Challenges with Lightroom CC panorama stitching with M lenses on SL3

[beewee]

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This is probably a bit of a niche use case but I thought I’d share in case anyone else is considering the same or have a good solution to the issue.

I took the SL3 + 24mm Elmar-M out on a hike this weekend to see how it would be like to shoot with M lenses on the SL3. I normally exclusively use SL and Sigma L-mount glass but thought I would give the 24 Elmar a try since it was my favorite landscape lens on my M10 and I wanted to go with a lighter setup.

Overall, the shooting experience was good and I had no trouble manual focusing on the SL3. However, my troubles started when I started merging my panorama shots in Lightroom CC for Mac where some portions of the panorama is too bright while others sections were too dark, despite the fact that I was shooting with manual/fixed ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, and all the shots look properly exposed. After digging into this a bit and inspecting the metadata, it seems the SL3’s aperture values look very unstable and is often way off. Based on this, my best guess is that Lightroom is trying to use the bad aperture values in the metadata to “improve” the stitching but because the aperture values are so erroneous, it actually causes more problems.

Based on my understanding, the SL3 (and older SL bodies) all use the same aperture estimation method as the M bodies where there is a separate optical light meter used to judge the scene and those measurements are compared against the brightness measured through the lens, then the amount of perceived light loss through the lens is what the camera uses to estimate the aperture of the M lens since it doesn’t have any electronic coupling.

With this in mind, it seems M lenses are rather poorly suited for panoramic stitching in general unless someone has a good way to change the metadata. At least on my initial attempt, it doesn’t seem like I can change it in Lightroom CC for Mac. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a different software to do this?

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[SrMi]

17 minutes ago, beewee said:

This is probably a bit of a niche use case but I thought I’d share in case anyone else is considering the same or have a good solution to the issue.

I took the SL3 + 24mm Elmar-M out on a hike this weekend to see how it would be like to shoot with M lenses on the SL3. I normally exclusively use SL and Sigma L-mount glass but thought I would give the 24 Elmar a try since it was my favorite landscape lens on my M10 and I wanted to go with a lighter setup.

Overall, the shooting experience was good and I had no trouble manual focusing on the SL3. However, my troubles started when I started merging my panorama shots in Lightroom CC for Mac where some portions of the panorama is too bright while others sections were too dark, despite the fact that I was shooting with manual/fixed ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, and all the shots look properly exposed. After digging into this a bit and inspecting the metadata, it seems the SL3’s aperture values look very unstable and is often way off. Based on this, my best guess is that Lightroom is trying to use the bad aperture values in the metadata to “improve” the stitching but because the aperture values are so erroneous, it actually causes more problems.

Based on my understanding, the SL3 (and older SL bodies) all use the same aperture estimation method as the M bodies where there is a separate optical light meter used to judge the scene and those measurements are compared against the brightness measured through the lens, then the amount of perceived light loss through the lens is what the camera uses to estimate the aperture of the M lens since it doesn’t have any electronic coupling.

With this in mind, it seems M lenses are rather poorly suited for panoramic stitching in general unless someone has a good way to change the metadata. At least on my initial attempt, it doesn’t seem like I can change it in Lightroom CC for Mac. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a different software to do this?

Interesting.

Try merging in PS, it often does a bettee job than LrC.

[frame-it]

44 minutes ago, beewee said:

With this in mind, it seems M lenses are rather poorly suited for panoramic stitching in general unless someone has a good way to change the metadata. At least on my initial attempt, it doesn’t seem like I can change it in Lightroom CC for Mac. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a different software to do this?

10 image pano merged in lightroom

90mm APO summicron-M on SL2S

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Edited 14 hours ago by frame-it

[frame-it]

15 image pano merged in lightroom

90mm APO summicron-M on SL2S

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10++ image pano merged in lightroom

90mm APO summicron-M on SL2S

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6 image pano merged in lightroom

90mm APO summicron-M on SL2S

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and i have hundreds more.. with lenses from 35mm-50mm-90mm-135mm & 180mm on SL601 and SL2S

 

make sure you shoot with plenty of overlap especially if the lens has some natural vignetting

make sure the camera doesn't tilt at an angle while rotating if shooting handheld 

jump though the images in lightroom in quick succession first to see the sequence, if an image is obviously not good enough don't select it

IF required, remove or minimize vignetting or crop the images a bit 1st and then go to each image and press cmd-s [mac] to save the metadata change

shift-selection of the images is actually in sequence, so select the image with the best exposure first, then shift-select all the others [so they are matched to the 1st selected image]

with the images selected in sequence, > match total exposures, once done, go to each image and press cmd-s [mac] to save the metadata change

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then select them again in sequence and then merge panorama

and hope fully you're shooting in full manual 

no silly auto iso [the devil]

no silly auto WB [the devils spawn]

manual aperture on the lens

manually selected shutter speed.

 

 

if your still not able to get goods results, then you might want to try this, i rarely use it anymore but its amazing:

https://ptgui.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by frame-it

[frame-it]

last one

same camera and lens, i dont even remember how images images this was, 4 horizontal rows from left to right, definitely over 36 but don't remember

finally printed at 4meters wide

 

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[jaapv]

If you have the exposure, WB  and  ISO locked in, this looks more like a postprocessing problem.  You could use a program like Photostitcher that does automatic exposure blending. Luminar Neo is also known for its AI stitching tools. I never used these myself as Photoshop has never let me down. Just make sure that you don’t touch any auto button or use jpg’s.