One of the great things about being a tech blogger is the semi-regular visits from the UPS guy. This week he wore himself out running up and down the stairs to my 5th floor apartment (no elevator), and one of the best new toys is the Gigapan Epic 100.
Gigapan makes hefty boxes which take your compact camera (or small DSLR) and, using stepper-motors, take a whole bunch of perfectly aligned snaps which can later be stitched together to make a huge, detailed gigapixel image — hence the name. The Epic 100 is essentially the same as the original Gigapan, only it can accommodate slightly larger cameras.
This weekend I’ll be taking it out for a full test, but I thought y’all might like a look at the kit itself beforehand. It’s pretty interesting.
The first thing you’ll notice is the weight. Actually, the very first thing, if you’re opening a review unit, is the mountain of batteries inside. The Epic needs six AA cells and the box came stuffed with both alkalines to get started quickly, plus a couple of chargers filled with Ni-MH cells.
The Epic is solid, feeling more like a piece of kit from the physics lab than the photo store. It has the feeling of having been hand-bent into shape and then the electronics soldered inside. This is a good thing, by the way — it certainly doesn’t feel amateur.
Next is tripod mounting. I hefted the Epic 100 onto my trusty Manfrotto and, following the instructions, levelled up. This is very easy with a ball head, but make sure it’s up to holding camera and Epic otherwise you’ll have an ugly spill. You need to align the centre of the lens with a marker, which ensures that it sits over the axis of rotation, and then move the triggering arm into place. Yes, the Epic is deliciously old-school, using a mechanical arm to fire the shutter.
Next up is set up, which you are prompted to enter upon firing the unit up. I started, but skipped out as soon as I realized that “setup” is the actual taking pictures part, in that you need to zoom your camera and start getting ready for the shot. I thought my neighbor might get a little freaked if I took a gigapixel image of his apartment through the window (the lovely view you see in the top picture), so I quit.
Once I have lugged the Epic, the tripod, my camera, another camera to take photos of the action and (hopefully) scrounged a video camera to show it working, I’ll post on the results and the ease of use (or lack of, depending on what we find), along with a rundown of the included software.
Product page [Gigapan]
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