Forum

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Canon SX50....

If the SX50 has the same DIGIC processor as the previous versions and can’t shoot RAW, I would recommend against it. The DIGIC processor can cause some problems especially with structures against blue skies. See my thread about the SX-40 here:

http://gigapan.com/forums/8/topics/233

Topic: General Gigapanning / 360 panorama

Nice dennytang.I had wrong values to camera setup(fov).Now i have a right result.Thank you very much. :) FOV was too small…now,i adjusted it about 43 degrees and i have a normal number of pics.

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Canon SX50....

Hello YC Ong

I was just checking out that SX50 camera on DPreview.com – wow 50x zoom lens (24-1200mm 35mm equivalent)!

Seems pretty amazing specs, and with the small sensor, DOF would indeed be better (although it will still be small when at 1200mm)

Can’t say about image quality yet as no samples posted.

While this might be a good, afordable camera for robot Gigapan use, if what you are seeking is really high quality pixel peeping on a gigapixel+ size image, you might consider the Nikon D800 (I know, it is a whopping 7 times more expensive, larger, heavier, and does not include the lens) The pixel output and dynamic range of the D800 is stellar (its sensor has 10 times larger area per pixel than SX50, so much less noise) You could shoot with a 400mm lens and be gathering the same amount of image pixels per degree of view as shoot at 800mm equiv with this SX50) So considering a 30% overlap requirement for stitching, the 36 megapixel sensor of the D800 would let you shoot about 3 times fewer images to obtain the same size in gigapixel Gigapan of a scene with the same field of view (and those pixels have the potential to be of higher sharpness and dynamic range with the larger sensor).

my above calculations are based on a 30% overlap for good stitching. To reach one gigapixel in image size requires 60 shots with a D800 and 180 with a SX50, the sensor sizes are 6.17×4.55mm and 35.9×24mm with per pixel areas of 2.37 square nanometers and 23.8 square nanometers for the SX50 and D800 respectively

The downside is cost and weight of a Gigapan Epic Pro, Nikon D800e and 400mm lens ($6000 complete vs $800 complete) and less DOF… but shooting 3 times fewer images to reach a certain resolution is NOT to be underestimated (far fewer artifacts, ghosts, changes in water and sky texture, etc.)

I bring all this up as I was wondering other peoples thoughts on the subject as I am considering making the D800 investment (I have rented one but currently only have a D300s)

One concern with using a $3000 camera for Gigapans is the shutter life, it amortizes to $.02 per shot with a 150,000 actuation rated shutter life, or $1.20 per gigapixel.

Topic: General Gigapanning / 360 panorama

That certainly doesn’t sound right. If you go into the Camera Setup menu, what is the FOV that it’s giving you? Try adjusting the camera setup so that your FOV is around 5 or higher – does it still say 8000 pictures?

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Canon SX50....

Currently been doing gigapanning with GF2/GX1 with 45-200mm.

Thinking of getting the canon SX50, longer reach, more DOF and can use the remote trigger.

Do you think it is a good choice… How about the image quality (will be very much difference from my M43)

Please advise, esp those with experience with the SX40.

(G15 should be good, except the focal is a bit short – only 140mm equiv.)

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Hacking EPIC-100 for 2-axis turntable?

Hello everyone,

GigaPan robot is a great device for automatic image acquisition and I would like use it as a 2-axis turntable. An object to be scanned would be placed at the normal position for the camera and the camera would look at the object horizontally at a fixed position from outside.

However with current configuration, part of the 360-degree view around the object is blocked by the side of the tilting gear. As result to avoid this problem, the control box has to be kept still and the pan motor underneath has to be moved out and attached to the tilting frame to rotate the scanned object directly. My questions are:

- Is it possible to detach the pan motor like this with minimal modification?

- If not, what is the type of stepper motor equivalent to the pan motor so that the control box can be rewired to run a new stepper motor with the same rotation step as with its pan motor?

I understand such alterations would void GigaPan warranty but this seems to be a quick efficient way to build a 2-axis turntable with automatic image acquisition.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience,

Chuong

Topic: Stitch / Saved projected images sharpness

Paul – false alarm! in preparing the samples for you I found that it was a slightly blurry image that was stretched by the projection that made it SEEM blurrier. My bad.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Epic Pro Help Required

Hi Pol,

You might consider shooting with the Nikon 50mm prime lens (1.8). It is incredibly sharp at f4 (can actually do justice for a 36mp sensor) and it is small and lite. I have used it with no problems. It is only a $170 lens too.

At 50mm, 60 shots produce a 1 gigapixel image with your D800e.

Good luck

Jason

Topic: Stitch / Saved projected images sharpness

Hmmm. I’m surprised that you’re finding this. I’d expect only slight or no visible blurring of the stitched result, compared to the projected image, since the former is created from the latter by blending. If you could email me your input image, the (sharp-looking) projected image, and the (blurry) stitched image or at least a portion of it, I could take a look. ph-atsign-cs.cmu.edu

-Paul

GigaPan Stitch Developer

Topic: Stitch / Stitcher Crashes ....

