What you need to take 360 Google Street View images with your DSLR

[Nick-Hobgood]

Fellow Local Guides, 

If you already have a DSLR, here is a list equipment you need to take 360 degree panoramic shots to share on Google Maps:

• Lens:  Fisheye or ultra wide angle in the 8-10mm range are good to allow you to get the whole scene without having to take lots of images to stitch together. The Samyang 8mm is a good quality lens without being very expensive.  Remember:  the more narrow the lens (higher mm) the more images you will need to take to cover the 360x180 scene.  More images allows for higher resolution images which are better for crisper details in your final product. Example here
• Panoramic head for your tripod:  This piece of equipment keeps your camera lens rotating on what is called the No Parallax Point, allowing the stitching software to seamlessly put your images together without flaws. Nodal Ninja offers some nice beginner models. 

Once you have all that all you need is the software to stitch your images into equirectangular 2:1 format for upload to Google Maps.  You can do that with the free Hugin stitching software or pay for an easier to use with more functionality platform like PTGui.

Happy Sphering ! !

[rtsayles]

Awesome @Nick-Hobgood.  Thanks for sharing these important tips, especially for newcomers.  

[Leandro-Justiça]

@Nick-Hobgood  Very interesting your tips.
Thanks for sharing.

[iyudhi]

I'm interested in trying this just for fun. Do you know if a 15mm fisheye lens would be okay @Nick-Hobgood? I'm using it on a full frame camera (Canon 5D).

[Nick-Hobgood]

Thanks @rtsayles !  Yeah, I had to learn by trial and error.  Thought I would help with a bit of a shortcut....  🙂

[Nick-Hobgood]

Thanks @Leandro-Justiça !

[Nick-Hobgood]

@iyudhi Your 15mm and full frame will work.  You just need to know how many images to take to ensure enough overlap for the stitching software to recognize the areas of overlap.  As an example my cropped frame sensor on my Canon SL1 with a Tokina lens on 10mm has good overlap if I take 6 images 60 degrees apart at a 45 degree angle down from the horizon and 6 images at 45 degrees above the horizon for the top layer.  I then stitch the 12 resulting images in PTGui.  When the camera is calibrated properly to the No Parallax Point on the panoramic head, there are little to no stitching errors to correct.   You will have to either look up the overlap settings or manually test your overlap to aim for 20-30 percent overlap from one image to another and you may need to make a middle layer to ensure proper overlap.   I hope that helps. - Nick

[YannisS]

The @nformation supplied by @NickH is correct and with this kind of equipment you will get consistent results. However, you can also make great photospheres without a tripod head.

Search for info about the "philopod" technique which allows you to use your camera handheld.

Here is a useful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouOEM4cKKGc

[ThomasM]

Thanks and more thanks for that example scene on Tanna Island.  I'm sitting here while it's 28 below and I am very jealous.

😉

Thomas

[GrahamE]

That's very helpful information Nick and thanks for sharing. I've arrived at your profile having just been browsing your photos on Google maps. They are some of the finest, brightest and more colourful I have seen anywhere. Such great resolution for 360 pics.

I have just invested in a Ricoh Theta SC with the hope I could post better 360 that the ones i used to take with the android phone app, but its a bit of a letdown to be honest.

What camera do you use with your other equipment if you don't mind me asking?

All the best from Scotland,

Graham.