excellent pics

how long is the lense on back order? I just emailed them with a bunch of questions and one was expected delivery time.

What set up did you order?

I just order the 360 lense from Kaidan, but ordered it from Adorama.com (it's $50 cheaper). I'm still waiting on delivery. Kaidan told me 3 weeks... but who knows?

what about the software, tri-pod etc?

I have a tripod... the software comes with the camera (plus I use Photoshop CS2)

http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=101

Check out www.nreds.com

Anyone with a camera and public panorama software can create these incredible video tours for a fraction of the cost of calling a so called "professional photographer". There are very few good quality photographers available for the virtual tour industry, specifically because there is not any money in virtual tours. I know, we've spent over $160,000 and 3 years on development alone for our service. And it keeps getting more everyday. Many times I wish that we had not done this. The frustrating part is that your average real estate agent has no idea what you have gone through to offer this service. As a result, they don't want to pay anything for them.

My advice to anyone who wants to do virtual tours on their own is, hope you have a lot of money and time. If you want to focus on real estate, great. If you want to waste years of hard work and whole lot of money, focus on creating your own virtual tours.

Everyone who looks at some of these virtual tour websites, thinks that this is an easy thing to do. Just create a web site and I'll start uploading photos and hey, while I'm at it, I'll do a couple for some of my friends. Take it from the owner of a virtual tour company, you have no idea what you are getting into.

I'm not trying to promote what we do, but I will say this. I am getting my RE license here in Texas right now. But if I didn't own NREDS.com, I would gladly pay whatever I had too to have someone else do it for me!

And I guess while I'm typing, I may as well throw a little invitation to any one interested in creating a great video tour presentation to visit our web site. Let me know what you think. We have Nationwide self-service available.

Really good solution allowing unlimited tours at $29.95/month with no special hardware is at www.visualtour.com.

Visted NERDS. Not entirely sure what this is about, other than blatant advertising. It appears you're just another virtual tour provider trying to sell your services (which you seem to put down).

Anyway, most of your website does not work. THe only link that works is 'free registration', which after 4 screens I gave up - still not sure what I was registering for, 'search our listings' which provided nothing, 'services' doesn't even work... the only thing I got to work was 'preview finished tour', which is essentially a virtual tour business not unlike many other out there.... so ... what is your point?

So, RealEstateWebGuy, how has it done with the lense?

And can i ask you why you went for the Kaidan over the cheaper alternatives like 0-360 and egg?

What camera you using?

RealEstateWebGuy,those look like great photos. Did you use a flash for the interiors or any additional lighting? Or did you brighten your photos in Photoshop?

I've been toting around a 1000W contractor's lamp that I bought for $35 at Lowe's and bouncing it off the ceiling for better illumination. But I'm planning on getting a digital SLR with a wide angle soon and am hoping that I can drop the lamp if I get a high powered flash.

I agree.

Create all the tours you want including panoramic and full 360 degree ones with YOUR camera and THEIR software.

I do panoramas of things like neighborhoods and back yards without a tripod. I just overlap each photo about 20% and the software stitches it together in about 2 minutes.

A great product.

I have to agree with Jim Kimmons and James Lee, www.visualtour.com looks like an extremely powerful marketing tool. I will be contacting them first thing tomorrow morning! Thanks for the lead guys.

I use the Nikon Coolpix 8400.... pretty much use the auto settings... no special lighting. It has a GREAT wide angle lense... I also double shoot each picture on a tripod (in rooms with windows) I take one at regular exposure and then one at a lower exposure to focus on outside the windows. Then I cut out the clear window on the underexposed photo and put it on the regular photo. So it cleans up that 'blown out window' look.

You can see some of these at

http://www.rudymayer.com/featuredprop/MaxcyFisher/PhotosSept.html

As far as the Kaidan lense, I ordered through Adorama (as it's $50 cheaper) but they're currently backordered... still.

But why the Kaidan?

Not sure really. I've just done a lot of research online, and the consensus seems to be that this one is the best. I've heard MANY negatives about EGG, and 0-360 looks very flimsy, and honestly, their website looks very tacky (I know, shouldn't judge by that, but I DO - that's my first impression of a company).

I know Kaidan has a great reputation concerning all of their products, and for a fairly small difference in price I figured it's worth it to get what 'appears' to be the best.

I've learned a long time ago that "you get what you pay for".