Forum

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Fewer people viewing Gigapans

I have the same complaints as above, but also wonder how search engines, say google.com, consider gigapan titles, tags, and descriptions as results for searches. Seems there would be more hits if gigapans were considered higher for search results.

Yes, a random button, a most recent button, and I am sure a few others would be nice to have easy access to. Who does the useability studies for these websites?

Photosynth.net is another panorama site that seems to get very few hits, but I like the setup there with no minimum size that allows small panoramas. Gigapan and Photosynth both allow better viewing of panoramas compared to Flickr (which limits to 20MB anyway).

Topic: Embedding / Non-Flash options

David,

There was an app created by Microsoft Labs called Seadragon, but it was pulled from the AppStore. However, the underlying service to view without flash is compatible with Safari, so you can view any GigaPan by using the URL: http://gigapan-mobile.appspot.com/gigapan/refnum. Where refnum is the reference number you see at the end the GigaPan URL of your image. An example is http://gigapan-mobile.appspot.com/gigapan/49832.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / What happened to all the google earth data

Fritz I see what you mean about being able to see the Google Earth button for your own geolocated gigapans regardless of the “shared” flag. I will look into this. Thank you.

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Epic 100 Arm Scale

Hi Tim, The scales on the tilt motor plate might not be much use to you when mounting a Nikon D90. Even my D40 is too big to be mounted on the Epic 100 so that the longitudinal axis of the lens is aligned with the axis of rotation of the tilt motor. The problem is that the distance from the bottom of the camera body to the lens axis (the center of the sensor) is greater than the the maximum possible distance between the camera tray and the axis of rotation of the tilt motor. IOW, you can’t lower the camera tray enough. I drilled a hole to solve this problem for the D40, but I think the D90 is even “taller” so that fix might not work. In the other dimension (horizontal) the button pusher motor limits the amount that the lens can be slid sideways. Lenses with barrel diameters greater than about 70 mm cannot be centered over the axis of rotation of the pan motor. For slightly larger lenses, a spacer can move the entire camera tray over, but this will buy only several additional mm. I have the original Epic 100, but I think the new model has the same dimensions. None of this prevents you from making gigapans with a D90. Precise alignment is important only if you want to eliminate all parallax errors when the scene has objects close to and far from the camera. When everything is far from the camera, those errors are irrelevant. My fixes for the D40 are described here: http://youtu.be/3YhBM89sEo0

Topic: Web Site and Forum / What happened to all the google earth data

Angelko, sorry I figured it out that you have to set the flag and made a correction to my original posting.

On the other side if I do not set the flag on my panoramas where I have provided the Google Earth data the system does not show the button on my own panoramas to view it in Google Earth – this I think is not intended

Topic: Embedding / Non-Flash options

Im new here – awaiting delivery of my Epic Pro.

Are there any options for a non-Flash based gigapan (HTML5?)?

Eventually I’d like to show off images on an iPad. I tried getting the iPad app listed in the Community area but the App Store kept telling me that my request could not be completed.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / What happened to all the google earth data

Fritz, let me know if your gigapans have the share checkbox checked. To access it go to your gigapan’s edit page, then click on a link: Place this GigaPan in Google Earth

On that next page you’ll see a sharing checkbox: Share this Gigapan with others using Google Earth

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Gigapan Forums

Hi Phil. gigapan.org/forums is our new forum. Here’s what Kevin wrote on this:
http://gigapan.com/forums/13/topics/55

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Gigapan Forums

So now I discover that not only is there
gigapan.org/forums
but also
forums.gigapan.org
and they are 2 completely seperate forums, the latter requiring you to register again. What’s the go with that ?

Topic: Embedding / FullScreen Option in Embedded

Thank you so much Ronnie, I will take a look at it… Great site you have!

Topic: Upload / Upload aborted: Creating panorama failed

I get this quite often, almost immediately clicking the UPLOAD button. Latest version of uploader (1.2.0087) on Windows 7 64 bit. Is there any logfile or similar where I can find out about the root cause ? Save the same file in different format, even resized a bit does not change the problem. Both TIFF (LZW) and PSD. Does it need a specific temp folder location or size available ?

Topic: Digital Cameras on Gigapan / Shutter release cable

Is there technical data on the servo port (pinout, levels, schematic, etc.) that I may use to design and build my own electronic release? It seems it should be fairly simple to interface to an IR shutter release if the technical details were known. This wold be fairly universal across the Nikon line. Thanks, Tim

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Fewer people viewing Gigapans

I ended up creating a link in my shortcuts to the most recent pans and bypassng the default landing page. Only a personal fix though. It would be nice to see see a page of most recent shot thumbnails or some kind of brief summary.

