20.8.2010

This Livecam project came to life under the leadership of our Norwegian representative, Borealis Design / Eiliv Leren. As the area is totally remote (a 12 hours drive from the next larger city - Tromso) without any DSL access and is exposed to very harsh weather conditions, the team installed this camera with a special weatherproof box and 3G antenna. The images are captured every 10 minutes and transferred via 3G to the Roundshot webserver. At the same time, special automatic recovery procedures were implemented on the Livecam computer to deal with 3G network interruption or power problems. The camera is accessible via 3G over remote internet access for configuration and maintenance.

Because the camera is located far north above the polar circle, the Livecam works 24 hours per day during the midnight sun time in summer and gets a well-deserved break in winter during the period of blue darkness when the sun remains below the horizon.

28.7.2010

Swiss-based photographers Hans-Peter Sahrhage and René Guillet have been working together for several years and offer their customers virtual tours, 360° panoramas, full-screen panoramas (spherical, cylindrical), elevated photography as well as relief maps and geological models. They use digital SLR cameras of Canon for stitching and a Roundshot D3 with scanning technology.

For their customer - Brienz Rothorn Bahn - (www.brb.ch) - who operate a steam-engine rail service - the two photographers travelled on the entire mountain track on the steam train and created some extraordinary panoramas inside and outside the train.

Stitching or scanning? The answer is stunning: both!

Virtual tour: www.brb.ch

"For my virtual tours I use a Roundshot VR Drive with a Canon EOS SLR camera (Canon EOS 5D Mark II). Stitching has made very good progress over the last few years and today the trend is clearly towards full-screen panoramas:

• Perfect results for spherical VR photography (with fisheye lens or multi-row technique) with fast workflow
• Worry-free and fully automatic stitching with 64-bit computer at full resolution
• Powerful presentation of spherical panoramas with flash 10 (full resolution) and full-screen
• Easy capturing of static scenes
• Limited noise with higher ISO/ASA values, thus ideal for night photography
• New VR Drive "speed" mode allows also scenes with moderate movement under ideal light conditions (fast shutter speeds)
• Zoom lenses can be used, covering all focal lengths with a limited amount of lenses; the quality of these lenses is superior to medium format (thanks to electronics, stabilisation etc.)
• Easy focusing / sharpness
• Limited weight of the equipment (VR Drive motor, camera)
• Overall low production costs"

"I work predominantly with my Roundshot D3 for virtual tours. The camera is fantastic because it allows an entirely different way of working and special image results - panoramas which are not possible to be achieved with stitching:

• Action photography (for example in a moving train, on a rocking boat, in the midst of a crowd of people) - impossible with stitching!
• High flexibility and creative possibilities - a great variety of lenses and image formats (spherical, cylindrical) are possible - image formats of up to 999°, rotation clockwise and anti-clockwise
• Enormous productivity - hundreds of panoramas per day!
• Immediate image results - the panoramas are immediately accessible on the computer for viewing, processing, printing or for transferring
• Easy setting of nodal point (rotation point) according to fixed parameters in the D3 software
• Several resolution options, automatic 360° blending and vertical cropping
• Fast reloading of dng raw files for viewing
• Simple mixing of 32-bit HDR panoramas (multi-scans)
• Possibility to shift the digital scan back (by +/- 25mm)
• Easy handling of camera for elevated photography (tripod): automatic camera positioning and direct image control on screen of connected computer
• Possibility to use mono-pods (ideal in crowds, moving cars)
• Easier handling of situations with difficult light conditions (for example clouds) because the camera deals more flexibly with changing light
• Possibility of aerial panoramas
• Very high resolution with just one single scan and within seconds!
• Easy cleaning of digital sensor
• Roundshot D3 - the world's most professional panorama system (camera & support)"

"In summary we can say that for spherical VR panoramas the stitching technique is clearly at an advantage. On the other hand the Roundshot D3 allows extraordinary images when it comes to capture action and when productivity is a key success factor. In special cases we even use the Roundshot VR Drive and Roundshot D3 side-by-side!"

