HMAS Onslow Submarine Virtual Tours – Full Screen.

While shooting Virtual Tours of the HMAS Onslow submarine for the National Maritime Museum I discovered the Sub is a loaner from another Museum in Canberra. That’s quite a loan.

From Wikipedia:

HMAS Onslow (SS 60/SSG 60) was one of six Oberon class submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The submarine was named after the town of Onslow, Western Australia and SirAlexander Onslow, with the boat’s motto and badgederived from Onslow’s family heritage. Ordered in 1963, Onslow was laid down at the end of 1967 by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland, launched almost a year later, and commissioned into the RAN at the end of 1968.

Although never involved in war, three major incidents occurred during Onslow‘s career. The first occurred in 1972, when a disgruntled sailor who disobeyed orders caused the submarine to dive to almost twice her safe operating depth.^[3] As a result, the RAN changed the Submarine Service from being able to ‘conscript’ any sailor for submarine service to volunteer only.^[3] The second happened in 1981, when carbon monoxide fumes from one of the diesel generators filled the submarine, resulting in the death of one sailor.^[4]Although changes were made to submarine operating procedures, the boat’s company was not provided with any psychological counseling, and the incident report remained classified until 2009.^[4] The third was a controversial line-crossing ceremony in 1995, which resulted in restrictions being placed on similar ceremonies aboard RAN vessels.^[5][6] During her career, Onslow became the first conventionally powered submarine to be fitted with anti ship missiles, and was successful in wargames: ‘sinking’ a seven ship flotila during Exercise Kangaroo 3 in 1980, and the United States supercarrier USS Carl Vinson at RIMPAC 1998.^[7][8][9][3]

Onslow was decommissioned in 1999, and was presented to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where she is preserved as a museum ship.

Vivid Sydney Virtual Tours.

“Macquarie Visions casts a new light onto Sydney’s ceremonial street, celebrating in stunning and immersive light displays, the 200th anniversary and story of two great visionary leaders, Governor Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth.

The Macquaries’ innovations are revealed with illuminating, theatrical and contemporary light displays in a family friendly free night promenade along the length of the Macquarie Street linking St Mary’s Cathedral to the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay as part of Vivid Sydney 2010, running from 27 May to 21 June 2010.” [According to the marketing blurb, and they were right.]

Official Macquarie Visions Website – Link

Details & Interview with lighting developers

The 20th June 2010 was a long day. Leaving home on the Gold Coast at 7am for a drive to Sydney 900+km away, I typically have a rest after the 11hr journey. But this was the very last evening of the Sydney Vivid festival, so relaxation was the last thing on my mind.

Unpacking the car at the In-laws (apart from my photo gear) I drove to a nearby train station for the 1hr trip into Sydney City. At 8pm on a Sunday night the train and station were deserted. Arriving at Town Hall I briskly walked 1km to the start of the Macquarie Visions event. I was expecting crowds, being the last night of the show, but was pleasantly surprised to find the place sparsely populated nearing 10pm.

After 2.5 hours of shooting panoramas & a little video I left the Sydney Opera House, hopped a train from Circular Quay back to Town Hall, then another 1hr train to my car.  With my head hitting the pillow at 2am, I was very pleased to have experienced the brilliant lights festival.

Following on are single interactive panoramas of each of the main buildings on the tour.

1. St. Mary’s Cathedral – Virtual Tour

2. Hyde Park Barracks – Virtual Tour

3. The Mint – Virtual Tour

4. NSW Parliament House – Virtual Tour

5. State Library of New South Wales – Virtual Tour

6. Sydney Conservatorium of Music – Virtual Tour

7. Sydney Opera House – Virtual Tour

Vivid Sydney map containing virtual tours. Vivid Sydney Map, FullScreen with all virtual tours

Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a place of immense beauty with a definite spiritual aspect.  It’s the worlds largest monolith (single big rock), being located in the middle of outback Australia, it towers over the flat surrounding desert.

