Bittersweet Realization

After a number of comments on my recent panoramas on Flickr, I read up a little more on Autostitch, the software I've been using, and found some options I hadn't really explored. I also pawed around in the pictures I took that day, and found that for one of the panos I had an additional image at the bottom and at the top that I hadn't used. Instead of a three-image pano, I could try my hand at a five-image pano.

The result was well-worth the hour and a half it took the computer to assemble it. The final cropped image came in at 3815 x 9242 pixels. At 150 DPI I could print it six feet high and not risk losing any detail.

On the one hand I'm elated that I chose so well on a replacement camera for my KAP rig. On the other hand I felt a pang of sadness. A 4x5 negative, scanned at 2400 DPI, comes out only slightly larger on the long axis. A double-row pano would easily cover the resolution available in a 4x5 negative. And at roughly $15 per shot for a sheet of Fuji Velvia plus E6 processing, it's also going to be cheaper in the long run. If the kite line is steady enough to hold the 4x5 KAP camera steady, it's also holding it steady enough for massive panoramas like this one.

So on the one hand the A650 IS upgrade is heralding a whole new chapter for me, but its also probably spelling the end of my experiment with 4x5 KAP. I'd still like to fine tune my 4x5 setup, but I don't think my heart will be in it any more.

Meanwhile I still have to come up with a better set of camera parameters for the A650 IS, and then I have a whole list of places I need to go fly. There's a lot of catching up to be done.

Tom