Add precision to your panoramic pictures

Panoramas made by stitching together several digital photographs can be fun to create but shooting their components can be a little unsettling. That's because the mind's eye and a camera lens don't always see eye to eye on where one shot ends and another begins. Bytecams with panorama modes make the process more precise by displaying the end of one photo at the edge of their displays while the next photo in the sequence appears live on the screen. But even that approach is imperfect, especially when bright sunlight is washing out the LCD. Panoramistas--at least those with tripods--need not despair, however. A company called Lenspen makes a gadget called the Panamatic ($24.95) that will take the worry out of shooting properly aligned frames for a panorama. You attach the Panamatic to a tripod and the camera to the Panamatic. The unit has a level that can be used to make sure that the tripod is perfectly horizontal. As you take each shot in a panorama, you rotate the Panamatic by one click. When you're finished, you upload your photos to your computer and cobble them together with stitching software. This definitely sounds like a useful item to have in the old gadget bag.