Bernard, if one stitches on the camera (without moving the lens at all) as it happens when one is stitching on a 4x5 camera, there are no vignetting, no exposure, or other issues that are involved as with moving (change position) of the image area and of the lens… Practically, what he does, is a form of scanning the area that the lens projects. Surely, none can argue that accuracy problems (nodal point, vignetting, exposure) are eliminated… It is a far superior method which improves resolution by much, increases the nyquist limit since area is increased and widens the AOV… Using a view camera's whole image area in combination with the ability to use lens movements on the total image area is surely much superior than stitching a pano using a DSLR…. Not many would argue for the opposite…
I, for one, very clearly disagree.
With those technical cameras:
- You are moving the sensor relative to the lens, which introduces a very real possibility of compromised alignment with the risk of asymmetric results,
- The sharpness of the outer area of the image circle is clearly less than its center.
On the other hand, the drop of resolution of top 35mm lenses like the Otus between its centre and half of the frame at f5.6-f8 is negligible, there is no such effects as the wavy resolution you seem concerned about.
You can of course do spherical stitching with a back as well and many one this very forum do just that.
But to the initial point, I frankly see no value in buying those 22mp back nowadays. And yes, I used to own a Mamiya ZD so I have a fairly good idea of what I am talking about here. The D3x was already superior from a DR standpoint, the D800/a7r just bury them alive.
Get a Sony a7r with the 55mm f1.8 and a spherical pano head instead. You'll spend less than the cost of one of those super tech camera Roddy lenses and will get a higher image quality in a smaller and lighter package.
Cheers,
Bernard