I don’t work with NEF files, but I believe that Lightroom can read NEF files. Note that Lightroom costs $, also.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Epic Pro Help Required

Hi Kenneth,
I am experiencing the same issue as the one you have… (your first question).
I’m waiting for the delivery of the RRS replacement base and sliding rail, but I am sure this will not fix the issue !
When it goes over Nikon prime lenses (24-70, 70-200 or longer like the 200-400) the position of the body is clearly far backwards in order to align the entrance pupil on the rotation axis.
This alignment is not so important for far panos but really needed when shooting near panos (my situation) !
My wish was to shoot @ 50mm with my 24-70mm (on D800E) but it is impossible to set the camera backwards enough because the sliding rail is too short. I regret this a lot because using longer focals for near panos creates a serious issue with the depth of field (foregrounds and backgrounds cannot be both in focus, on the other hand hyperfocal returns a very deceiving result !!), I am not very happy with this system, but now I have got it and I have to find the best solutions to use it…
I am afraid the lenses we are using were not taken into account for panos where you have to tilt the lens up more than +/- 35°, and if you do, the issue you mention is going to occur without any doubt, particularly if you use a D3 or D4 or D800E w/grip, the bottom of the camera will hurt the LCD !!
Choosing the “portait” mode will probably be worse, it will hurt the LCD earlier and you will probably have (to be checked !) to modify artificially the angle of view of the mounted lens that is calculated by the gigapan Epic Pro when aligning the top on the horizon and then the bottom…!
Lots of tests will be needed before I finally can use my Gigapan Epic Pro, for me this is a horrible waste of time !

Topic: Stitch / Saved projected images sharpness

Has anyone else noticed that saved projected images seem sharper than the complete gigapan (output as RAW)? I was repairing some stitch errors on a recent ’pan and had to intentionally blur the patches to get them to match.

Topic: Embedding / Embedding Sample Code -- fullscreen, snapshots, large views

It’s a little unclear what behavior you’re trying to achieve, but the best place to start looking is in the javascript that builds the snapshot list:
./gigapan.large/gigapan.embedlarge.js, starting at line 973

This is code that’s almost entirely drawn from the regular gigapan.com pages, and parses the json encoded snapshots for the particular gigapan. The extra info / links should be in the “description” field of each snapshot.

— Joe

Topic: Embedding / Embedding Sample Code -- fullscreen, snapshots, large views

Hi Joseph, thank you for the all the code and how to do this, I have got it working perfectly. I am trying to display some artwork, and have managed to remove the camera information and location information as that is not relevant.

However I want to be able to show the snapshot info / comments as in the snapshots info I can add hyperlinks to additional information. I am digging through the code but can’t seem to be able to find or do this ?

Is there a parameter that I can enable this ?

Topic: Web Site and Forum / spherical panos

We don’t support spherical panoramas at the moment.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / map view

tve, I’d love to see a mapping functionality, and geo-related gigapans as well. There’s no “when” date that I can give you, although it’s one of the features on the planning desk.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Windows 8 Gigapan Blues (Flash problems)

Windows 8 Internet Explorer has troubles with FLASH files that are not on the official white list when viewed in the ‘Modern’ or ‘Metro’, fullscreen mode of the browser.

Be sure to submit your Flash site (like Gigapan) to the whitelist. Here is more info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/jj19…

Topic: Web Site and Forum / spherical panos

Hello Tve,

If people were truly interested and would use it, I could easily add the snapshot and comments functionality. I was thinking about doing it anyways, linked in with Facebook so that comments and snapshotting would get some social attention. What do you think?

Jason

Topic: Web Site and Forum / spherical panos

Jason, thanks for pointing out your service. What attracted me to gigapan are the snapshots and comments one can take on an existing pano. Your site doesn’t render those, unfortunately.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Replacement OS

Is there anyways to replace or modify the operating system software. I would like to be able to shoot a linear path over time rather than a grid. Start a point A and end at point B and shoot x amount of shots over y amount of time.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Gigapan 2006

Wow, those are some beautiful prototypes, and displayed in a Gigapan nonetheless ! I really enjoyed looking at each one and thinking of all the thought that went into each creation! It truly has been an evolutionary revolution.

In particular I really like the big weatherproof housing on the left, was it ever operational? There is a big box crate, was it housing computers? I liked seeing the original was servos, not steppers. The Gigapan v2 circuit board was interesting, powered by at attiny.

Having been trying myself to create such devices before the Gigapan Beta ever came out, I have some various things around here that look like this stuff, including a bunch of steppers, servos, and arduinos. I think I have spent more money on prototype gear from sparkfun.com than I have with Gigapan, but the Gigapan stuff works far better than my creations;)

Thank you for sharing this Rich!

Jason

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Gigapan 2006

This Gigapan of Gigapans shows more of the early devices:
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/43813

It includes the first gigapan, the unit mounted to wood leaning against the wall, which Randy had set up in his back yard for 6 months :-)

Topic: General Gigapanning / Bing search engine panoramas

Was looking at http://www.bing.com today and they featured a nice panorama in a 360 degree viewer on their homepage. Comes from 360cities.net Looks really nice. Come on Gigapan.com, when will Google connection feature Gigpans on the homepage???

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Gigapan 2006

I think the 2006 device actually looks pretty nice. It has USB control of the camera, something the Beta, Epic, and Epic 100 lacked, not till the Epic Pro in 2010 did it show up. If the electronics were packed in a waterproof container and throw in a Bluetooth connection, and that would be a great system for taking panoramas with an Iphone. I think the sample is held sideways also, it should probably be taking photos with camera vertical, but maybe not. I wish they would have come out with this as a hacker kit, open source, build one yourself.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Gigapan 2006

Amazing how far things have come. . .

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/26/visualized-g…