Visit the website of the two photographers (www.panoramafotos.ch) and load some additional panorama samples from the gallery:

>>> Panoramas Hans-Peter Sahrhage (Stitching with Roundshot VR Drive)   

>>> Panoramas René Guillet (Scanning with Roundshot D3)   

20.7.2010

• GPS tool for automatic saving of camera position in metadata of the image (for example for street mapping)
• Digital compass to embed orientation (N, E, S, W in degrees) in the image
• Calibration of fisheye lenses for QTVR photography or photogrammetry
• Waterproof casing for the Roundshot D3 for outdoor use in harsh conditions (sand, sea, mountain)
• Compendiums (lens shades) to avoid lens flare
• Counterweight for fast rotations with heavy or decentered lenses as well as for vertical panoramas
• New 6x17 macro lenses for repro photography
• ... and many more

• 32-bit and 64-bit capture software for Mac (10.5, 10.6) as well as Windows (XP, Vista, 7)
• Scheduler for automatic image-taking (for time-lapse, HDR, etc.)
• Capture profiles (presets) for different light situations and automatic image taking
• Improved raw conversion and new colour profiles for maximum image quality, new raw conversion tools (flexible white balancing, HSL)
• Colour noise filter for removing wrong colours
• Automatic detection of software compatibility computer + camera
• Extension of lens list to include new Rodenstock lenses (Digaron) and a selection of Nikon lenses
• 32-bit HDR mixing tool
• ... and many more

19.7.2010

Nine months after the introduction of the new Roundshot Livecam D2 HD the network of Roundshot webcams has grown signficantly.

The Roundshot Livecam is the "rolls-royce" of webcams, showing the beauty of a landscape in full HD quality, capturing new panoramas reliably like a Swiss clock in winter as well as in summertime, from sealevel up to 3,200 metres. It has become a popular camera not only for tourist resorts, but also for documenting construction sites and - for example - to create time-lapse movies for advertisement agencies.

Taking the camera a level further, our French distributor Katalys introduced a new website www.livecam360.com. The objective of the livecam360 project is to place a free Livecam in major cities and tourist resorts and to sell the advertising space on the website to sponsors. So far the project has had a good success and many new Livecams throughout France, Spain and the rest of the world will follow soon.

Visit the new Roundshot Livecam reference installations in Switzerland, France and Spain:

>>> Switzerland

>>> France

>>> Spain

Here is our pick of favourites:

16.6.2010

The sample images (cylindrical) taken with the new Roundshot D2x are now ready for viewing with zoomify and for download (dng/raw as well as tiff files).

>>> Roundshot D2x sample images website

With a 2,048 pixels vertical resolution and sensitive sensor the D2x is a very suitable camera for virtual tours for which high productivity is essential (i.e. for street mapping) as well as for outdoor photography.

We tested the new Roundshot D2x in a variety of conditions (outdoor street scenes, with movement of people/objects/water, as well as indoors) with very good results.

The Roundshot D2x (for cylindrical panoramas) is in stock and available for delivery. Please contact us for a detailed price quote.

Roundshot_D2x_price_list  [74.0 KB]

12.4.2010

Would you like to see the current weather on one of our Livecams at the simple push of a button?

This is what the new Livecam 360 iphone application is designed for.

Visit any camera in the French Alps, see the live panorama or load a time-lapse movie.

Roundshot Livecam - the world's most advanced webcam - now also on the iphone!

www.livecam360.com (now with new graphical interface)

   New Livecam iphone interface -
   download the app in the iphone store - it's free!

1.4.2010

Because of its fast speed, very high resolution and seamless panorama creation the Roundshot D3 is the camera of choice for our group photography customers in China.

Here are some impressions of a group shot recently done in Beijing.

   (click on thumbnail image to enlarge)

Original full size panorama:
10,600 pixels x 36,000 pixels (383 million pixels)
90 cm x 305 cm at 300 dpi
2.2 GB tiff (16-bit)

The Roundshot D3 advantage:

- Fast capture speed (image capture in few seconds, saving of 700 MB raw file on 64-bit computer in 4 seconds (SSD))
- Very high resolution and high level of detail
- 60mm sensor - larger than any existing oneshot sensor - allowing larger prints or more sharpness for a smaller print
- one seamless panorama in few seconds - ready to be shown to the customer
- professional camera solution
- no stitching work and limited post-production required

22.2.2010

We are proud to welcome the newest member to the family: the Roundshot D2x.

