Forum

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

Thanks Dylan I will try that, it does only seem to happen when I try and automate a panorama in photoshop and although microsoft ice does things really quickly it does not always line things up.May have to bite the bullet and get something faster than an i3 processor as would like to use autopano giga 3 or pt gui as they give more control over stitching.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

if you are using photoshop to edit you images make sure you go into your preferences, go under performance and let photoshop use all the ram on your computer this will help.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Computer setup your using

I was just wondering if people would share what computer setup they are using to create there gigapans as mine is really struggling with large files so would appreciate some input from others on processor, amount of ram graphics card and any other things you can suggest.

Topic: Stitch / misaligned columns

Was this shot as a single row? If it is , your pro may be creeping down on the tripod column. I would rule out the hardware , tripod first , then look at the amount overlap setting on the pro.
I’m thinking about paying a visit to cherry beach when it’s a bit warmer.
Eddie

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Pro battery

Has anyone opened a Gigapan Epic Pro battery, the one with a 5.5mmx2.5mm connector on one side and there must be six NiMh cells enclosed.
I bought an Epic Pro second hand with two batteries, one completely dead and the other almost.
On ebay I found electrical compatible cells (the size maybe wrong), and if I only knew how the housing of the battery pack could be opened without destroying too much I would like to give it a try to exchange the set of cells and close the pack again.

Don’t worry about the electric intricacies, for that I think I am well qualified.
But I would like to pass the real test: the opening of the pack in such a way that it can be reused.

Any clarification is welcome and if possible a picture tells a thousand words.

Topic: Stitch / misaligned columns

I am new to shooting with the Gigapan. I purchased the EpicPro in order to do a particular assignment. But I am routinely having stitching errors where rows are off by just a bit. I have created a low-res crop and indicated the errors. I would love it if someone could tell me what is happening. Thanks!

I am using version 2.1.0160 of Stitch. I am shooting using manual mode and typically at 200mm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g51hgsp9kn70d7z/Stitc…

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Taking 2 shots at a time

Hi there. I am fairly new to using the gigapan and this question may have come up before on the site but thought i would ask. I have taken a couple of gigapans using the epic pro and a canon 7d camera and what I find is the camera takes the first shot and then is taking 2 shots for every position of the movement from top left to bottom right, at first I thought it was just the sound of the shutter lockup happening but then noticed I had 2 identical shots of eah picture so a 240 shot picture turned into 479 as the first picture taken was only taken once, I dont have bracketing on on the camera and the gigapan is set to normal 1 for the bracket. Any help in figuring this out would be much appreciated, got a lot to learn but with help of people on the site will hopefully be turning out some nice images, although might have to upgrade my computer to cope with them.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Trigger Pro Remotely

Any solution to this yet?

Topic: General Gigapanning / Finding Nodal Point in Canon 100-400mm

Here is how I set the entrance pubil/nodal point (whatever you want to call it) of a Canon EF 100-400mm on the Gigapan Epic Pro with a Canon Rebel t4i.

First, I found the nodal point when the lens is at 400mm zoom is behind the camera body just maybe a bit less than an inch from the back of the camera body.

Well, you can’t set that up with the normal configuration of the Gigapan Epic Pro. So, I took the slide off, turned it around, and put it back on, now the camera mount is at the front of the Gigapan not the back. Then I turned the mount around on the lens and mounted the lens and camera back on the Gigapan. After that I moved the slide forward until end of the slide was about 1/4 inch past the end of the clamp. That’s a bit convoluted to describe so here is a picture of the setup and the left/right shots of a distant light and the aluminum bar of the window:
http://i45.tinypic.com/dxe82e.jpg

I hope the motor can handle all this weight forward of the axis of rotation.

lelapinblanc

Topic: Stitch / Export stitch in high res?

Hi there.

I have downloaded the gigapan stitching trial software, and I just love the stitching results. But it seems to me that the normal workflow is to upload the results to your website. I would prefer to have my stitches stored locally instead. There is a possibility to export stitches into tiff or raw, but the tiff quality is nothing less than horrible.

I am really enjoying the sticher, and would love to buy it when my trial version has run out. But first I need to know if the bought version has better ways of exporting a stitch (or parts of a stitch) in higher quality and preferable directly as jpegs (so I can use them as background images or so my friends can watch them without having to hassle with imaging software).

What I would love to be able to, is to mark out a crop area, and set the desired pixel width and height (and jpg quality) on the output file, and that your software then would do the calculations needed to spit out a jpg file of the desired size and jpg compression.

Can I do anything like that with the full version – or do you have any workaround workflows that would help me obtain somthing like this?

Thanks in advance
(-:Hasse

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Clicking any of the thumbnails now opens a blank page without any error message. MSE 8 on Windows 7.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Printing?

^ No, there isn’t any control once you enable public printing. I think there should be an option to set a “Print Password” on each of your gigapans, or some way for the photographer to regulate print orders. As it is, there is room for abuse:

You set your amazing gigapan to “Public” so your friend can get a print.
I see it and order 10 copies at lab price to sell in my art shop.
I resell the prints as my own work at twice the price.
You never find out, get no compensation, and no credit for your work.

Now I don’t think any of my own gigapans are even worth stealing, but there are some truly amazing gigapans on this website and those members need better control.

[edit] Didn’t mean to sound too alarmist, I’m still super pleased that we have a print service now. =)

Topic: General Gigapanning / Small space advice please

You need to get your camera/lens set up for parallax, otherwise you might not even get past the stitching phase. That involves adjusting the position of the camera so that the X, Y, and Z axis revolve around the entrance pupil of the lens.

