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[Sam Rohn]

best one shot camera for still panos in 2019 is Ricoh Theta Z1, 1″ sensor provides much greater detail and dynamic range vs other one shot 360 cameras 1/2.3″ sensor
https://theta360.com/en/about/theta/z1.html
https://amzn.to/2LKFNPe

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217443827101638&set=a.1151585183845&type=3&theater

Gopro Fusion is also a very good 360 cam ww excellent video quality and on sale now for about $300
https://amzn.to/2Mezkvj

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215137833733245&set=a.1151585183845

Kandao Qooocam is another inexpensive 360 cam w excellent still and video quality, also some nice stereo modes for 180° VR and stereo “3D” photos, and other interesting and unique features from kandao
https://amzn.to/2SMiW6y

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217393916413902&set=a.1151585183845&type=3&theater

any of these will provide better still and video vs keymission

sam

[Sam Rohn]

hi everybody

sorry for the delay, i myself am still waiting on required cooperation from current ivrpa board of directors to complete this important task, and i have reminded them many times on many channels how critical this is

as soon as current ivrpa directors are ready to accept the responsibilities they have volunteered for and live up to their word, i am more than ready to proceed

i know ssl is very important and long overdue, and i want to finish this sooner rather than later

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

krpano can make a berfore/after pano viewer w slider or button for switch, see this post for details

https://krpano.com/forum/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2299

sam

[Sam Rohn]

also see this topic re: free 360 video stitching software –

https://ivrpa.org/forums/topic/videostitch-studio-vahana-vr-free-open-source-360-video-stiching-software/

[Sam Rohn]

both pano2vr and krpano allow mixing 360 panos still and video, and neither require any sort of subscription other than occasional paid updates, and you would of course have to pay for your own web hosting service as well

https://ggnome.com/pano2vr

http://krpano.com

sam

[Sam Rohn]

mistika vr seems to be the best choice in 2019 for 360 video stitching

https://www.sgo.es/mistika-vr/

sam

[Sam Rohn]

small update – more issues w gutenberg and some other custom code have been discovered, so gutenberg has been disabled site wide for now

sam

[Sam Rohn]

ok, we are now updated to wordpress 5

everything seems to be working properly, gutenberg editor is apparently not yet fully compatible with our custom post types like panoramas and event pages, so it will only affect pages created by site editors, not normal users

next up is SSL

please report anything that seems out of order here

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

voting is now closed, and the results are now visible in the above post, and the top 4 candidates have been elected as IVRPA Directors for 2019-2020:

Tanja Barnes (54 Votes)
Jurgen Schrader (48 Votes)
Michael Kolchesky (46 Votes)
Karyn Laudisi (44 Votes)

thanks to all who participated

sam

[Sam Rohn]

click on the about page in top menu, this page has a sidebar with various sections, including a private Directors area with all sorts of interesting things to explore

aside from directors area, about page sidebar menu is also the official home of members only minutes and budgets as well as other official IVRPA biz docs, public sponsor lists and discounts, gppr privacy policy draft (ahem), IVRPA bylaws, etc etc etc…

clicking through all the links in that side bar will give you a good idea of what is there ;)

ps – lots of stuff on all those pages is out of date and needs to be updated

sam

[Sam Rohn]

there is actually a private BoD page on this site that has detailed outlines of officer and director and other “manager” responsibilities

it was originally written in 2010 by mathias t., so it is a bit out of date with a few things, “open source manager” etc never really happened, but it is a good list to start with

i’m sure all current directors have put in some time to explore this site over the last few years so everyone should know where this page is by now without me posting a link here ;)

sam

[Sam Rohn]

redundant comments here have been deleted, and further redundancy will be marked as spam

anyone who is not satisfied with the above statement is welcome to vote for the candidates of their choosing, using the existing candidate statements

thanks

sam

ivrpa forum admin

[Sam Rohn]

