Canon SLR EOS-1D Mark III on motorized head
Today, I received my Non GoTo Merlin head from Teleskop Austria. With this motorized head which is controllable by Papywizard it's very easy to make professional panorama pictures. Together with Fabian Amann we did some testing today with a Canon SLR EOS-1D Mark III. Papywizard controls the Merlin mount via an USB adapter from Ursa Minor. The camera can be controlled by this adapter as well (if you have the correct cable) or by the EOS Utility via an USB connection (We chose this way, as we had an USB cable ;)).
Fabian
For the first test, we assembled everything inside as it was raining and started a first small picture with a 200mm telephoto lens as soon as the rain stopped. For this photo we took 33 pictures in 3 rows. This calculated by Papywizard automatically when you set your camera settings correctly.
After lunch, we installed everything outside on the street and tried a 360 degree panorama with a 35mm wide-angle lens. For this this photo we took 60 pictures in 5 rows, but in the final version only 4 rows were used. It took about 5 minutes to take all the pictures.
Tobias
Later on I stiched the photos together using AutoPano Pro 2.0. It has a built-in import function for pictures series taken with Papywizard. For the two pictures I only had to do some minor corrections in the autodetection.
So, taking panorama pictures with a motorized head is neither very expensive (assuming you have a nice camera) nor very complicated. At least our first tests were not so complicated. Let's see when the eather is better and we have some time to make some real panoramas. 🙂
Tobi, you forgot to name "Buck" on your picture 🙂 *wuff*
... the panoramas do not work any more -- I opened them in different browsers, nothing happens...
Thanks for the hint! There seemed to be a permission problem from migrating the webserver. Should work now!
Hi Tobias,
I just purchased a Skywatcher Allview and finally got control with Papywizard (2.1.21, latest & greatest). But I'm having problems using the EOS Utility plugin. I see that you had success doing exactly what I am attempting ... EOS using USB and motion control using serial connection (Merlin-Orion for Yaw & Pitch). Looks like I can't properly connect the EOS Utility - the connection method greys out when i select EOS Utility - if i select it anyway i get connected but there's no shutter control - says failed after moving to 1st shot position. If I choose Merlin-Orion and select serial, and use the snap cable everything's fine. Any Tips that you might have would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks for your help if you can provide any assistance.
Best Regards,
Paul Waitzman
Hi Paul!
I don't have this setup anymore and therefor cannot give you any hints on this. If I remember correctly the setup back in the days was straight forward and we did not have any issues with serial/USB connections.
I wish you good luck to get it running!
Tobias