Resuming work with stitched panoramas

After a several year hiatus, I’m resuming work with stitched panoramas. What a disappointment to find that what should have been a crisp 162 megapixel panorama was instead only a goof for 30 megapixels or so due to blur (using the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L).

Half Dome from Olmstead Point, clearing storm

At 1/10 second, the gremlin appears to be camera shake, with a double-image effect on fine detail. A two second countdown timer with mirror lockup is not enough, as I should have known from my careful research in The Sharpest Image—two seconds is right at the edge of acceptability, especially near 200mm, and particularly when shooting with a multi-row panorama contraption. More on stitching and panoramas another day.

I’ve had no trouble using my Zeiss ZF lenses on any of the stitched panos; they’re more compact and solid, but so far the longest available focal length is 100mm. The essentially zero distortion of the 100mm Makro-Planar is excellent for stitching.

Fortunately, I made dozens of panoramas from my last trip to Yosemite, probably some very nice ones, but I’ve not had the time to go through them, assembling a few of them more or less at random.