Panoramic VR Photos
This is an example panoramic 360º photograph. The picture is created from a number of photographs taken with a normal camera (a digital SLR is best) using a ‘panoramic head’, and then processed in special software to ’stitch and blend’ the photographs. The pictures give an amazing immersive experience. Click on the picture below to view online (the picture will take a little while to load). I’m still trying out the software as you will see, the sample picture(s) are from one of the panoramic head companies. You can also download and view the picture full-screen in QuickTime on your computer. To move around you click and drag with the left mouse button, left-right & up-down. Shift key to zoom in and Ctrl key to zoom out.
And if you want to get an ideal of just how stunning 360º panoramic photography can be… have a look here. When the window opens make sure you select “high” up in the top right corner to get a high resolution image. Note this high resolution QuickTime source file is only 3.4 MB in size!
If you are a Windows user and don’t have QuickTime (Macs come with QuickTime automatically) then you can download the free QuickTime player here. If you are a Linux desktop user… why don’t you go all the way and get a Mac? After all, the Mac is Unix with a decent desktop - something most Unix/Linux distros have not come anywhere near achieving yet. Ooops - flame wars! Please guys… don’t hurt me, I’m one of you, my web server is running on Gentoo, a real geeks distro - if you’ve ever done “emerge -puv world” on an out of date Gentoo box you’ll know what I mean! Anyway… at least the Mac is not Windows!

This is quite phenomenal to think you did this on a little old D80!! You could get some very interesting effects, clearly. Go for it!
Marg
Not my original shots - yet
I downloaded some examples from one of the panoramic head companies (http://www.360precision.com) but the photos were taken on a Nikon with 10.5mm fisheye lens. Very popular combination, also with the D70.
With the right sort of setup - panoramic head + good wide angle lens - it is possible to achieve this with between 7-8 shots!