Real World Test of the Full Angle Tester

Now that I finally have a working camera, it was time to perform some tests! I connected the Pi to an Anker portable battery and booted it while still connected to the keyboard, mouse and screen. I started my swtich.py program and pushed the button to verify that it was working. Once I was satisfied, I disconnected the screen and keyboard and assembled the tripod.

IMG_5417  I taped the breadboard to keep it from slipping off the platform.The cantilevered nature of the platform required a bit of support on the end from my hand to keep it level.

IMG_5419

I originally tucked the battery in the tripod handle, but then held it to avoid the wires getting caught as I rotated the camera.

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I am really pleased with how well this simple setup worked. The assembly was easy enough that I could repeat when more testing is needed, and it is fairly portable. While outside, I took several rounds (pun intended) of photos at different angular increments.

The first round was a photo approximately every 70°. As the protractors only measure in 5° increments, I had to approximate this to the best of my ability.

Round 2: Every 30°

Round 3: Every 60°

 

Results

It turns out that the camera’s viewing angle is not actually 72° as I had been led to believe, but actually closer to 54°. I blame the online discussion forums for their misinformation. As a result, only round 2 of testing produced any stitchable results. I probably shouldn’t have done my first round of testing at around 5PM with sharp shadows and light differences across my shadowy lawn. However, although imperfect, this is honestly a more accurate representation of what the cameras will need to deal with when recording time-lapses. Importing the pictures is still a tiny bit of a hassle – I need to connect the micro SD card to my Ubuntu VM, and then copy the files to Mac, rename them, and import them into Hugin. While this process is a few more steps than I’d like, its fast enough to not be a problem.

 

Screenshot of Hugin previews the panorama
Screenshot of Hugin previews the panorama

Due to the nature of the angle tester assembly, the camera was mounted upside down, which makes no difference to Hugin. This wonderful software stitched the 12 photos together in a few seconds and presented me with a panoramic TIFF. Unsatisfied with its default cropping, I edited the panorama and then reexported it. Due to the strictly horizontal nature of this test, the panorama was exported as a cylindrical projection instead of equilrectangular.

30 Degrees

After the image was flipped, I compressed it from 24MB to <3MB so that it could be uploaded here. You can see the wide range of light posed a minor challenge for the camera, and my house is completely washed out. While light extremes may cause picture issues, I believe this setup will be sufficient for most conditions.