maybe i'm just judging by the increase in clients contacting me interested in virtual tours for their websites and other print usage of panoramic images over the last few years, but if you look at sites like these
http://viewat.orghttp://www.360cities.nethttp://www.panodigg.comhttp://www.flickr.com/groups/equirectangular/and also these
http://www.panoguide.com/forums/http://www.nodalninja.com/forum/http://gardengnomesoftware.com/forum/http://www.autopano.net/forum/http://groups.google.com/group/ptgui/topicshttp://krpano.com/forum/http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/http://flashificator.com/forums/http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/http://ivrpa.org/http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/http://www.hdrlabs.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.plyou will see the work of hundreds (if not thousands, the flickr group alone has almost 1000 members) of competent new panographers creating full 360x180 spherical panoramas using
ptgui or
hugin, and plenty of new folks curious about it all the time - true that many are hobbyists, but the high end pano scene is definitely larger than it was 5 or 10 years ago, and growing all the time, as is the market for such content -
there are now many more pano discussion forums than 5 years ago when we basically just had the apple qtvr and yahoo panotools lists for online discussion of such things, hardly any of the sites i listed even existed 5 years ago !
DSLRs are also now much more affordable than ever,
nodal ninja pano heads are also more affordable than the kaidan (now out of biz) heads of old, we all have cheaper & faster computers for both stitching and display, ubiquitous broadband, robust flash authoring tools like
flashificator etc have all contributed to this increase in quality & interest in viewing nteractive panos on the internet, not to mention the removal of the
ipix patent bs, which cost the entire scene
years of wasted timeequirectangular panos are also used for HDR image based lighting in 3D modeling, etc for special effects in feature films, etc, and we are now seeing many more "virtual tours" consisting of multiple panoramas for restaurants, hotels, etc than in years past, as this fringe technology moves into the mainstream -
google street view has done quite a bit to raise public awareness too :)
in camera stitching is a different thing altogether, not suitable for equirectangulars etc, and basic apps like canon photostitch or photoshop photomerge are not pro solutions, which stitcher at one point was :(
autodesks involvement with high end 3D modeling and SFX industry seemed like a good match, but they have taken one of the few high end stitching apps out there and let it die - i believe autodesk stitcher is the most expensive stitching app out there as of 11/09, about $100 more than the pro versions of
ptgui &
autopano, why would anyone pay more when there are now more capable, better supported, faster, and cheaper apps on the market ? maybe if they cut the price to $40 it would be in better company, although the freeware
hugin would still be a better app
the pano market is increasing, just not around here - too bad autodesk has abandoned the ship
sam