This pano is, believe it or not, a low resolution version from a historic documentation we completed last month. The image is in the attic of a 150 year old working man's cottage located in Houston. The only existing light source were the slits in the walls.
We built a lighting rig with off the shelf parts, and using HDR photography obtained some fantastic results. This was also shot with our Canon 5D camera and the 8mm Sigma lens that comes with the nodal ninja kit. With the full frame 24 megapixel camera we get incredible detail, and since the lens is effectively much wider on this camera we only have to use the really good part of the image.
We ran the camera remotely from a laptop. And, since you can switch it to video mode, were able to view the scene in real time and correct the usual focus problems associated with low light and the super wide lens.
This links to a 4 meg pano
http://www.smartmm.com/examples/cottage_pano.mov
This equirectangular version is 635K. The original is 25megabytes and 6000 pixels wide. Notice the even lighting?
This is a clip from the above image at full resolution, but jpeged. Remember, no flash. Just our light rig
It really was dark! and also hot, about 100' and 95% humidity
Our rig consists of a 14 inch fluorescent tube that is held around the lens by a bracket attached to the ninja arm. The round light is what produces the even exposure. Next version will be DC though and possibly an LED ring instead of a tube.
Yes its held together with actual rubber bands!
Of course the scanner got its turn.
And yes we did the outside too.
We have also used the rig on a steam engine documentation. This is the crankshaft of the Battleship TEXAS. It is almost 100 years old.
Some detail
The only drawback is that the whole thing tends to burst into flames occasionally!
Cheers!
