I'm in the market for a setup to take and analyze hemispherical canopy photos. I’ve found two companies (Hemi-View from Dynamax and WinScanopy from Regent Instruments) with kits that include software, camera and all lenses, mounts and hardware but these are a bit out of my price range ($6K - 7K). It is possible to build something myself that will do the job for less? What cameras and lenses are good for this type of photography? How do I make sure the camera is totally level when taking pictures? What software do people like for photo analysis? Is it worth my time to build and configure my own system, or is a kit the way to go? The last posts to the list on this that I could find were in 2008. Please reply off list and I’ll post of summary of responses.