Official Uluru National Park – Link

At present you can still climb Uluru, although the owners ask that you don’t.  The climb is located on the western face, it’s extremely steep, with chains to help climb portions of it.  The climb closes at 8am on any day the temperature is forecast to top 36°C  (97°F)  I shot the climb from the ground but am not allowed to show it.

I chose to respect the wishes of the owners and not climb. Instead I did the 10km (6.2 miles) walk around the base of Uluru. The base walk is amazing.  Even if you choose to climb Uluru, make time to walk the base as well.

IMO the best way to walk the base is to start at the south car park before dawn, then walk east, counter clockwise around the rock.  This way you walk towards the sun as it breaks the horizon… a sunning sight. As the sun gets a little higher & hotter you turn the eastern edge of Uluru and put your back to the sun walking west along the northern rock face.  On this section I was going against the flow of hordes of tourists trying to shield their faces & eyes from the intense sun beating down.

I shot virtual tours all around Uluru, unfortunately I’m prevented from showing any virtual tours of the northern & north western sides of Uluru.  The north face is VERY different from the southern views. It’s heavily pock marked with gashes and rock falls. Looks a little like a person someone has taken a knife too, cutting gashes, and removing skin to reveal organs and brain. Not pretty, but fascinating nonetheless.

Uluru map containing virtual tours. Uluru (Ayers Rock) Map with all virtual tours – Link

18 Sydney Rock Pool Virtual Tours.

Over a couple of stunning winters days in Sydney last year I shot more than 170 virtual tours from Palm beach in the far north of Sydney to Maroubra beach in the south.  In the process I visited a LOT of amazing Sydney Rock Pools, which are featured here for your viewing pleasure. [Note: Rock Pools are also known as Sea Baths & Ocean Pools]

I’ve covered less than 1/2 of the Rock Pools in Sydney, next time I’m there I plan to shoot many more, eventually having virtual tours of every Rock Pool.

If you’re in Sydney with a car, a fantastic day can be had driving all the way to the top of the Sydney coastline at Palm Beach / Barrenjoey Headland, then heading south, stopping at every beach and rocky headland you come across. The Sydney coastline is diverse and beautiful, along with its inhabitants and structures.

Sydney Rock Pool Article – External Link

Ocean Pools History – External Link PDF

North Narrabeen Rock Pool

Sydney Rock Pools map with virtual tours. Sydney Rock Pools Map – FullScreen Link

30+ Kings Canyon Virtual Tours.

Kings Canyon (Watarrka) National Park is a stunning place, 4hrs drive from Alice Springs in the middle of Outback Australia. It also happens to be 4hrs drive from Uluru (Ayers Rock)  You can include it as part of a loop, driving west along the Macdonnell ranges from Alice Springs on Larapinta Drive, then heading to Uluru from Kings Canyon, which is what I did. (4wd recommended)

Official Kings Canyon National Park Link

There are 2 main walks at Kings Canyon, a short walk along the valley floor at the foot of the canyon walls.  It’s about 500m (1600ft) and takes 30mins at a leisurely pace. Near the end is a beautiful rock pool, depending on the season/rain.

Kings Canyon Creek Virtual Tour

The 2nd walk is a much more serious affair of 5.5km (3.5miles) which takes around 3.5hrs to complete. Seeing as this is in outback Australia, which is a HOT place, it’s best to start this walk very early in the morning… or perhaps later in the day.

The walk beings with a killer uphill slog, known as heartbreak hill. By the time you reach the top your legs are jelly & your heart pounding. Interestingly this used to be the end of the walk, but lots of people injured themselves coming down the steep hill after walking for 3+hrs.  So the park rangers reversed the track to make the hill the start & now have virtually zero injuries.

After spending 4hrs shooting virtual tours on the track, my legs really were jelly coming down the gentle slope on the other side of the canyon, I was VERY glad to not be coming down heartbreak hill.

Kings Canyon Heartbreak Hill – Start

Kings Canyon map containing virtual tours.Kings Canyon FullScreen Map Link

20+ Kakadu National Park Virtual Tours.

