Scientific Photography and Applied Imaging

31 Panoramic photography

31.1 Introduction

Many photographic applications require the recording of a large FOV, usually horizontally (in azimuth), with a lesser angle in the orthogonal direction. Panoramic photography is taken to mean a true wide FOV or synthesis of images in one meridian, giving an image of high aspect ratio, i.e. width to height (W:H) dimensions. The FOV ranges from some 90° as given by a wide angle system to 360° or more from a rotating camera system. A number of distinct methods and apparatus are used for different forms of panoramic imagery. The history of panoramic imaging is detailed by Hyde (1988) and Morton (1994).

31.2 Wide angle camera systems

A panoramic photograph with an aspect ratio from 2:1 to 4:1 is given by ...