Imagine you have a wide wall, say: about 50m wide and 2m high, like the ones in a long corridor. You want to create an image that covers the whole wall in a way that you can see in some detail what's in it (posters, light switches, whatever). Also, again like in a corridor, you can't move more than 1-2m away from that wall.
It's obvious, at least to me, that it's impossible to solve this issue taking a single photograph. My initial idea revolves around taking multiple photographs of the said wall and properly stitch them in order to create the huge final picture.
So my doubt focuses primarily on what equipment and method to use: would it be a good idea to use a fish-eye lens in order to cover the whole height of the wall at each picture I take? Will the fish-eye distortion make the stitching process very hard/impossible? Or would it perhaps be better to use a normal lens and take 2/3 pictures to cover the wall's whole height?
Am I thinking it right? Should I do it another way? Any suggestions or previous attempt at doing what I'm trying to do?
I'm a little lost and I understand the question may be a bit too vague, so I'm not expecting any final solutions, just suggestions (although if do know how it's done, please do tell).
Thanks in advance!
PS. Any awesome wall scanning equipment that I just take strolling down the corridor that does the whole work for me? (Yeah, right. That and the moon).
EDIT (21/09/10)
Thank you so much for all the answers!
I'll try some of your suggestions and post some feedback as soon I get results.