Earlier this year I was in Darwin shooting for the Northern Territory Library. I organised for one extra day in my schedule to allow me to zoom out to Kakadu & shoot some virtual tours.  It’s a 3hr+ drive each way from Darwin to Jabiru in the Kakadu NP, so I didn’t expect to have much time for shooting.  Plus the wet season wasn’t over yet, so most places were inaccessible. Even so the couple of places I could get to were amazing.

Official Kakadu National Park Link

The Nourlangie and Nanguluwur art sites are a short drive from the Kakadu visitors centre and about a 1.5km (1 mile) walk. The art & rock shelters are amazing to see, and very worthwhile.

Rock Shelter Virtual Tour – Kakadu National Park

Kakadu Anbangbang Gallery FullScreen Map Link

Quite some time ago I was in Tasmania shooting hundreds of virtual tours.  One morning while staying in Hobart (capital city) I got up at 4am to drive out to Port Arthur (1.5hrs away) to shoot virtual tours at sunrise.

Driving 1.5hrs for a sunrise shoot is always a little risky.  It’s still dark when you leave, so all you have to go on are the weather reports from the night before & what clouds you can see locally in the dark.  Fortunately this morning was beautiful.

30+ Port Arthur Virtual Tours.

The Port Arthur ruins are some of the oldest in Australia and sit on a beautiful waterway.  If it wasn’t for the cruel & severe life convicts endured here… I’m sure it would have been quite lovely.

Port Arthur Ruins at Sunrise

Port Arthur is the most popular attraction in Tasmania, the heritage listed park is wonderfully maintained, with a large and informative visitors centre.

Port Arthur Ruins of the church.

Port Arthur map containing virtual tours.Port Arthur FullScreen Map Link

Official Port Arthur Website Link

50+ Floriade Virtual Tours.

The Annual Canberra flower festival – Floriade is on right now… up until the 11th of October 2009.  If you get a chance… go, it’s beautiful.  Now I’m not a flower lover in particular, but they build all sorts of images in flowers, it’s amazing stuff.

Official Floriade Site Link

When I shot the festival last year I happened to arrive in Canberra about 1hr before it finished for the year. I not only witnessed the amazing flowers, but the aftermath, as festival volunteers got to dig up whatever plants they wanted.

Floriade Aftermath. (Only for volunteers)

The fact everything was about to be destroyed also meant I could walk all over the flower beds as well, getting to the middle of them for virtual tours, which was great.  I would have loved to shoot pole panoramas there as well, but unfortunately time didn’t permit.

FullScreen Map Link

Dust Storm Comparison Virtual Tours.

With all the noise about the Sydney Dust Storms this morning we here in Queensland were watching with interest… until about lunchtime when the dust storms hit us as well, 1000km (620 miles) north of Sydney.

Surfers Paradise Beach – Under Dust.

I figured if the dust got so thick I couldn’t see buildings about 300m (1000ft) away I’d head into Surfers Paradise and shoot some virtual tours for posterity.  As it turns out we got the pea soup thick dust, so I took the shots.

Surfers Paradise Beach – Typical Morning.

Here is the full set of 4 virtual tours I shot today.  You can also check them out on maps in the virtual tour player. Click the ‘map’ button, on the lower right control panel.

Dust storm virtual tours.

Finally I did up a quick comparison page showing each of the dusty scenes as they normally look.  You can check it out here:

Dust Storm Comparison Virtual Tours.

Like everyone else in Australia & many around the world our hearts are heavy at the devastating loss of life & property caused by the Victorian Bush Fires. 

Being a dad with a young family I cannot read the tragic stories of loss without imagining my family in those horriffic situations…battling the flames for their homes, then battling or fleeing for their lives.  Just considering this is more than I can bear. 

Being 2000km from the fires & with all my money invested in Panedia, I’ve been pondering what I could do to help.  The answer was obvious, use what I have & what I do to raise money for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, so that’s precisely what we’ve done.