TERM LIMITS
it is abundantly clear that someone here is using the suggestion of term limits as a last ditch effort in a personal vendetta to get rid of their rivals without an election, funny how they only bring this up when there is a personal grudge involved

if IVRPA had term limits i could NEVER have built this website or accomplished my other goals here as i would have had to deal with a completely new group of directors every other year or i would have been obligated to “step aside” myself before the project was finished, and the directors who dropped out when they found the workload directors must bear not to their liking or otherwise put their own ego before business made things difficult enough as it was

btw, after jürgen, i am currently the 2nd longest serving director, since 2011, maybe you guys think i should “step aside” as well ?

as for candidates and deadlines etc, you opened the door by demanding a new deadline, you then dropped out, and now you are complaining about the consequences of our accommodating your original complaint ?

PLANS
i get the strong impression that some minds are already made up here, so what would be the point in jürgen elaborating any further ?

in my own 8 years of experience on the board of directors, working with many others in that time, i find the ones who stick around are the ones who actually get things done, and jürgen’s record here is exemplary in my own experience working alongside him all these years

the biggest problem with many former IVRPA directors imo is lack of long term dedication, and tossing our most experienced and dedicated and knowledgeable directors overboard to satisfy one former director’s personal grudge is not a good plan at all, but this selfish and destructive impulse is clearly the only goal here

so, as the current board of directors is doing an excellent job despite the inevitable glitches in an ever changing cast, “steady on course” seems a good plan to me right now :)

once we get through all of our year end responsibilities, then we will lay out our plans for the coming year in more detail, you “may” have already seen some news of these plans on this site’s front page and facebook and twitter and other IVRPA communication channels

LEADERSHIP, TEAMWORK, AND COOPERATION
as another director said in another topic, IVRPA is not a lone wolf organization, one member’s overwhelming obsession with being king for life does not outweigh the work and dedication of others, and one person’s personal grudges should never decide IVRPA policy

members like jürgen who spend years of their time quietly and selflessly working to keep IVRPA afloat without ever once demanding a fortune in compensation or feeling the need to publicly disparage his former teammates is what ivrpa needs more of

members who need to always be the center of attention, who think the rules and bylaws should be altered to accommodate their every whim, who accept no responsibility for their own errors, and publicly and privately attack anyone who disagrees with them while endlessly bragging about their own past achievements do not make good directors or leaders of any sort imo

the type of autocratic and ego driven “leadership” luc suggests here and elsewhere is short sighted and irresponsible imo, and all the arguments he has presented make it clear his goals are not in anyone’s interest save his own

jürgen has my vote here as well as my complete confidence in his work, i also totally support all of the other current IVRPA directors, even the ones i sometimes squabble or disagree with, cooperation with others can sometimes be difficult but it is a better way to bring IVRPA and all of our members forward vs these endless feuds some members seem to favor

further off topic replies here will be deleted

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

Please stay on topic here!
luc, you are seriously rambling and way off topic here, and your negativity and illogical arguments and accusations are not making any sense at all, you are letting a personal grudge seriously cloud your judgment for a while now which has destroyed any support you once had with any IVRPA directors, please stop it ?

it has been very clearly explained that i was in the middle of traveling from new orleans to nyc through a snowstorm when you had your posting problem and you started harassing me with PM’s on facebook, and it is extremely inconsiderate for you to demand i drop everything else and help you with computer issues 24/7/365, so can you PLEASE stop going on about that ?

Don’t blame others for one’s own mistakes
also, YOU waited until the last minute to post your own statement this year, that is no ones fault but your own, this and getting caught in automatic spam filter caused your problem, if you had not been so indecisive as to wait until the last minute you might have avoided that issue, and last minute planning, indecisiveness, and blaming all one’s problems on others are not good leadership qualities imo

furthermore, after complaining about how the result of your own tardiness were somehow “unfair” to you, and us then moving the deadline to accommodate you, you then WITHDREW your own candidacy, but you are still complaining and now accusing us of somehow rigging things against you ? seriously ?

Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house
and i recall you neglecting to call an election in 2016 at all, is that somehow more “democratic” in your own royal opinion ?

and complaining about a budget deficit that was created by the unprecedented compensation you demanded for organizing a couple of conferences ?

Please respect this forum and other members
this topic is not your own candidate statement or soapbox, and further off topic replies in this thread will be deleted, please at least have the courtesy and respect for this forum to use one of your existing conspiracy theory topics rather than add these off topic rants in every other post that somehow irks you

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

this is better as forum post topic (for users and members) vs news article (for general public) imo, so i’m gonna make this a sticky in web forum

a few days ago there was a glitch in our avatar plugin resulting in a few dozen user avatars that had been uploaded by admins (not user uploaded) being accidentally deleted, so any user who sees they have a blank avatar should upload a new one, sorry about this but it was not a predictable or deliberate event, just a software bug

BONUS TIP:

before uploading your profile avatar image file, please name your avatar file something like “my-name-ivrpa.jpg”, use your own name (or company name) and dashes “-“, not spaces ” ” or underscore “_”

proper image file names will mean your ivrpa profile will do better in google searches AND you will make life much easier for the hard working IVRPA site admins trying to keep this all organized :)

good avatar file names: (use your own name, of course)
• sam-rohn-ivrpa.jpg
• sam-rohn-avatar.jpg
• sam-rohn-photographer.jpg
• Comapny-Name-logo.jpg (sponsor avatar and logos etc)
• etc

bad avatar file names: bad file names are not descriptive or relevant or unique
• sam old photo 2016.jpg
• sam_the_man_2cool4school.jpg
• sr.jpg
• avatar.jpg
• etc

very bad avatar file names: random alphanumeric name is not helpful when searching for lost files, please don’t use image file names like this
• 57e46378d4a0e2b3bccc69c5c2f4d570.jpg
• IMG_0745.jpg
• etc

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

thanks jürgen

your long record of good work for IVRPA speaks for itself, and your long term dedication to IVPRA is truly appreciated by all members

while some may think of being an IVRPA director as a game in which they can hop in or out as suits their weekly mood, you have always set a good example for all of us in showing true responsibility, dedication, and patience in quietly doing the work required here without any need for personal fanfare or adulation, and always rising above the petty feuds to keep ivrpa running smoothly over many bumpy roads

and we all look forward to continue working with you on board of directors in the coming years ;)

sam

[Sam Rohn]

IVRPA Forums
no one has been “banned” or otherwise restricted from posting in this forum, but apparently some posts were automatically caught in the akismet spam queue, and this queue has to be manually checked and cleared from time to time, but as far as i can see all posts mentioned above are live and accounted for

Facebook Messages
sending me private messages on facebook is NOT the 24/7/365 IVRPA emergency helpline, i was in the middle of traveling back to NYC through a huge east coast blizzard and 3+ hour flight delays when you started messaging me, and i did not make it home till about 12 hours later at almost 4am, anyone demanding that i immediately drop everything else and help them use a computer is making an unreasonable and inconsiderate demand

Respecting IVRPA Forum Privacy
it has been stated many times over many years by many people that IVRPA members should not drag IVRPA biz into outside public forums, this rule has always been equally applied to all members and has been in place long before either of us joined IVRPA, former directors who supported this policy while in office certainly cannot claim ignorance here, and purposefully choosing to ignore these rules and disrespect our community while blaming others is not the kind of leadership IVRPA needs imo

IVRPA Bylaws
perhaps IVRPA bylaws are not important to some folks, but following them is a legal requirement of a NPO, i am sorry if anyone feels the bylaws are somehow biased against them or otherwise inconvenient for them, but i did not write the bylaws, nor would i support altering or voiding them to suit anyone’s daily mood or whims

IVRPA Elections
i recall that a former IVRPA president failed to call and then canceled the 2016 elections entirely, and also failed to keep required director meeting minutes for almost 2 years (despite my own constant reminders that these were both critically important), one would think that this person would not want to be throwing stones at the team that is still fixing all of that

