Forum

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

Hi Greg — it’s hard to tell from your post what the problem is. I’ll respond to your private message to try to work through the problems and then post what we’ve found so that others can learn from it.

— Joe

Topic: General Gigapanning / Gigapan Epic Pro - in moderate winds

Anyone use this in any kind of moderate wind?

I tried it with a D800 on an ocean coast with 10-15 knot winds, everything tied down, bracket replaced with RRS and nodal, Gigapan on Gitzo 5 series, mounted directly. MUP, and 2 second delays between exposures as well as MUP. I also had the rigid setting “on”.

There is so much play up/down/fore aft between the rotating motorized base and the unit itself that even touching causes a few seconds of vibration. Emailed GP (no phone number), and they asked for a video. In the video, just for ease, I had an RRS plate mounted to the tripod directly and the Epic Pro with the RRS dovetail on the plate. This part is super solid, but they claim this is the issue. BTW, the reason I put this clamp on was that screwing and unscrewing the GP head directly on the tripod torques against the motor, which I would think is not such a bright idea. Regardless, I used the unit directly mounted on the tripod in the shoot in question.

The rig was relatively light – D800 + Coastal Optics 60mm (maybe 500-700g).
Exposure was in the 6-12s range for various series. Images were unusable. A complete waste of an evening’s worth of shooting. The motion blur is so bad that some images look like double exposures.

Has anyone used this in any sort of wind — not a typhoon, just normal ocean winds in the 10-15mph range with long exposures?

Here’s the video I sent as asked. At some point I show the play in the unit.

https://vimeo.com/62648871

Response from GP…or so I hate BS! You can see clearly where the play is in the video.

“I had our technician view your video and he said all your settings are correct, but to eliminate the Arca mount between the Pro and tripod. There could be more stability mounting unit directly on to tripod. He did not find anything faulty about this unit.Any further assistance we can provide, please let me know.”

I did have plans to use the DF/IQ180 and Arca/IQ180 (manual mode) on this, but I’m not sure this would even be possible outdoors. perhaps the Roundshot VR is the answer, should have gone with my first instinct.

Cheers…

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

I’m new to embedding this way. I’m getting these errors.
Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown: Failed opening ‘/vservers/gregyoungphoto/htdocs/gallery/setup/php_value_ok.php’ for inclusion (include_path=‘.:/opt/php/lib/php’) in Unknown on line 0

Any ideas? Thanks, Greg

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Pro Battery Life

Gary, we had found out last week that Ted Roller had a defective battery and we replaced under warranty. I’ll contact you for further troubleshooting to find out if you also might have a faulty battery.

Lucavascon, yes, the Epic Pro battery pack is Ni-Mh.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Plug spec for elect. shutter release

Jason, that is interesting!!
Do you think that iphone triggertrap dongle could fire whatever camera, if connected with our Epic 100??
More…
Any suggestion?
http://www.lucavascon.net/blog/
thanx!
Luca.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Pro Battery Life

hi, what kind of battery are they? Ni-Mh?
thanx.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

Hi all!
I’m keeping a diary of my Epic hack here:
http://www.lucavascon.net/blog/
Mechanical part was a breeze.
All my respect to the one that made a tidy board. A tidy building and a simple and hackable thing.
Looking it there are some places that are like screaming to be an USB connection!!!
For the remote.
Look to the microswitch on the right… that is the one I will solder a cheapo chinese camera radio trigger to.
cwinhall, keep us informed! :-)
GigaPan Curator, that would be a DREAM feature! Along with possibilities like programming standard shooting configurations. It would open up Epic possibilities to the world of us “pro” pano shooters! Count me in for any kind of betatesting

Topic: General Gigapanning / Spherical Gigapan iPad App

I thought this crowd might be interested in this.

http://vimeo.com/xrez/yosemitespyglass

Topic: General Gigapanning / Exposure AND Focus Bracketing ....

Has anyone figured out a way to both focus bracket AND exposure bracket using the Gigapan (automatically)?

I’ve been shooting some 360s x 180s and have to use a 24mm lens. (Which takes 35 photos to capture.) I’d like to get more resolution so if I can shoot with a 50mm lens, it should take 90 shots so three times the resolution. Unfortunately, if I do that, I don’t have the depth of field that I get with the 24mm which leads me to focus stacking.

I’ve tried to find an external control that can do this but haven’t quite found what I’m looking for — yet. Some do focus shifting, some exposure bracketing rarely both. The one I found that does both won’t do Nikon (I’m shooting with a D800E.)

Thoughts?

-Art

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

Thanks for the reply.

I am taking the unit to a mechanical engineer today to produce a makeshift remote system for the unit for me. I will post details of it once completed and the cost for those out there that may wish to have a system now and like myself cannot wait till a gigapan system is developed.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Embed And Facebook Taggin

Is there a script or service besides GigaPan’s Gigatag for using facebook to tag people?

