Originally posted by barondla Would like to try a few panoramas. What lens is the best choice for easy stitching?
Any lens will do. The wider the lens the more important foreground to anchor the image. You can go as wide or as long as you want. Just overlap by about a third to a quarter of a frame. The stitching software is so good these days, that lenses do not matter given a reasonable amount of overlap. 10 to 20% is usually the minimum.
Originally posted by barondla Some people use a bracket for panos. Is this required with the 645Z? If so who makes a bracket big enough for the Z?
I'm taking that you are asking about an L Bracket. An L Bracket is not necessary, since all 645 bodies have two tripod mount points - one on the side and one on the bottom. What you need is at least one flat plate that matches the clamp on your tripod head - two plates would be better if you didn't want to just move one around.
Originally posted by barondla Last question...for now, what post processing program is the easiest?
Any software supporting stitching is fine. Microsoft ICE is good and free. ICE takes DNG as raw file along with TIFF so that you can preserve all of your details. The new versions of lightroom supports stitching (and HDR if you do any bracketing).
Also take a look at this youtube channel. The gentleman is a Scot down in New Zealand doing fine art large format commercial photography, and essentially does panos 90% of the time with his 645Z. He prints very large - 5 feet along the long side. He uses a number of lenses, but most are not wide angle - since he wants the greatest amount of detail and the sensor is large to begin with. Usually shoots 2 or 3 frames. He does not talk you through the steps. He is more interested in the time of day, sun angles, sky color, sea state, etc. and most of all, going out and enjoying yourself by having fun. But you can watch and see exactly what he does, and he just moves the camera on his tripod. He does use a nodal rail, but that's not even that necessary (if you use somewhat longer - normal lenses).
He also likes to shoot long exposures to smooth out the seas, into a nice and flat smooth and soothing image.
Last edited by interested_observer; 11-29-2020 at 12:21 PM.