Mecha C2 robotic panoramic head for Gigapixel panoramas,

[mattia viappiani]

Hi everyone, my name is Mattia. 

I was wondering if I can find any tutorials on this topic, "Mecha C2 robotic panoramic head for Gigapixel panoramas," besides this one? https://ptgui.com/examples/creating_gigapixel_panoramas_with_a_robotic_panohead.htm

I have the Mecha C2 and use it with my tablet because I'm a wheelchair user and can't move freely near the camera.

I haven't managed to achieve anything with my tests yet, and I'm probably doing something wrong.

I just created a virtual tour of a church, but with a fisheye lens (Nikon 8-15 mm). I'd like to try something (even inside a church) in HD with a 50 mm or 85 mm lens.

Can anyone give me some advice?
Thanks.

 Mattia Viappiani

[PTGui Support]

Hi Mattia,

Is the problem in shooting the images, or in the stitching?

I have no experience with the Mecha but I can take a look at the
stitching if you make your images available for download.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 8/19/25 10:55, mattia viappiani wrote:
> Hi everyone, my name is Mattia.
> I was wondering if I can find any tutorials on this topic, "Mecha C2
> robotic panoramic head for Gigapixel panoramas," besides this one?
> https://ptgui.com/examples/

> creating_gigapixel_panoramas_with_a_robotic_panohead.htm <https://
> ptgui.com/examples/
> creating_gigapixel_panoramas_with_a_robotic_panohead.html>

>
> I have the Mecha C2 and use it with my tablet because I'm a wheelchair
> user and can't move freely near the camera.
>
> I haven't managed to achieve anything with my tests yet, and I'm
> probably doing something wrong.
>
> I just created a virtual tour of a church, but with a fisheye lens
> (Nikon 8-15 mm). I'd like to try something (even inside a church) in HD
> with a 50 mm or 85 mm lens.
>
> Can anyone give me some advice?
> Thanks.
>
>  Mattia Viappiani
>

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[John Houghton]

Mattia, There is a lot of help available on the Nodal Ninja forum at https://forum.nodalninja.com  .  In particular, you can download a PTGui template from Mecha to help with the stitching.  See page 85 of the Mecha C2 User's Guide.

John

[mattia viappiani]

Grazie Giovanni, andrò a vedere questo che mi hai indicato,

 Mi piaceva provare a fare qualche  Virtual Tour con Gigapixel (specialmente interni, come chiese o similari) ho una testa Ninja MECHA C2 ma per ora ho provato solo con le immagini (Panorama dell'Immagine Parigi 80)che si posso scaricare da qui e dove viene dato un tutorial https://ptgui.com/examples/creating_gigapixel_panoramas_with_a_robotic_panohead.html
Però anche se ho seguito tutto attentamente alla lettera, quando ho caricato le immagini nell'Editor Panorama  DI PTGui non mi compare come nel tutorial.
Certamente sbaglio qualcosa anche se non capisco dove, ecco perchè chiedevo se in tere si poteva trovare un altro tutorial.
Devo anche chiedere se è possibile con PTGui, per esempio, con un obiettivo di 50 mm di lunghezza focale, fare una panoramica Gigapixel  anche con HDR.

   Grazie ancora, spero di riuscire a trovare qualcosa

 un caro saluto

     Mattia

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[John Houghton]

Mattia,  The Align-To-Grid tutorial uses an earlier version of PTGui but still works.  I followed the instructions and dragged the 80 images onto the Project Assistant tab and then ran the Align to Grid option on the Project menu.  I have attached my project file (load into the same folder as the images and do File -> Open Project).  The Settings were as in this screenshot:

Note that you need to select the output projection as cylindrical because of the very wide angle of view.

John

[Brett Rapp]

Hi Mattie

I also have the Mecha with a c2 that I run from my tablet.

I have found that using the defaults in the Mecha work well, and choosing the lens length on a 50mm and letting Mecha work out how many shots to take worked quite well.

The manual is quite extensive, but have a look at the videos on the nodal ninja website, I found them quite helpful.  I also found running the Mecha without a camera on it just testing the parameters also helped a lot.

Is there anything in particular you are having issues with?

