[Noisebridge-discuss] Looking for Gigapan

[Don French]

Gigapan didn't really do much that was innovative, as far as hardware or
software is concerned.   There were many motorized, programmable, pan-tilt
heads long before the Gigapan (Harbortronics, Peace River, Klauss,
Pinnacle-VR to name a few).  In fact, my product was on the market before
Gigapan -- but not by much.  Also, there were several high quality stitching
programs long before Gigapan, including most notably AutoPano and PTGui,
which is a GUI front end on Panorama Tools, the granddaddy of them all.
What Gigapan brought to the party was the integration of THEIR hardware with
THEIR stitching software and THEIR website for uploading and viewing panos.
Their one hardware innovation was providing the means to fire the shutter on
a P&S camera, and while it is kind of kludgey, it works -- and bringing the
P&S crowd into the game is what is really responsible for the widespread
popularity of their gadget.  Also, the price point was within reach of the
average person, thanks largely to a substantial per-unit subsidy by Google.
  So, while the Gigapan people did not really invent much, they did add
greatly to the popularization of panoramic photography by the masses, for
which I am eternally grateful.

-- Don


On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Michael Shiloh
<michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com>wrote:

> i consider gigapan less about the technology and more about the concept and
> the stitching software. and i think that is brilliant.
>
> really, any mechanism can be used, but i would still consider that gigapan
> came up with the idea (but maybe i'm wrong).
>
> at any rate, i'd love to see a slew of DIY gigapan projects, at different
> price/performance points.
>
> i think this is very rich territory which extends way beyond panoramic
> views. did you see the work rich gibson's daughter molly is doing with
> electron microscopes? totally changes the way electron microscopes have to
> be scheduled, and, as you know, they are not cheap. could be applied to mri
> and cat scans as well, i assume.
>
> what else could gigapan be applied to? i'd like to take a gigapan of my
> workshop and somehow identify everything in it so i can find it later.
>
> m
>
> Mark Cohen wrote:
>
>>
>> Hey Don,
>> Is that the device that requires the user to have a PocketPC?
>> As for gigapan, I've not personally used one, but a friend of mine does
>> quite regularly. He had problems with the gigapan in sub freezing
>> temperatures and had to make an insulator for it. (The gearing got gummy and
>> he could hear the cogs grind) From that knowledge, I would probably
>> recommend Don's mount over the Gigapan for any temperature critical areas.
>> (Joshua Tree gets COLD at night I hear) :)
>>
>> On a side note, the guy who does the Gigapan was absolutely NO help to my
>> friend. So I tend to avoid them. JMHO.
>>
>> /Mark/
>>
>> On Oct 7, 2009, at 5:39 PM, Don French wrote:
>>
>>  No, but I have a competing device that I designed and now manufacture and
>>> sell and that I would be happy to loan you.  But you need a DSLR, not a P&S
>>> camera.  You can read about it here:
>>> http://www.thegadgetworks.com/index.html. You probably also want to read
>>> these two pages: http://www.thegadgetworks.com/products.html and
>>> http://www.thegadgetworks.com/faqs.html.  For shooting gigapixel panos,
>>> this is a far superior machine than the Gigapan (IMH and very biased O).
>>>  The About page has a little about me:
>>> http://www.thegadgetworks.com/about_us.html.
>>> -- Don
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Laura Khalil <zazenergy at gmail.com<mailto:
>>> zazenergy at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>    Hi all,
>>>
>>>    Does anyone have a gigapan they'd be willing to loan out for a
>>>    short trip I'll be taking to Joshua Tree?  Alternately, if you can
>>>    recommend a camera shop which rents such equipment I'd be really
>>>    grateful!
>>>
>>>    Laura
>>>
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>>
>>
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