Olympus mju + panorama function

I bought my olympus mju 700i quite long time ago, though I'd never
tried to use the panorama function since then until the last weekend.
Wanted to take a panorama picture of the mountains. As I have the
original Oly xD card I found the panorama option in the menu and
wanted to start the panorama mode. Anyhow, the only extra thing I got
were those thin blue vertical lines with little arrows in the middle,
arrows pointing to the left side of the display. Actually I had no
idea what to do next. Are those lines the only thing that is supposed
to help me? Is there any way to have a preview of a previous picture?

I lost my manual and can't really find any advice on the Net. To be
honest it's not the first time I found the user interface of this
camera not to be intuitive at all(and in my opinion it should be as in
AUTO mode the camera is just useless due to basic problems with
light).

Thx in advance for any help.
Marek

On May 10, 9:09 am, marekdec <marek....TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:
> I bought my olympus mju 700i quite long time ago, though I'd never
> tried to use the panorama function since then until the last weekend.
> Wanted to take a panorama picture of the mountains. As I have the
> original Oly xD card I found the panorama option in the menu and
> wanted to start the panorama mode. Anyhow, the only extra thing I got
> were those thin blue vertical lines with little arrows in the middle,
> arrows pointing to the left side of the display. Actually I had no
> idea what to do next. Are those lines the only thing that is supposed
> to help me? Is there any way to have a preview of a previous picture?
>
> I lost my manual and can't really find any advice on the Net. To be
> honest it's not the first time I found the user interface of this
> camera not to be intuitive at all(and in my opinion it should be as in
> AUTO mode the camera is just useless due to basic problems with
> light).
>
> Thx in advance for any help.
> Marek

The actual panarama generation happens in your PC after you have
downloaded your images, using Olympus's own software to stitch a
series of single images together.
The blue lines are merely guides to ensure that your series of images
have enough overlap onto the next image to provide the software with
enough repeated image to make the stitching accurate.
Take your first picture, noting some significant tree or other object
that intersects one of the vertical lines.
Then pan round to place that tree on the other line and take your next
picture.
Repeat until you have covered the width you want, or you feel dizzy,
or the camera tells you to stop.
Now run home to your PC and use Olympus's own software to view all
your images. Somewhere among the controls, you should find a
"Panorama" function to stitch your images together.

I used this to make a very successful 300-degree sweep of some
Scottish islands, jetty with fishing boats, excellent fish restaurant.
Still day, early morning light, gorgeous, no plans to do another one
because I'm now using a Fuji. Sorry, the image isn't actually posted
anywhere.

There's actually nothing special about the Olympus xD cards, other
than they identify themselves to the camera as "made by Olympus". The
camera then offers you the Panorama option, and marks the EXIF data
for each image. The PC software could actually stitch any suitable set
of images, but only offers the option when it sees the right code in
the EXIF data.

Hope that helps.
Al