We’re selling high quality large panoramic prints of regions devastated by the fires.  We’re then donating 100% of the profit from sales to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

The goal is not to have people buy prints instead of donating directly, but to appeal to people who weren’t planning to donate in the first place, or who have already given what they had planned.

Please pass the link to the site: http://vicfires.panedia.com along to people you know.

Thanks, Aaron Spence & the Panedia Team.

Alcatraz Virtual Tour – Main Cell Block

There are plenty of Alcatraz Virtual Tours on the web, but apart from ours none of them contain high resolution, best quality full spherical, full screen virtual tours with hotspots, mapped on google maps & containing audio recorded live at the time.

Alcatraz Virtual Tour – Officers Club

Alcatraz Virtual Tour – Exercise Yard

Alcatraz Virtual Tour – Control Centre

Alcatraz is an incredible place and it’s well worth spending a few hours to half a day there. At some times in the year they have an early boat over to the island. It arrives well before the crowds. Get that boat & take advantage of the crowd less Alcatraz. Here’s the official cruise company where you can book your Alcatraz tickets online.

When I visited Alcatraz Island to shoot these virtual tours a funny thing happened. At around midday I was back at the dock waiting for the ferry to arrive when off the boat hopped the guys from Mapjack, ready to shoot their own virtual tour of Alcatraz. Here is me on Alcatraz just finished shooting virtual tours, as shot by Mapjack, another virtual tour company.

For more info on Alcatraz go to the official National Parks website here: Alcatraz Island

Adelaide is a beautiful city full of old buildings & churches (by Australian standards). The City area is completely surrounded by massive parks, some of which contain sports fields & botanical gardens. Here you can view over 60 Adelaide Botanical Gardens Virtual Tours.

Victoria Square – Adelaide Virtual Tour

Glass Footbridge – Adelaide Virtual Tour

Black swan & paddle boats on The River Torrens – Adelaide Virtual Tour

Botanic Gardens of Adelaide Virtual Tour

Bicentennial Conservatory – Adelaide Virtual Tour

Port Adelaide Virtual Tour – Queens Wharf

Henley Jetty – Adelaide Virtual Tour

Of course Australia being the flattest continent on Earth, our mountains are more rolling hills than ‘mountains’.  This is borne out by the fact there’s a nice wide walking track all the way to the top, while back in the day you could drive to the top.  They closed the road in the 1970’s though, as parking at the top of our tallest mountain was becoming an issue.

A Virtual Tour of Mt Kosciusko – From the top.

The official record lists the height of Mt Kosciusko at 2228m (7310 ft).  My camera mounted GPS claimed a height of 2232m (7322 ft), you can decide which one you want to believe.  (Hint: GPS is generally not very accurate at measuring height, although very close in this instance)

There are 2 walking tracks to the top. I chose the shorter one, a 13km (8 mile) return, which runs from the top of the Thredbo Chairlift.  The lift costs $28 for a return trip in summer and takes about 10mins.  It’s a beautiful ride up.

The walk wasn’t too hard consisting mostly of undulating hills.  In October I had to cross about 6 snow drifts, some of which were quite long, and near to the top of Kosciusko a little steep and slippery as well, but passable with normal foot gear.

I did a day trip from Canberra out to the Snowy Mountains.  It’s a long day, with a 2hr drive at each end, but well worthwhile.

A couple of kilometres in there is a lookout to Mt Kosciusko.

Footbridge over a mountain stream, Mt Kosciusko National Park.

