There is a lot more to it than just resolution
Yes, that's what I'm interested in discussing here.
(discussed to death here and elsewhere)
So far, I've found relatively little about using stitching to emulate a large format film workflow. This article goes into some detail:
http://www.scotthendershot.com/Example01.aspxotherwise you probably already answered your own question, know what you are going to do, and don't need any more info
Hmm, I'm new to this. Whilst I've got some things resolved - e.g the necessity of using a spherical panorama head and good stitching software - there are other issues that I'm only just learning about. For example:
- The focal plane in a stitched shot is spherical.
- As you increase resolution (by adding more images to the stitch), you lose depth of field. No problem if your shooting a giga-pixel view of the city from your balcony, but limiting if you're photographing an interior. By my calculations (allowing for a 30% overlap between frames), a 3x3 vertical frame stitch from a D700 has an effective sensor size of 56mm x 84mm, and a 5x5 stitch has a sensor size of 88mm x 132mm (about the same as 4"x5" film).
- Geometry. I've been overlaying my stitched shot on an uprezzed single frame capture. There are geometrical differences that I haven't fully understood. Some are good - no vignetting or barrel/pincushion distortion - but sometimes horizontal or vertical dimensions seem squashed. (This is using PTGui at its default settings - except for setting a centre point of the image. PTGui is obviously capable of infinite variations in rendering, but I'm wary of tinkering too much. I just want the straightforward (?) view of a single frame capture.)
- Dust. A 5x5 stitch means 25 times more dust from a dirty sensor.