Originally posted by jheu02 I guess the idea behind the shallow DoF is to make the stitching easier since things don't have to line up quite as well?
Actually, the idea is to have a second, un-intended, use for panorama stitching: the emulation of medium or large format photography using a small digital sensor.
Shooting with a 6x9 camera, for instance, you use a 105mm lens, often with a maximum aperture of 3.5 if you're lucky. But the geometry of the large image area is such that you can still achieve shallow DOF, and at a different FOV than with 35mm or APS-c.
I'm thinking in the examples people are shooting with a too-wide stop - 2.8 or 3.5 would be more realistic.
For the same relative object size on the image area - i.e. a person taking up 1/3 of the frame - you need to be closer to the subject with a 6x9 than if you were shooting with a 105 on a digital SLR. So what you do instead is come as close to the subject and shoot the multiple images, stitch them together and you have an approximation of the 6x9.
I'm actually thinking of seeing how I might replicate a shot with my Medalist 6x9 with its 100m 3.5 Ektar lens, using a K100D and a 105.