Talking about shaving the Nikon always reminds me of a lunch I had with friends one Sunday afternoon.  We were eating bread rolls with meat & salad when I happened to read the label for the ham.  It read ‘Lightly Shaved Hungarian’ which none of us had heard of, so I pronounced, “I’ll have a lightly shaved Hungarian please, my favourite kind!” We all cracked up laughing, my wife included.  Not funny?  I guess you had to be there

All joking aside, shaving the hood off the Nikon 10.5mm is a serious although not too difficult process.  If you’re not certain you want it shaved, turn back now as you can’t glue the hood back on later.  Although you could have it repaired with a new one, at considerable expense I expect.  In fact talking with NPS Australia (Nikon Professional Services) at a motor race I heard the best example of a shaved 10.5mm they’d ever seen was one done ‘professionally’.  According to them a gentleman bought a 10.5mm and a hood as a spare part.  He had the spare part hood cut perfectly, then had Nikon install the cut hood onto his new 10.5mm.  I’m told the result looked like it came from the factory.  The other end of the scale looked more like a dog had ripped the hood off with it’s teeth

The method I’m about to describe will provide a good (although not factory) finish, and require about $6 worth of tools from your local hardware store.  It requires no workshop or other gear, and I actually performed the procedure while staying at a hotel in Sydney.

Required Tools:

1)  Small hacksaw, with very fine teeth that have no warped pattern, ie the teeth run perfectly straight.  The example shown here cost me Aud $4.95 at the local Bunnings hardware store.  I looked for an extra blade, but all the examples they had contained the warped pattern in the teeth which I didn’t want.  I should have just bought 2 hacksaws, but I was too cheap. (Note: you don’t need ‘the’ hacksaw I’m showing, any hacksaw will do the job, but a small one does give you more control, and feel as you cut through the plastic.)

2)  Electrical tape.

3)  Pencil.

4)  Sheet of paper.

This image also shows masking tape which I didn’t end up using.

Procedure:

Step 1

Figure the point at which you will cut the hood off.  I chose just under the lowest point of the hood petals.

Elevate the pencil a little (I did use the masking tape after all) and rotate the lens while holding the pencil against the hood.  This will mark out your cut line.  It will be rough, but don’t worry, we’ll deal with that in the next step.

Step 2

Using the electrical tape, mask the bottom of the line drawn in step 1. Be sure not to cover the line.  Run the tape around the lens 5-6 times to build up some depth of tape.  We’ll use the ledge created as a guide for the hacksaw.

Step 3

Cut a piece of paper to the approximate circumference of the lens, roll it in a circle and slide it between the lens & the hood.  I jammed it in quite tightly (as shown in this photo), this is not necessary and will likely leave you with a few bits of paper stuck in there when you remove it later.

Step 4

Tape the top of the pencil line, which will also cover the paper and hold it in place.  Be sure to leave just enough gap between the 2 rows of tape for the hacksaw blade to comfortably slide.  You’ve now created a channel for the blade to sit in, reducing the chance of blade slip or cutting at the wrong angle.

Step 5

Now for the fun bit… start cutting.  I went deep first to find out how much I needed to cut before I hit metal. I then worked my way around the barrel, cutting each section to the metal before moving on. You can feel when you are through the plastic & cutting the metal… it’s a VERY different feeling on the hacksaw.  You can also see the white paper through the cut… assuming you haven’t removed the paper already with your blade.

My blade became quite blunt 1/2 way though. This didn’t cause any issue with the cut, but certainly increased the cutting time.  I spent about 20mins carefully cutting.

I have seen a shaving tutorial that used a coke can cut up (ie very thin metal) instead of paper between the lens & hood.  This would be better, but I didn’t have the tools or time to muck around with it.  In the end the metal barrel of my 10.5 has a few small scratches on it, which don’t bother me at all.

In this image I have basically cut through the entire lens hood.  You can see the paper through the cut in may places.  You may also make out the few bits of scratched metal where I’ve taken the black paint off the lens barrel.

Step 6

Gently remove the hood once you’re sure you have cut through all the way around.  You’ll see a result like this.  I had a few tiny bits of paper stuck in the lens barrel, if you don’t jam the paper in hard you shouldn’t have the same problem.

The Final Look.

When finished I realised I could have made my cut line a millimetre or 2 higher, ie right on the corner of the hood petals, rather than under them.  The lens works perfectly.

Panorama Examples.

The following map contains 18 virtual tours shot with this shaved 10.5mm + Nikon D700.  http://panedia.com/indy-pole.htm

Here’s a quick overview of my shooting method from the Panoguide forum

G’day,
There’s been heaps of great comments already. I’ll just state for the record owning a D200 & D700 what I do.