Cheers

Brett

Sent from my iPad

On 22 Aug 2025, at 4:57 am, John Houghton <houghto...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mattia,  The Align-To-Grid tutorial uses an earlier version of PTGui but still works.  I followed the instructions and dragged the 80 images onto the Project Assistant tab and then ran the Align to Grid option on the Project menu.  I have attached my project file (load into the same folder as the images and do File -> Open Project).  The Settings were as in this screenshot:

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<atg-jh.pts>

<atg.png>

[mattia viappiani]

Hi, thanks so much for the valuable information. I wanted to ask if you could please tell me which tab in PTGui is the "Project Assistant."
Unfortunately, when I align the project photos to the grid, when I open the Panorama Editor, everything comes out wrong, and I find the sky in the bottom boxes and not anywhere else.
Thanks also to Joost and Brett
You guys are fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

un caro saluto da Italia

    Mattia

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[John Houghton]

Mattia, The Project Assistant is on the left at the top. 

You will normally be already in the Project Assistant when you load in PTGui.  Drag in the images or use the Load images button.  Then run the Align to Grid function from the Project menu.  Enter the details as shown in my previous screenshot.  After clicking the Apply button, your project should be in the same state as the project file that I attached to my previous response.    Then run Align Images.

John

[mattia viappiani]

Hi John, thanks, but I don't have this project support option. Maybe I should look in the options.
I have the latest version of PTGui.
Thanks for your kindness.

  Caro saluto 

     Renato

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[John Houghton]

On Friday, August 22, 2025 at 2:26:21 PM UTC+1 mattia viappiani wrote:

Hi John, thanks, but I don't have this project support option.

Mattia,  I'm not sure what you mean by "project support option".   Project Assistant = Assistenza in your screenshot.

But your screenshot also shows a completely different set of images to the ones supplied for the tutorial, which I understand you are trying to follow.  Have you succeeded in stitching those tutorial images? 

The images in your screenshot are bracketed exposures.  After loading them in,  PTGui should report "Bracketed exposures detected" in Step 2 (Set up panorama), so you should click on the enable HDR mode link.  Then you can try clicking on the Align Images button to start the stitching.

John

[mattia viappiani]

Hi john buongiorno, thanks for your very helpful replies. I've got it now, but I can't straighten the photo like you sent me in your screenshot.
I also wanted to ask: this isn't a 360° panorama. To get a 360° panorama, do I have to convert the final image from cylindrical to equirectangular?
Thank you so much.

un caro saluto

Mattia

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[John Houghton]

On Saturday, August 23, 2025 at 8:23:27 AM UTC+1 mattia viappiani wrote:

Hi john buongiorno, thanks for your very helpful replies. I've got it now, but I can't straighten the photo like you sent me in your screenshot.

Mattia,  To straighten the panorama image, you can try the "Straighten panorama" option on the Edit menu of the Panorama Editor window.  It doesn't always work, but it does work here.  Alternatively, you can do it manually by shifting and rotating the image with the mouse:  hold down the left button to shift the image, or hold down the right button to rotate the image.

 

I also wanted to ask: this isn't a 360° panorama. To get a 360° panorama, do I have to convert the final image from cylindrical to equirectangular?

Both cylindrical and equirectangular projections can be used for 360 images.  For a quick setting of 360x180 equirectangular, use the option near the bottom of the available options on the Projection menu.

John

[mattia viappiani]

Thanks, John. I want to try it today right away. Thanks for your clear and patient instructions.
I'll let you know if it's okay.
Best regards and have a good day.

Mattia

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[mattia viappiani]

Hi John, sorry for the inconvenience, I managed to create the panorama as in the example with the Paris 80 files.
Today I tried with a 50 mm lens, but I get 92 files in the project. If I insert these files in "Snap to Grid," I have to vary the number of Grids and Rows (in the example, they were 5 and 16). Can I add them myself to make the total reach 92?
Then I also added the "Stretch to a 360° panorama" option, but the result is horrible.
I also tried shooting with the same 50 mm lens but in HDR, but I get 303 files that are reduced to 101. How would I insert these into the grid and rows?
I used Nodal Ninja presets on the camera, but I'm sure the error is mine.
Thank you if you have time to help me.
Best regards, and have a good evening.
Mattia

[John Houghton]

On Monday, August 25, 2025 at 3:48:49 PM UTC+1 mattia viappiani wrote:

Today I tried with a 50 mm lens, but I get 92 files in the project. If I insert these files in "Snap to Grid," I have to vary the number of Grids and Rows (in the example, they were 5 and 16). Can I add them myself to make the total reach 92?

