I’ve been working on a virtual tour project for a client recently and am in the processing stage, where I take the Circular Fisheye images from my Sunex 5.6mm lens (Nikon, Canon) and process them through Autodesk Stitcher.
I’m doing this on my laptop for some reason, a mind numbingly frustrating process where nuanced clicks to try and set the horizon lines within the images are interrupted by palm clicks and zoom effects from my multitouch trackpad.
To avoid this, I usually have at my desk / station a Kensington Trackball. It always gets odd looks from people and most folks who try to use it find the experience somewhat unsettling. I am lost without it.
By flipping the mouse over and supersizing the proverbial mouse ball, Kensington has created a wonderfully precise instrument. I’m sure there’s math to this … increasing the surface area of the ball leading to an increase in precision as the movements of your hand are translated into instructions through a larger and larger surface as the diameter of the mouseball increases.
I have a wireless one, which seems a little more manageable, and I’ve seen that they also now make an optical one. They also have thumb driven trackballs, but those seem to be (in my opinion) the worst of both worlds …. awkward to use but also no increase in relative precision over just flipping over a mouse and maneuvering the mouse ball manually.