[Noisebridge-discuss] Looking for Gigapan

Don French dcfrench at gmail.com
Thu Oct 8 20:57:57 UTC 2009


I have been informed by a Gigapan employee that while Google provides
funding for Gigapan, they do not subsidize on a per-unit basis.  So I was
misinformed about this and I regret mis-stating the situation.

-- Don


On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Don French <dcfrench at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>
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