Camera forum

[tony_m]

I aplogise in advance as I know it's not the correct forum but I am looking for a compact digital camer that will take photos of rooms. My current camera doesn't give enough scope of the rooms, only catching a corner etc. I think I need a wide angled lens. So anyone recommned a web forum where I can get advice from. Sub 200 quid, size unimportant as it would be used for work.

 

[ericmark]

You can get whole room with nearly any camera using Photoshop CS4 which allows you to combine images together.
The angle of the lens is given in mm and with a 35mm camera 14mm would be a fish eye lens designed to take pictures of earth from space but for a standard lens then 24mm is about max with 28mm being normal wide angle at a reasonable price. This refers to a 35mm camera and with a D-SLR the CCD is smaller 23.5mm so divide 28 by 1.5 = 18.5mm is about widest at reasonable price. Mine came with 18 to 55mm zoom as standard. Vignetting becomes a problem with wider than this and so even if you could afford a wider angle lens Photoshop Panorama function may be better.
This

is an example of combining three images together. It was with a telephoto lens but way it works is the same.
And this

is in fact 12 images stitched together with Photoshop cross section of a twig taken with microscope bought from Lidi before Christmas so even you mobile phone could take a 360 deg image of the room with this software.
I use this DSLR Forum and they may know of cheaper software to do the same. Got mine on student licence.

 

[ericmark]

Tried whole room but flash failed on last couple of images about 300 deg you can see the distortion including picture not straight and me in mirror.
Had I held camera other way would have been deeper. I was in centre of room. OK I used a D-SLR but could have been camera phone result would be the same. I could have also taken two different heights and combined. 16 images were taken as they have to over lap and the PC took about an hour to process them.

 

[tony_m]

I was thinking of using multiple images, round the room type. Funnily enough I downloaded a trial version of pohtoshop in order to sharpen some blurred images, didn't know that it could join images together. I think it might work as part of a landscape but seeing your post, Ericmark, its looks a bit confusing. Anyway it givesme an excuse to buy a new toy. Thanks for the replies.

 

[ericmark]

Each image must over lap. By a fair bit may be 1/4. First open up all the images you want to use in photoshop. If you have manual option on camera better in manual mode so all images have same aperture, Speed, and ISO. Go to File, Automate, Photomerge. I normally select auto and tick Blend Images Together and Vignete Removal. Then click OK. It takes ages time to make cup of tea and drink it. I then save as in past it has crashed so wary. Then layer, Flatten image. You may need to rotate a little. Then crop to get straight edges. However it has failed from time to time so don't rely on it working.