Wide Views of a Wide Country

NEX-5 (22mm, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO200)

During the 3 weeks trip through the South West of the USA I got the opportunity to “test” the panorama-mode of the Sony NEX 5. Really wide landscapes are always a problem if you want to capture it in a single image.

The angle of view is to small and the sensor is unable to deal with the the contrast but the biggest difference is simple that if you are there you can take a look around. That is the biggest issue. A photo is just a very small portion of the landscape. If you choose an extreme wide angle or fisheye you get almost everything in a single frame but you also get very high distortions and the landscape simple does not look like you remember it.

There is only one way to close the gap in between the real thing and an image: to take an panorama by taking lots of images and stick them together. In the past that means to use a good tripod, put the camera to manual and perform lot’s of post processing although there are some very good programs that will do most of the work for you. Still it was cumbersome and slow compared to today.

With the NEX you simple enter the panoramic mode and shoot. It is as simple as that! The camera than stitches the pictures together automatically. Sounds good! Even better is the fact that it actually works!

These images are the prove. If you have an iMAC or another 27 inch high res monitor you can see the image in 100% view at once. With smaller monitors you can still scroll the image. There are very little problems in the stitching ( the traffic sign is one example ) but the great thing you might realize is that there are lot’s of people in some frames and none of them got his head chopped off. Try that by taking panoramas the old way.

Still nothing beats to be there but a good panoramic image gives you at least some kind of impression how the real thing looked like. Now somebody has to find a way to watch these images on a beamer or TV.

NEX-5 (20mm, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/9, 1/160 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (25mm, f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (27mm, f/14, 1/400 sec, ISO200)

NEX-5 (18mm, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO200)