the software’s functionality in various areas. Unfortunately v1.0.1 of Capture NX is still not a Universal Binary.
If you’re a proud owner of a Nikon camera you will want to make sure to check out Thom Hogan’s site. It is by far the most informative and complete online resource regarding anything Nikon, including excellent eBooks on virtually any Pro and Semi-Pro Nikon in the past 10 years.
I’m saddened to hear the news of the untimely death of Steve Irwin a.k.a The Crocodile Hunter.He died in a freak accicent while filming a documentary and struck by the toxic barb of a stingray. Ironically I mentioned his name in a previous post, because while I was taking photographs of illegal snake sales at the Fish Market of Shanghai, Steve Irwin kept jumping into my mind as I cringed observing those poor snakes he loved so much, being butchered and sold for less than $5.
Now that my site and blog are online, I can finally thank the minds behind such a brilliant effort. Without the help from my friends at Industrial Brand Creative it wouldn’t have happened.
Besides being one of the top creative agencies in Canada, their staff is among the most professional and talented I’ve had the pleasure to work with.
If you got this far you probably noticed that my website went through a major overhaul during the month of August. It’s been in the making for too long, partially because I am traveling constantly clocking an average of 20k miles per month, but mainly because organizing and sorting thousands of images while on the road takes a long time. I am at a point where I have all my digital files under control. The blog portion of the site will probably undergo some minor changes, but the core fuctionality is there. I hope you’ll find the posts and images informative and interesting.
