Many of you know I have been preparing for the trip of a lifetime to Antarctica. I can't thank my brother enough, as he made this possible. Knowing I would not be able to use the technical camera from the ship, I sourced a whole GFX system. Some used, some new and some borrowed. That system worked fine during the trip with no issues. But I couldn't bear to not bring a minimal technical camera kit especially since part of the time we would be on land in Patagonia.
Cruises to Antarctica often include Zodiac cruises, kayaking and some landings with hikes or penguin assaults. It's the penguins who are more curious than the humans. The process associated with these mini excursions include bringing the ship into a bay and keeping it in one place while the activity is ongoing. Used to be an anchor did the job, but no more. Now there are digital anchors that use GPS to directly control the ship. The ship I was on was the
National Geographic Resolution, and it has two of these crazy drives called
Azipods. The screws are direct drive from electric motors, housed in the pod. That means two things. First, the Azipods can rotate 360 degrees independently. Combined with two bow thrusters and the digital anchor, the ship can sit in exactly the same spot without moving. And, the direct drive electric motors have very little vibration. How little? Well, that's what iPhone apps are for!
I've used this app in the past for some anecdotal tripod testing in wind. This is about equal to a slight breeze. As I mentioned in the Technical Camera thread, I got this crazy idea: If 1) the ship stays rock solid in one place, 2) there are no waves in the bay, and 3) the ship vibrations are low enough, can I...? No way. But does it hurt to try? Pixels are free. So I tried. Not just a single image either; a two-image stitch! Thanks to Glen Serbin for the action shot (from another day).
Here is the image from the Technical Camera thread, and a 100% crop below. I can't tell if there is any image degradation, and I have nothing to compare it to. But it appears pretty darn good to me.
And the stitching? Went together in PS just like any other two-image stitch I've done. So with the right ship and the right conditions, we can break convention.
Dave