You should also find out how much depth of field you have to work with so you can position your camera to get the best focus.

And since you are both new and will be in a hurry, you need a detailed checklist that you follow religiously. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot one little thing and wasted the entire shoot.

Tripod hinges latched – check
Enough space on SD card – check
Autofocus off – check
etc.

If you need more detail on any of these things let me know.
-bkaylor

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Old forum posts ported to this forum?

I whole heartily fourth it. I have a bunch of interesting posts lost on there. Very good information, both historical and of current interest. Please bring it back. I do not feel comfortable investing my time in this new forum if the contents will potentially get flushed…

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Hi Tom,

Had some server issues yesterday, but all should be cleared up. I do not get any errors, can you please send me an email with any errors if they continue. I have been working hard behind the scenes to improves this and hope to bring forth some exciting new additions in the months ahead. http://www.3d-360.com/ipan for viewing on any device with Retina quality, http://www.3d-360.com for 3D panoramas, and http://www.3d-360.com/440 for virtual reality views (replace the 440 with your favorite gigapan id)

Thanks

Jason

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Explore Scores and Other Views

Jason, I get an “Error On Page” message if I try to view any of the panos on http://www.3d-360.com/ipan.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Old forum posts ported to this forum?

I third it!

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

I would like to use a Fuji X-E1 camera with their RR-80 remote release and connect it to my Epic 100. I would like to think I could cut off the control end, and splice it to the end of Gigapan’s remote port trigger cable for the Canon. Does anyone know if this is a good idea or a bad idea to try? Or, will this Gigapan/Canon cable work directly into the microphone/remote release port on the Fuji?

Topic: Photo Editors / Need to annotate gigapans

The first question I would ask is what will be the final size and use of the annotated piece? I would reduce the Gigapan to the desired size (say, 8 1/2 × 11) and keep the resolution at about 300ppi (not to be confused with dpi which is output resolution). This way your image is still sharp, but not unnecessarily large.

Then I would import it into Illustrator and apply the typography and other annotating graphics there. By doing the latter in Illustrator, you will assure the type looks sharp and not bit-mapped if you are dealing with either small type or fine serifs.

Topic: Indoor Gigapanning / Indoor GigaPan

I guess indoors can be so many different things, it can be taking a 360 degree panorama of your toilet (why one would want that, is beyond me :-) or it can be a stadium/arena panorama.
For indoor use in small scale, I’ve used a Manfrotto 360VR head to do those, manual control, etc. But for larger images, like crowds at games.. I like the GigaPan EPIC pro.
When doing rooms in a house, I tend to use something like 16-36mm lens, and indoor arenas 70-200 (maybe with 1.4 extender) does the job nicely.

What ‘lelapinblanc’ says about ghosting, I can try to answer that (will make a longer Blog post of it soon). It is actually quite easy to remove unwanted ghosts from images, as long as you give enough overlap on each image.
Then, I stitch my images with PtGui – and by using the ‘Mask’ function.. you can go through all individual detail of each image.. and remove ghosts pretty accurately.
But – I’ll try to make a more detailed Blog entry about outdoor/indoor crowd images.. and if allowed.. link it from here (otherwise the post will be quite long!)
If anyone is interested, I have taken few indoor arena GigaPans.. and explained a bit about taking them : http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/1/g…
(both of the images on display had some issues while taking them)

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Panasonic LUMIX FZ-150 on EPIC 100

I have the Leica V Lux 4 and I am interested in a cable that I can use with the Gigapan. Is there anybody that would consider making one and selling it to me?

Topic: Indoor Gigapanning / Indoor GigaPan

I would like to explore this further. I am new to this and here are my assumptions on indoor gigapans. In order to have a gigapan that has extensive zoom while holding focus one must use a high focal length lens. I have a canon 70-200 which I use on a Rebel XT which has a 1.6 correction factor. So, at 70mm it would be the equilvalent of 112mm on a 35mm camera. I also shoot at a small aperture. The next item for me is a bit tricky: Focus. A long focal length lense has a narrower depth of field that a short focal length lens, and with an interior shot it appears one must focus to capture the range of distances that are in the frame of the current shot. Putting it on autofocus has its disadvantages since sometimes it never finds focus if there is not contrast or content in the image, like a solid colored wall. The next thing I’m trying to understand is how handle people moving during a panorama sequence. I would like to avoid half people pieces in the image. I’d like to open this to discussion, I would like to contribute, but mostly I am here to learn. I think for interior I prefer the Kolor AutoPano Giga since one can edit and manually insert control points. Another area of interest for me is how to handle the situation of an item in the foreground that is close, while the frame of the photo still captures detail at a distance, this seems to be beyond the depth of field ability of high focal length lense. How does one handle this?

Topic: General Gigapanning / Small space advice please

I have to fly half a world away on assignment to shoot an industrial facility. This facility is comprised of many storage depots, laboratories, engineering rooms, boiler rooms etc.

I am new to Gigapans and have two weeks to practice and be proficient before I depart. I would love to get any thoughts/advice on shooting indoors to get the right balance between good detail, spherical setups and “quick” shooting. I will be setting up, shooting and moving on to new rooms and hope to get many done per day.

Thanks very much.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Geolocation woes

James – We are looking in to this issue and have referred it to customer support who will be responding to you.

Thank you!

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

I’m not familiar with wordpress themes, so I don’t know the answer your question. The code is intended to be portable (and others have gotten it to work in iframes) so it’s probably possible to make it work — but someone with wordpress experience may have to weigh-in.

— Joe