hiya techie
Nice work indeed. Someone else had recommended Microsoft's ICE stitcher to me saying there was a Mac version. So it being a rooolly nasty hot day threatening here, I pottered off down to the beach with the trusty P880 to take some exploratory photos to try it out.
Took the photos, couldn't find ICE for Mac. So as not to waste the photos, I messed around doing some panos anyway using the latest version of my regular panorama stitcher, Calico.
First: the sands of Mordialloc beach (about 25 kms south-east of Melbourne's CBD, in Oz). This was made up of five pix. Of course, I pointed the camera down too much on the first picture (left) so this set the sky level for everything. Stupid. Message to self: either get some self control on horizons or get a tripod!
Lens zoomed to bout 50mm (equiv). I believe it is important to keep the lens to a reasonably long focal length so you don't have to fight w/a distortion when bringing the pix together. I wold never do a pano shooting at under 35mm (equiv) and I prefer a slight telephoto.
Second: Boats moored in Mordialloc Creek. Two images. Lens set to 50mm (equiv). I meant to take a 24mm (equiv) shot to compare with this, but of course, I forgot!!! Well, it was getting hot! You can see the sun's brightness beating down!
Third: the beach and pier from the back of the beach. I took 11 shots with the lens full zoomed out at full telephoto (29.4mm, 112mm equiv). As you can see, this was a test for the software because the beach was alive with features to match! NOT! One shot was a duplicate. Calico evenutally dumed two shots -- I'm not sure whether the duplicate was one of them -- and used nine!
Speaking of features, the processing time of the P880 made for difficulties because it was long enough for the seagulls to move around. I was really ticked off that while they fluttered and flitted and glided, not one -- check the picture, not a single one -- was in the air when I took the pictures. They're worse than my kids used to be.
so there you have it. There was another five shotter than didn't work -- Calico refused to recognize the first and last shots. I need to work that out. I'll show you later.
While I have been writing this, though, the forcast cool change has come through. The temperature dropped from a burning 38 C to about 28 C in a few minutes. Ah! Blessed relief!
Cheers, geoff
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Geoffrey Heard
http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-as-pig-in-mud.html 
. I love it because its free and totally effective for my needs. I also use the Panorama Factory but the process takes so long for it since it is slow and requires numerous steps to get everything right.
!
. I'll have my tripod to make it easier for ICE 