Designed for simplicity and speed, the Roundshot D2x has a 2,048 pixel vertical resolution and captures 2x full HD panoramas at a fast speed, ideal for nature photography and virtual tours.

Those photographers producing a wide variety of panoramas will enjoy the productivity of the Roundshot D2x.

The camera uses the same advanced image processing and capture software as her bigger sister, the Roundshot D3. The images can be saved as raw (dng) files and further processed in the Seitz Roundshot software, camera raw (Photoshop) or in Lightroom.

Nikkor lenses of any focal length can be attached to the camera, both fisheye and standard Nikkor lenses. The aperture of automatic DX lenses can be controlled with the Seitz f-stop lever.

Visit the new Roundshot D2x webpages:

>>> Roundshot D2x     >>> Roundshot D2x gallery images

Roundshot_D2x_price_list  [74.0 KB]

Available in 2 versions - the base D2x or the advanced D2xs (speed) with faster data transfer, the camera is valued at
CHF 14,500 / Euro 9,700 (Roundshot D2x) and CHF 16,500 / Euro 11,000 (Roundshot D2xs).
The camera is in stock and available as of today.

The new Roundshot D2x now departs on a journey to China and Australia and will come back with many beautiful sample images that will be available on the D2x sample images website for download soon.

22.2.2010

Do you believe that less is more? Then the new Seitz D3-2500 digital scan back is the perfect product for you.

Compared to the D3 full version scan back, its vertical resolution is reduced to
2,500 vertical pixels. All other features are exactly identical. This makes the D3-2500 ideal for group photography, street mapping, virtual tours and all those applications where fast image capture, highest productivity and a very fast workflow are critical elements.

The Seitz D3-2500 digital scan back can be used with the Roundshot D3 360° panorama camera or the Seitz 6x17 Digital. Visit the D3 websites to find out more:

>>> Roundshot D3     >>> Seitz 6x17 Digital

The new Seitz D3-2500 digital scan back is available at a price of CHF 21,000 (EUR 14,000), which is a price reduction of more than 40% compared to the D3 full version.

Seitz_Roundshot_D3_price_list  [179 KB] 

8.2.2010

Come and visit us at our factory in Lustdorf.

Hold a Seitz Roundshot camera in your own hands.

Try it. Take some sample images with you for further processing.

Seeing is believing.

Please contact us by email or by telephone to arrange a demo.

We are looking forward to meeting you soon!

8.2.2010

The new Roundshot VR Drive "s" is already a success and we have had many positive feedbacks.

Download the press release and the printable VR Drive image here:

>>> Press & Media

For further information about this product contact us by email or telephone.

8.1.2010

Why take the slow train if there is an express?

Our new Roundshot VR Drive "s" - or "speed" can complete a full 360° rotation in just 8 seconds and release up to 40 images* - or up to 5 images per second! Inevitably, this makes the Roundshot VR Drive the fastest stitching tool in the market.

What makes the new VR Drive "s" distinctive?

• New fast speed applications are now possible. 
  Did movement of clouds or people in the image pose a problem for stitching before? No longer!
• Your productivity is multiplied. The new "s" mode makes manual positioning look medieval.
  Impress your client. Work faster. Focus on the essential.

Besides the speed component the VR Drive "s" is a lightweight (1.65 kg) and compact unit that fits into any equipment bag and is fun to work with!

For those Roundshot customers who already own a VR Drive we have good news: your unit is upgradeable to the "s" version for a nominal fee. Send us your VR Drive to our factory and we will return it with the new firmware.

The price of the new Roundshot VR Drive "s" is CHF 2,800 (EUR 1,870). It is in stock and available today. Contact us now to reserve your VR Drive "s".

* The release rate depends on camera technology - some models may not allow a very fast release and a slower rotation or
   triggering of the camera may be required.