IVRPA Directors
IVRPA does not need a self appointed emperor for life who rules by whim and decree while claiming to represent the “voice of the people”, running IVRPA is a team effort requiring cooperation with others and sometimes a lot of patience, rules and bylaws are no fun but they are there for a reason and are a legal requirement of an organization like ours, and apparently some folks are better suited to this sort of cooperative governance than others

IVRPA: Past, Present, and Future
otherwise, IVRPA is currently in very good hands imo, all of our current directors know what they are doing and we have some great new candidates on the field this year too, all of whom seem to understand that cooperation is the key to any successful group endeavor

the contributions of former directors to past events and this website and IVRPA as a whole are greatly appreciated by all members, and they should now sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labors vs clinging to the past, IVRPA has another great conference planned for this coming year which we hope all will enjoy

thanks

pax ivrpa

sam

[Sam Rohn]

thanks tanja

you have been a tremendous asset to IVRPA since you have joined, and even more so since you have been volunteering on our web/social team, you are the perfect candidate imo ;)

sam

[Sam Rohn]

if you are looking for new 360° tour software, Pano2VR is currently the best choice in my opinion, it has many features unavailable in any other application or service, skin editor, animation editor, patch editor, google street view support, droplets, customizable code, as well a large and friendly user and support community

https://ggnome.com/pano2vr

otherwise, for now and the foreseeable near future, kolor panotour is still working fine

panotour is based on krpano, and the krpano developer says he intends to create krpano core update packs for panotour which should keep it up to date with modern browser developments etc

https://krpano.com/forum/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=16392

and if you already own panotour, you can extract the krpano license and use krpano directly on its own

http://www.kolor.com/wiki-en/action/view/Panotour_-_Installation_and_registration#KrPano_License

sam

[Sam Rohn]

nikon fisheyes are the only ones i have ever personally used, 10.5mm, 16mm, and the new 8-15mm zoom

all of the lenses below have their advantages and disadvantages, cost, size, weight, etc, a wider fisheye like 8mm would give you more overlap so better for masking in crowd shots etc, longer fisheyes will give more resolution and detail, cheap fisheyes are more prone to flare and chromatic aberrations, more expensive lenses are typically sharper, etc etc

Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 AF DX NH Fisheye (no lens hood version) is similar FOV to nikon and canon zoom, this was a very popular 360 pano lens before canon and nikon made their own fisheye zooms, tokina 10-17mm fisheye zoom costs about $450 on amazon etc

samyang (also branded as rokinon or bower) 8mm fisheye w removable lens hood for nikon F mount is also a popular choice due to price (about $200) and easy shooting pattern, samyang 12mm fisheye (about $400) is a bit better image quality overall, but slightly more complicated shooting and stitching

sigma makes an 8mm fisheye which is supposed to be very good, but not cheap, also a 4.5mm fisheye which is not cheap either and has very very small image circle (huge waste of pixels on nikon fx), and also 10.5mm and 16mm fisheyes, both at similar price to nikon equivalents

nikon 10.5mm fisheye is a nice and small lens but requires cutting off the lens hood to use on FX full frame and 4 around w no N+Z shots (i shot like this on D800), or otherwise it will same fov as 16mm on DX in crop mode, requiring 6 around and N+Z shots for full sphere pano

nikon 16mm fisheye requires 6 shots around & N+Z shots on full frame camera, smaller and lighter compared to the zoom

nikon 8-15mm fisheye zoom is larger and heavier and more expensive than any of the other lenses above, but in my experience it has better image quality vs any of the others i have seen

sam

[Sam Rohn]

samyang 8mm fisheye is fine to start with, there are better lenses but this one is ok and affordable

you can also shoot a spherical panorama with any lens, but longer FOV = more shots, so if you have a decent wide angle this will work fine on NN6, just takes a bit more work vs fisheye

otherwise, note there are both samyang 12mm fisheye and rectilinear lens which are not the same thing, and there are several models and generations of 8mm fisheye

and, samyang 12mm fisheye is not the exact same FOV as Nikon or canon 8-15mm fisheye at 12mm