 

Mattia, you need to divide the images into groups that have varying spacing.  To do this, uncheck the "Apply to All images" in the top left corner of the Align to grid panel.  Then enter parameters for the first group.  For example, the first group of 80 images ( 1 to 80) might be arranged in 5 rows of 16 images.  Then do the same for images 81 to 92 as 1 row of 12 images, to account for the total of 92 images.  (I don't know if that was how the shots were made, but you should have the correct figures for the number of groups).

 

Then I also added the "Stretch to a 360° panorama" option, but the result is horrible.

You can select that option for a row of images if you did indeed shoot a full 360 degree panorama.  It will adjust the overlap to make the images fit exactly into a circular band, to save you the trouble of calculating the overlap size yourself.

I also tried shooting with the same 50 mm lens but in HDR, but I get 303 files that are reduced to 101. How would I insert these into the grid and rows?

When you load in all of the images, PTGui should recognise repeating series of exposure values that indicate that you shot exposure bracketed sets of images.  It will offer to link them in groups of 3 images, and also set HDR processing mode.  These groups are then treated as single images.  So in your example,  it should treat the 101 groups of 3 images as 101 individual images for positioning purposes.

John

[Brett Rapp]

Hi Mattia

I have taken screenshots below of what works well for me when I use the 50mm….does your Mecha setting look like these..?

I had some trouble at the start when I changed “Normal” to “Zig zag”…it changed the order of the images.  Normal starts at the top left, shoots a row, moves to the row below and starts back to the starting position.

I also changed the shooting order to UMD (Upper, Middle, Down)

Is you image overlap, OV, set at 25%

Hope this helps…

Cheers

Brett.

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[mattia viappiani]

Hi John, thanks so much for your suggestions and for your helpfulness and patience. I've tried again and I might be close, but I still haven't found the right solution. Unfortunately, in the panorama (even without aligning to GRID), I get this panorama with black crosshairs. I don't know what they mean or what error they're caused by! The "align to gray" method should only be used when, for example, there are photos of the sky that don't have connecting points or pieces of white ceiling, etc., right?
Can the Grid (using "align to grid") only contain 80 photos?

Grazie molte

un caro saluto da Mattia

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[mattia viappiani]

Hi Brett, thanks for your screenshot. In the first two photos, I loaded the Nodal Ninja Original preset for the 50mm lens into Mecha C2, and in the other photo, I modified the preset to take 3 HDR photos and also increased the overlap from 25% to 30%. I don't know if that's what caused the problem. However, even using the Nodal Ninja Original preset for 50mm doesn't produce the final panorama, in fact, it doesn't come out right.

Thanks for your help and interest.

Best regards

Mattia

[John Houghton]

Mattia,  Mattia,  It looks like you are using a 50mm lens but there is not enough overlap of the images provided.  In fact there is no overlap at all in the horizontal row, hence the black lines.  You need to shoot more images, or use a smaller focal length lens (bigger fov).  Maybe you are using a camera with a crop sensor (i.e. smaller than the 35mm standard frame size of 36 x 24mm)?   For example: an APS-C sensor would give you an effective focal length of 75mm approximately, so you would require more images to give you adequate overlap.

John

[John Houghton]

Mattia, I measured the angle of view of the images in your panorama and they do correspond with a standard 35mm camera frame size, so you do need more images or find a lens with a wider angle of view.

John

[mattia viappiani]

Thanks John, but I used a 50mm (Nikon AI-S 50mm 1.2, which should have a 46.8° field of view), and with the Nodal Ninja preset, it automatically counts the number of photos, which were 101 and 303 for HDR. Why does it look like a 35mm?
Thanks John

un caro saluto

  Mattia

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[John Houghton]

Mattia, Using a 50mm lens, a fullframe camera image has an fov of 39.6° x 27°.  46.8° will be the diagonal fov.  For portrait orientation you should be using 27°

John

[florianjosef]

if you have the mecha app open and programm your shooting pattern there is a button to save the pattern to your tablet and use i to pre allign the images using it as template
paywizzard or so

https://www.nodalninja.com/yt/5e0RxEIFlB8

https://youtu.be/5e0RxEIFlB8?si=qcX9wcJqZPav5RKT&t=417