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All,

I've created an excel spreadsheet that calculates a number of 
variables related to panoramas, as a function of focal length, sensor 
size, aperture, etc.  The outputs include pixels per degree, total 
pixels, number of rows, images per row, real world size of a pixel, 
minimum focus distance, etc.  I've spot checked it with several of my 
images and some online calculators, and it comes pretty close, but 
I'd appreciate any feedback on the math and its accuracy.

You can find it here:
http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/temp/panocalculator/
(you can also find a text file without the equations)

The results here can be plotted and one can see the break points of 
diminishing returns, which I think is a benefit compared to the 
online calculators I found.  Specifically it becomes really clear 
that while resolution scales linearly as a function of focal length, 
filesize scales geometrically as a factor of four. Somewhere in the 
35-45mm range is where the major breakpoint in that trade-off seems 
to be, and it's also in this range when a spherical pano can be 
considered gigapixelish.

The questions I was trying to answer with this was which normal 
lenses are optimal for a given purpose.  For example, is it better to 
to get the Nikkor 12-24mm or the 17-35mm or the 18-35mm?  Here I was 
specifically wondering what it would take to do 2-row panos, as my 
landscapes can be purely flat.  Similarly, is it worth spending twice 
as much for a Nikkor 200mm vs a 180 mm?  Or what's the highest 
resolution spherical pano I can create and still retain focus at 
nadir without refocussing?  Before making any financial decisions, I 
thought it best to have a sanity check on the calculations...

Anyway, I hope you find it useful, and please let me know if you find 
any mistakes!

Cheers,
Matt


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