D700 + Nikon 16mm Fullframe Fisheye = heaven Same FOV as D200 + 10.5mm requires 6 + 1 etc.

I have shaved my 10.5 and also use it on the D700 for pole shots shooting 3 around at 0 degrees on a 360precision Atome. The Atome has a ring which attaches to the lens, and acts as a quick release, so I leave it on the 10.5mm at all times. Works beautifully.

I’ll give Han’s recommendation a go and try 4 shots around as well… I did find with 3 shots auto CP generation wasn’t brilliant. Here’s 18 pole shot examples I did at a motor race in October: with D700 + shaved 10.5mm + 360P Atome + pole/rotator etc.

http://embed.panedia.com/maplet?map=fpznjpzr

D700 has ‘auto’ DX mode when a DX lens is attached. Like the D3, that can be turned off in the menu.

There is no problems having the hood off the 10.5mm. Just need to be a bit careful not to bang it on anything as there is no protection for the lens. Also, as with any lens you’re shooting panos with, the focus should be taped down so it doesn’t ever move.

Thanks, Aaron Spence
panedia.com

 

Other Shaving Tutorials

http://michel.thoby.free.fr/AdaptateurEOSNikon/Sawing-offthesun-shield.html

http://www.danharperphotography.com/fisheye_mod.html

http://www.360pano.de/en/tokina-sigma-nikon.html – Great demonstration of the view before and after shaving the Tokina 10 – 17mm fisheye zoom. Tobias will do a professional job shaving your lens for 50 Euro + shipping.  Contact him at the site linked for more info.

There are more around… I’ll add more when I find them again, or if listed in the comments.

Buckingham Palace Virtual Tour:

Trafalgar Square Virtual Tour:

London Eye, from Jubilee Gardens, Virtual Tour:

Horse Guards Virtual Tour:

Piccadilly Circus Virtual Tour:

There are also plenty of multi monitor wallpapers from Central London on our Desktop Wallpaper site. [members]

Plenty of stunning photography was produced in the short time Rick had available. Here are a few examples:

Shibuya Station, Tokyo

Tomakomai

Shrine, Mount Tarumai

Today Google launched Streetview in Australia, and it is brilliant.  The coverage is simply mind boggling.  Included is every major city or town in the entire country it seems. 

Of course Streetview only shoots from streets at present, so they miss a lot, like Fraser Island, Uluru, National Parks, beaches, trails, mountains, waterfalls, accommodation, tours, shows etc but the vast coverage is great for getting an idea of a place.

In addition to incorporating Streetview scenes into Panedia, we’ll use it extensively to scope out places for high quality photography in cities and towns we’ve not been to before.

For the Streetview launch, Tourism Australia has chosen 8 virtual tours to showcase Streetview Oz.  We have shot all the same places except Perth. So I’ve created a comparison gallery of the best Streetview images as chosen by Tourism Australia and the shots we took at the same place.

High resolution image comparison gallery: http://photos.panedia.com/p616902282

(I have changed the Streetview choices a little to make them match up better with the spot we shot from, but in every case the Streetview quality is the same.)

Surfers Paradise – Streetview

Surfers Paradise – Panedia

Canberra – Streetview

Canberra – Panedia

Alice Springs – Streetview

Alice Springs – Panedia

Sydney – Streetview

Sydney – Panedia
     

Check out all the comparison images in high resolution at our gallery here: http://photos.panedia.com/p616902282

5052 Virtual Tours are now online at Panedia. I’d been planning to post at 4000, then 4500, but before I’ve had a chance, we’ve hit 5000.

I’ve been shooting in Byron Bay, and Sydney.  While Rick has been all over the place. Shooting heaps of panos within an hour or 2 of Melbourne.

We also have every intersection + a lot more in the Melbourne City Grid, plus we have audio for each panorama there.  And we’ve added a new size of panorama to the map…almost double the previous largest size….while we’ve added auto panorama sizing based on your browser window size as well.

