I have an ongoing interest in QTVR like 360 panoramas. I have acquired a Peleng fisheye lens, a Nodal Ninja parallax correction tripod jig and am trying to figure out the process of creating them.
A couple of interesting links though that I have run across in my travels.
One is to a tool (or technique -- not sure what to call it) called a philopod for taking pictures suitable for 360 stitching without using a tripod. It is named after the French tinkerer Philippe Hurbain (nickname Philo) who does lots of work with Panorama pictures (and Lego Mindstorms).
A second (via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends) is a low cost lens (currently for security purposes) that does a good job at wide angle distortion free pictures. Perhaps the technique as Roland suggests could be adapted for use in panorama picture creation.