Topic: General Gigapanning / Epic 100 & Nikon D90 in action

I’m fairly new to Gigapan and have only recently purchased an Epic 100. I’ve shot a number of hand held pans in the past but since posting first first Epic 100 pan I’ve had a number of “how did you do that” questions. I took my video camera out on my last pan for a “behind the camera” view. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO3kv-tsLEE

Tim
Mattapoisett, MA

Topic: Embedding / FullScreen Option in Embedded

It is possible to embed a GigaPan image (1) using the new GigaPan 2.0 Viewer, (2) in a larger window that automatically adjusts to the browser window and screen resolution, and (3) have the full screen button available. See it working on my website at http://www.gigapixel.com

It’s not as simple as using the iframe Embedder Wizard. I studied the webpage codes of a GigaPan image and by trial-and-error, created a template using existing codes. Once I had a template, I could easily use it on any image. Manual coding is involved.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Can't place gigapan in GoogleEarth

The next set of fixes, including the GE plugin fix, is scheduled for the following week. If it wasn’t for the holidays, it would have been out this week.

Topic: Web Site and Forum / Can't place gigapan in GoogleEarth

I’m having the same issue, you can set the placement parameters but the gigapan itself doesn’t actually show up so you can’t fly into it or see how the parameters effect viewing. Tried in both chrome and firefox. Personally I liked the original version that worked in google earth.
Any idea when this will be fixed.

Topic: Embedding / FullScreen Option in Embedded

Please, please, please… let us have the full screen button. It will make all the difference…

Topic: General Gigapanning / Tripod Poll

Thanks very much all. Good info. I had thought about a surplus surveyors tripod….don’t need a fancy head if the legs are easily adjustable but again, I’m for easy too. I shot a pan yesterday in about 15-20 mph wind on a cheap (but old) Star tripod with a 30 pound counterweight. The legs were planted well but the rack and pinion column had a little movement. Keeping an eye on Craigslist. Happy Holidays!

Tim
Mattapoisett, MA

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Meaning of Epic 100 blinking battery icon

I see the same thing on my Epic 100. I use a matched set rated at 2500 mah (profiled with my Maha smart charget). Withing the first 10 shots or so I get a flashing icon as well….but went on to shoot two pans for a total of 700 shots. Perhaps the voltage threshold for the alarm is set too low in the firmware.

Topic: Special-effects Gigapans / Continuous Pan/Tilt

This would be a really nice feature. Set the start point and the end point, then take a given number of images between those points with a given time delay between images. Would be great for time lapse sequences with pans included. These would not be GigaPan images per se, but would utilize the capabilities of the device to acomodate a different genre of photography.

Topic: General Gigapanning / I am having a hard time with my Epic Pro

Hi -

James, what David said is absolutely correct: switch to using a long telephoto lens and let the system work as it was designed to. The 14mm prime on the 5d simply has way too much distortion at the edges of the photos, which is where the stitcher needs to find continuity between images in order to do its magic.

I use Olympus gear, but with a Leica 180mm f3.4 APO Telyt-R, a Leica 400 f6.3 or a Tamron 600 f8; I’ve also used the 70-300 lens to good effect at 300mm. You need to set the FOV for the lenses, of course, but it really does work fantastically well and generates what you are looking for…

JohnF

Topic: General Gigapanning / Tripod Poll

Hi -

I have an ancient Gitzo Reporter that I used with my Epic 100 (and the beta unit), but moved to a Manfrotto 028b with a very large ball head from Manfrotto (from my view camera days…) when using the Gigapan Pro. The 028b is fairly large, but I’ve carried it all day in NYC doing gigapans and it was eminently carryable. It extends well above my head without extending the central column and gives me that extra bit of extension that really helps…the cost isn’t too outrageous, as it uses aluminum rather than carbon or other exotic materials, but it is extremely solid and hence an excellent performer with the Gigapan Pro…

JohnF

Topic: Gigapan Mechanism / Meaning of Epic 100 blinking battery icon

Hi -

I also own the Epic 100. I found that you need to be extremely careful with battery sets: if you have one bad battery (or one that fails to hold a charge well) in the battery set, you’ll end up with very poor battery performance. Hence: check you battery sets frequently with a voltmeter to ensure that they are within a fairly narrow range of voltage over the 6 batteries. Having one more than about 20% off will impact overall performance.

After spending lots of money on high-capacity but fairly flaky batteries, I switched to the Sanyo Eneloop batteries and have had by far the fewest problems with these…

Hope this helps!

Topic: General Gigapanning / I am having a hard time with my Epic Pro

The main intent of the GigaPan system is that it be used with lenses other than wide angle. You can get the best results with the longest telephoto you own. This will have the flattest field, with your only remaining problems being vignetting or depth of field. If your subject is close, then the normal lens zoomed out all the way will give great results. If you use your 14mm lens, then you don’t need the GigaPan unit, just a tripod, panning it manually to give 25 to 30% overlap, then use Photoshop or one of the other pan programs to merge. (I use the focus dots in the viewfinder to set the overlap.) Those programs may provide the significant de-warping needed to correct for the lens. Also, with a telephoto, the nodal point issue is minimized and you can setup for best balance on the longest lenses.