We’ve also started shooting aerial panoramas in Canberra at the recent Balloon festival.  Watch this space, there’s more to come on that subject.

I’m off to Sydney again in an hour for the Google Developer day tomorrow, plus I’ll shoot a lot more Sydney for Panedia.  I’m planning to shoot northern beaches over the next week.  I’m also hoping to attend the Apple store opening on the 19th of June.

I’ll leave you with this fireworks pano (complete with audio) from ‘Cracker Night’ at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast 2 weeks ago.

Cracker Night – Surfers Paradise

Sydney Opera House, Australia. (Hotspots Off)

Before we start I’d like to point out the naming convention we’re using for our panorama/mapping sites:

http://maps.panedia.com is our ‘MAPS’ site…big map, small panoramas by default.

http://pano.panedia.com is our ‘PANO’ site, fullscreen panoramas, dynamic hotspots and small map.

Both sites use the same content, albeit in different sizes and formats, but they present the world in a very different way. ‘Maps’ is a top down look at the world, whereas ‘Pano’ is a ground based tour through the world.

OK simple explanation over, lets look at the details.

Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. (Mouseover Panorama Hotspot)

In the Pano site we’ve managed to integrate the panorama and google maps completely.  So mousing over a hotspot in the panorama updates the map, while mousing over a marker on the map, updates the panorama.

All the hotspots inside the panorama are dynamically generated based on a number of factors in our algorithm.  Each hotspot when moused over opens a large thumbnail image of the view from that panorama position.  The hotspot window also contains the distance & bearing to that panorama from the one you are in.   Of course you can turn the hotspots off an enjoy the view anytime using the ‘Hotspot’ checkbox on the top left of the window.

Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

When you mouse over a hotspot in the panorama, the map scrolls or jumps (depends on the distance) to the marker you are viewing. This gives you an aerial view of that location, while the hotspot shows you an image from that location.  Clicking the hotspot or map marker will take you to the clicked panorama.

Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia. (Mouseover map marker)

When you mouse over a marker on the map, the hotspot in the panorama view will contain a locating arrow and hotspot to show you the approximate position of the panorama you have selected.  At any given time the map contains a lot more markers than the panorama contains hotspots, so there are many more options to view on the map side.

‘Map Site’ button takes you to the Big Maps view. 

On the map side of the screen we have the standard Google Maps zoom control & the option of Map or Satellite view.  We’ve removed Hybrid & Terrain for the moment just to save space.  In addition we’ve added a ‘Map Site’ button.  Clicking this button will take you to the ‘Maps’ site at maps.panedia.com, and centre the big map on the place you’re currently viewing, as seen below:

‘Maps’ View for exploring large areas.

Once in this view, navigation of large areas is easier, as is searching and finding a place to explore….when you’re ready to jump back to the ‘Pano’ view with hotspots, just click on the panorama you want to view (by clicking the map marker), the small panorama will appear as seen here:

Small panorama in ‘Maps’ view. 

To view this panorama in the ‘PANO’ view mode, just select ‘Hotspots’ on the upper right of the small panorama window as shown here: (note the text and positioning of this link is still evolving and may have changed when you view it)

Click ‘Hotspots’ in small panorama window. 

And you will find yourself viewing the full screen panorama with hotspots and small map as so:

‘Pano’ site showing Navigation Panel at the bottom.

The final item to note is the navigation panel at the bottom of the panorama.  You don’t need to use this, but it’s there if you want it.

So there you have the basics of our new site.  Of course it’s much quicker to go to the site and use it for a minute… the site is extremely simple, and a lot of fun.

http://pano.panedia.com

The site is in preview mode, with plenty of items we’re still working on.  Please feel free to comment, let us know what you like and what you don’t…and please let us know if something doesn’t appear to be working right on your system.

Thanks, The Panedia Team.

People familiar with Google’s Streetview, which is basically panoramic virtual tours on maps, would be forgiven for thinking Panedia is just another ‘me too’ effort.  Allow me to show you how this is not the case.