Thanks!

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Pro Battery Life

I’m having the very same issue. No matter if I’m indoors (70 degs F) or outside (50 degs F) the battery in my Epic Pro only lasts for one gigapan (about 300 shots). When stored after charging the battery will only hold a charge for about 12 hours.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Fastest shooting-settings?

yes, they are in the fastest mode.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Fastest shooting-settings?

did you change the motor speed setting in expert options?

Topic: General Gigapanning / Fastest shooting-settings?

Hello,
I´ve seen this video of gigapan epic pro and it´s working quite fast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiIN8TCrsGc

I´ve tried to change my settings to speed up the shooting-process (so changing everything possible to 0.0s / 0.5s), of course shooting in manual focus, but my Gigapan isn´t as fast as the one in the video.

Which settings do you use for fastest shooting-speed?

Regards,
Maw

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

We apologize for the delayed response. I’d like to let you know that GigaPan has plans to create a remote for the GigaPan EPIC Pro. Since this type of functionality is still in the development phase, we don’t have an estimated release date, however, we will be sure to keep you updated as this new feature progresses. Thank you for your feedback and please let me know if you have any other comments or questions.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

@Colin – I agree 100%. which unit are you speaking of, by the way? The Epic Pro has a start delay function, and can also be started with a remote. Here’s a quote from the manual:

Start Del/Trig – Enables a timer delay of {External Trigger, 15s, 30s, 45s, 1m, 2m, 5m, Timer } before the panorama capture begins. The external trigger setting is designed to work with a Canon E3 style remote shutter that is inserted in the EPIC Pro remote trigger port.

I suppose you could pre-set the number of rows/columns, send it up on the crane, and use a GoPro3 and the gopro app for positioning. (There are hotshoe mounts for the GoPro that let it sit right on top of a DSLR)

. . .then start the panorama with the remote.

The difficult part would be leveling the imager after it’s up on the crane, but given the FOV of the GoPro, you could probably stick a level somewhere that you could actually see it.

I’d love to see wireless full control of the imager with an iphone app, myself but I don’t know if there’d be enough demand to persuade Gigapan Systems to develop one at a reasonable price point.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

I agree.
We definitely need a remote for the unit.
I’ll try to disassemble mine and see what can be done.
If anybody has got an idea, he is welcome.
I’d add that epic 100 needs heavy hacking to be really functional.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Remotely control the gigapan unit

Hello? Guess not.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Printing

I think the best answer is to prepare a frame FIRST, and then crop or cut your gigapan to fit. I have 3 rolled up prints in my closet that I didn’t think through.

-Acrylics and polycarbonate sheets max out at 4×8 feet.
-24" tall prints will sag even when sandwiched, they have to be attached to a stiff backing.

It might seem like sacrilege, but consider cutting your gigapan into 24×36″ lengths and putting each segment in a standard poster frame. You can get poster frames for $20 and the effect is actually quite nice when you hang them all in a row. Not to mention you can take them down and stack them in a small box for storage or moving (or selling!). It isn’t the same as a 10’ print, but it also doesn’t cost $500+ to look good. You can even hang them around a corner to create a 3D view.

bkaylor

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Printing

Hi James,

This wallpaper sounds fantastic! Wow!!!

Jason

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Printing

Hi Moseley, Possibly true. I should clarify that the self adhesive samples we tested were PVC if I remember correctly. If the film you used stayed put for overt two years then I am thinking it must be a permanent adhesive. I think adhesives vary. We also overlap slightly to obtain a perfect fit. Butting causes too many printer issues.

There are many ways to skin a cat and almost as many ways to hang wallpaper. We also find it much easier to hang paper with paste because it allows some initial movement to get a perfect alignment.

PPS I got the price wrong on our wallpaper. It is not GBP18. It is only GBP12.50 per square meter which is about US$18.90. Sorry for mistake.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Printing

I must respectfully disagree. I have seen the wall film that I refer to (possibly not available in the UK, and printed with latex inks) stay in place for over 2 years without any shrinkage, sag, or other distortion. Also, the proper installation method for that product if it must be applied in sections is to overlap it 1 – 2 inches, not butt panels up to each other. When done properly it is practically invisible.

I’m not trying to cast aspersion, though. Some printable wallpapers, when properly printed and applied are a perfectly viable alternative for photo murals.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Product suggestion

I think the is an great idea

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Fuji X-E1 remote connection for Epic100

Well, to answer my own question: Turns out that the Canon E3 trigger cable plugs directly into the remote port on the Fuji XE1 and works! I was cautioned by Gigapan that since they have not thoroughly checked it out that there’s a possibility that there is electronic incompatibility, but everything still seems to be working after many uses!
It’s great how much faster and steadier the system works without having to use the button-pusher. The only problem is that I’ve found I have to set the Gigapan to take photos with a 2 second lag since the camera can not keep up with processing the raw image files fast enough.