8mm on any of the discussed lenses will result in a full circle image, with lots of wasted space around the circle, so that is not ideal imo, but not the end of the world either, you also get more overlap so better for crowd panos etc

nikon or canon 8-15mm fisheye zoom at 12mm will let you shoot only 4 images around at 0° for complete 360°x180 sphere with no nadir or zenith (up or down) shots needed

samyang 12mm fisheye is not quite the same FOV as the others, so it requires a different shooting pattern with additional N+Z shots

more info on shooting panos w samyang 12mm fisheye here –

http://panorama-blog.com/reviews/samyang-12mm-f28-fullframe-fisheye

[Sam Rohn]

NN6 is better for larger DSLR like D850, NN3 is good for smaller DSLR or mirrorless camera

full size RD10 rotator will be better also, D850 is a heavy camera and RD10 will be more stable vs mini rotator

https://shop.nodalninja.com/nn6-starter-pkg-f6001/

if you are using a fisheye in single row (no up or down shots) you can use NN R10 with lens ring, this is smaller and lighter vs NN3 or NN6, but you cannot shoot multi-row panos with this head

https://shop.nodalninja.com/r1-w-rd5-adj-tilt-pkg-f6120v/

samyang 8mm is ok, but you will not be getting the most out of D850 with that lens, nikkor 8-15mm fisheye is best fisheye lens for panos on full frame nikon, 12mm on that lens gives the max resolution for single row panos with fisheye lens, 8mm circular fisheye on either lens has lots of black area around circle so wasted pixels

here is one of my own panos with my own gear, D850 + nikkor 8-15mm @ 12mm, NN R1 + lens ring

http://www.samrohn.com/360-panorama/new-victory-theater-360-vr-panorama/

sam

[Sam Rohn]

preview image must be 1600×800 px jpg, file size should be under about 400k

embedded pano from roundme requires the embed url from the sharing code (normal page url will not work properly), it will look something like this – https://roundme.com/embed/xxxxx/xxxxx

also see this topic for more info – https://ivrpa.org/forums/topic/how-do-i-post-a-panorama/

sam

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[Sam Rohn]

back to the original question, here are 3 excellent krpano – panotour devs

Arthur van den Enk – http://virtualtuur.com

Nuno Madeira – http://wide.pt/

Majd Salim – https://www.linkedin.com/in/majd-salim-13398920/

sam

[Sam Rohn]

bump: this was originally (and mistakenly) posted as a news post, it has been converted to a proper forum topic

[Sam Rohn]

marzipano and pannellum are also good choices if you are looking for free open source software to create 360° tours, but not as full featured as the commercial apps mentioned by jürgen

http://www.marzipano.net

https://pannellum.org

also see this page for a list of links and tutorials for shooting and stitching 360° panoramas, as well as creating and hosting your own 360° tours

https://ivrpa.org/about-ivrpa/360-vr-photography-360-video-resources/

sam

[Sam Rohn]

Ricoh Theta R is built for 24 hour streaming –

https://ricohr.ricoh/en/

sam

[Sam Rohn]

if your photos do not have gps meta you must add it manually, adobe lightroom can do it but so can many other geotagging apps

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/maps-module.html

once your images have gps info you can upload them to streetview using the streetview app

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7012050?hl=en&ref_topic=6275604

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7011737?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

sam

[Sam Rohn]

what type of computer are you using with the ricoh app ?

if your computer is not up to spec the app may not work as expected, check the hardware requirements here –

https://theta360.com/en/support/enviroment/#PCAPP

sam

[Sam Rohn]

see this error in the console on your page, your site is denying iframe access to ivrpa.org domain, this would need to be fixed on your end

[Error] Refused to display 'https://360photoplus.com/wp-content/vt/Grand_Hotel/?html5=only&s=pano30' in a frame because it set 'X-Frame-Options' to 'SAMEORIGIN, SAMEORIGIN'.

sam

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