There are fundamental differences between Streetview & Panedia, which produce vastly different end results.  One isn’t better than the other, they are both great technologies, but they both serve very different purposes and potentially different markets.

Core Philosophies

Google Streetview Goal:
Add visuals to maps so people can look around on the ground, enabling greater understanding of a specific location or area. [Link Out]

Result: Attach panoramic cameras to cars and drive down all streets in a city taking images. Add panoramas to maps. [Larry Page's Idea]

Panedia Goal:
Use Panoramic Virtual Tours to produce the worlds best destination content and create a visual archive of our changing world. Make the content available in as many mediums as possible.

Result: Use professional photographers & equipment along with extensive automated workflows to produce some of the most beautiful destination content available. Shooting places of interest & of historical value.  Use the content in may ways including adding it to maps for online viewing.

Practical Results

As you would expect these philosophies lead to very different results where Street View & Panedia overlap, ie on maps.

Panedia = Low quantity of extremely high quality panoramic virtual tours on maps.
Google Street View = Vast quantity of low quality panoramic virtual tours on maps.

Google Streetview -  Cnr Geary & Stockton St – Union Square, San Francisco.

Panedia = Low quantity of extremely high quality virtual tours on maps.

Panedia -  Cnr Geary & Stockton St – Union Square, San Francisco.

Differing Markets

So what markets are most suitable for each technology? 

Streetview offers 10′s of thousands of low quality panoramas of a given city/area making it ideal for looking up a particular address to see what it’s like at that spot. The recent mashup of Streetview content on Trulia, a major US realestate site, is an outstanding use of Steetview in this context. 

Travelers though, need to know something about a city before going to Streetview as no one has time to look through 10,000+ panoramas.  Of course you can search for particular places in Google maps and look at them in Streetview, but you still need to know interesting places to search in that city before starting. There is far too much choice to just start clicking randomly on Streetview panoramas.

Panedia on the other hand will offer 100′s to 1000′s of very high quality panoramas of a given city/area.  These panoramas will mainly be shot in areas of interest for travelers.  Therefore the viewer doesn’t need to know anything about a city before discovering amazing places to experience.  On Panedia those places have already been selected and shot by professional photographers. The viewer doesn’t need to open a panorama to find interesting places to see, as each one has a thumbnail image of the best view from that spot….this thumbnail is instantly available on the map, and permanently visible in the thumbnail sidebar. 

Panedia content is not shot from a car, so it can be produced anywhere, allowing travelers to experience places a long way from the road.  From beaches and National Parks, to trails, mountains, waterfalls, accommodation, tours, shows & a lot more.

Conclusion: viewers needing total coverage of a city/place need streetview, viewers looking for high quality imagery or looking for interesting places in cities they don’t know will be better off on Panedia. (Assuming coverage is available)

Other Content Uses

As mentioned already Streetview content is being put to great use by Trulia with a lot more to come no doubt. 

Panedia content can be used online & offline.  The resolution & quality of the master panoramic files is such that they can be used for poster prints, magazine reproduction & billboards.  The can also be used in video up to HD and even cinema resolution. Panedia content is also being used to produce desktop wallpapers at 2560×1600 up to triple monitors. [Link Out Wallpaper.panedia.com]

Final Thoughts

Both Google Streetview & Panedia are amazing examples of what can be accomplished with georeferenced panoramic virtual tours, while they represent the extreme opposites of the spectrum in quality vs quantity.  In a nutshell, Streetview is an engineers system for getting maximum coverage while Panedia is a photographers system for achieving maximum quality.

The best solution for users would be a combination of technologies, offering the huge coverage of Streetview and the amazing quality of Panedia’s everything but street view content.  With the new Streetview API we plan to implement this solution when Google releases their Australian Streetview content, rumoured to be launching mid 2008.

[This is the first in a series of articles comparing some of the panorama/maps sites from the highly biased position of Panedia's lead photographer & owner.]