GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style
By Darren Murph 
posted May 29th 2009 1:00PM
posted May 29th 2009 1:00PM
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Overview and setup
For those who aren't totally familiar with what the GigaPan Epic is, here's the long and short of it: is a robot that you strap your camera into, and once you select the top left and bottom right corners of a panoramic image that you'd like to compose, you simply mash 'Go,' step away and let the thing work its magic. From there, it fires off as many shots as it needs in order to capture the selected landscape, and once you're home, it's up to you to find the first and last of the series and plop the set down in the company's multi-platform (Mac and Windows) software. The Stitcher application -- which, by the way, is free to download -- blends the images together to create a somewhat seamless panoramic image, and from there, you can save it for editing in Photoshop and / or upload it to GigaPan's website for panning and zooming galore.
All that sounds easy enough, right? Well, not really. GigaPan provides a series of videos (yes, a series) that explains what all is needed to even begin creating your first panorama. Needless to say, this unit is definitely not one to buy if you're hoping for something that's just plug-and-play. After absorbing ourselves in instructional videos for a solid half hour, we then spent a good 10 to 15 minutes precisely mounting our Canon SD850 IS on the platform. Once our P&S was strapped in, we wheeled on out to the lake for a few test runs. We should mention that the unit we tested was the $449 Epic 100, which is a slightly larger version of the $379 Epic. The extra coin goes toward a larger camera base for a wider range of supported cameras, and it gives users the option of triggering the camera shutter at a faster pace.
User experience
Here's the thing: GigaPan's Epic 100 is rather large. It's heavy, it's unwieldy and totally inconvenient to carry around. It's not like you can just toss this in your pack, head out for a stroll and hope you see a nice vista. No, you plan to use this device. It's simply too cumbrous to lug around when you may not use it, and the fact that you have to reattach and realign your camera each time you remove it for "normal camera duties" makes this even more unattractive. In other words, you have to really want to take a panorama to make the effort of dragging this thing out.
There's also a very precise way you have to set your camera up before a panorama can begin. If you bother watching Part II of the aforesaid setup video series (it's exhilarating, trust us), you'd know this -- otherwise, you may wonder what you've done so wrong. Here's the highlights: camera on, optical zoom maxed, set to manual mode, image quality and resolution maxed. When all that's in order, you're finally able to begin setting up a shot. After popping six AA cells in the battery holster and turning the machine on, you'll see a somewhat intuitive menu system walk you through the process of aligning a capture. We did very much appreciate that it tells you how many vertical and horizontal images you're about to take so you'll have a rough idea of how much memory card space you'll eat up and how long you'll be waiting around for it to finish.
In our testing, we found that it took right around 6.2 seconds per shutter press. So for a panorama involving 120 images, you'll be sitting around enjoying the view for around 12.4 minutes. Not awful, really, but not hasty either. We also got the impression that this thing sucks down a serious amount of juice. After snapping five panoramas ranging from 12 to 120 shots apiece, the low battery indicator popped up. Given the amount of movement involved, we guess we aren't too shocked, but you should probably plan on carrying a round of spares if you know you'll be doing a serious amount of shooting.
As for the gratis software? We must say, it's pretty robust. After you painstakingly sort through your camera files in order to find the first and last image of each panorama you've just taken, you simply drag and drop a collection of images (from a single panorama) into the program, adjust the amount of columns, select a few advanced options if you like, and then wait as it churns through and creates a single image. Our 2.4GHz / 4GB RAM machine assembled a 36 image panorama in under half an hour, for reference. Once that's complete, you simply punch your GigaPan.org username and password into the software and hit 'Upload." Obviously, the resulting files here are rather large, so slower connections will be waiting hours for some larger panoramas to upload.
Results and image quality
By and large, we were impressed with how well the software stitched together our images. Without zooming in, almost every single one looked flawless. The GigaPan website also does a fantastic job of letting users pan and zoom, showcasing a remarkable amount of detail when fully zoomed in. The biggest knock we have on this whole setup isn't really the Epic 100's fault: it's how it handles moving objects. If you have any humans, animals or other moving objects in your shot at any time during the shooting process, beware -- if that person / object flinches, you'll notice it.
If zooming into the image below (click to be taken to the GigaPan website), you'll notice that the anglers over on the far right look whole when fully zoomed out. If you zoom in, you'll notice a nasty case of vanishing face -- like something straight out of The Ring. In other words, the applications here are kind of limited. You really need a still landscape shot to snag a panorama worth paying this kind of entry fee for, and at places where you'd love to have one (at a wedding, a college graduation, etc.), you'll likely have loads of moving Earthlings screwing things up.
Wrap-up
Without a doubt, the Epic 100 is capable of capturing some amazing scenes provided that you can get yourself there. But it loses some of its luster when you realize that moving objects will end up marring the shot somewhat. In our mind, you'd need to be some sort of avid traveler or a postcard photographer in order to justify the cost of this otherwise fascinating device. It truly makes the art of taking panoramic shots a lesson in (relative) simplicity, but in our mind, the utility here is just too limited to warrant the steep price tag. If you know that you're the kind of shooter who could benefit from a better way to capture massively wide-angle shots, you'll be hard pressed to find anything superior to this. For everyone else, we're exceedingly sorry to say that it's just not a practical purchase.
Oh, I so want one of these!
That's as far as I am going to go... because it is difficult to type on a wet and drooled upon keyboard...
(new keyboard - mouth taped shut - same finger to type typos with)
Can you imagine using this baby to photograph Uluro!!! (Ayers Rock to most) or beach scenes or surfing event (nah) or air shows (nope)... OK, it isn't for everything but I do like it.
Cheers from Downunder where the economy is #1 in the world... not saying much but at least we are number one right now (property values have recovered all of the losses except in Perth and in cricket - not that many would understand THAT sport!)
Ooroo...
Wow I feel embarrassed to be an Australian after that post, what on earth did all that ranting achieve? How about you think before unleashing a tirade of verbal diarrhea next time? And it's spelled 'Uluru'. And define #1 economy in the world and give me a few sources to back this up.
+1 I'm not even sure what he is going on about lol.
farg man edit your post (read delete) and stop skipping school. attend more geo and eco class
> Can you imagine using this baby to photograph (...)
> air shows (nope)... OK, it isn't for everything but I do like it.
Given proper preparation and creative stitching... sure:
http://fieldofview.com/gigapixel/euromast/
(not shot with the epic, but with a homebrew panorama robot)
Daddy! You're leaving your left part of the body behind! (last image)
Been using this since April and it's fantastic. The heaviest camera I used was a Nikon D700 with a Nikon 75-150 lens on it. That comes out to a little over 3 pounds. You MUST use those rechargable batteries that last a while. I use the Duracell ones that are like the Eneloop models. One set took over 3 panoramics and probably could have kept going. That was over 600+ pictures.
Once you upload them to gigapan.com what you'll see your panoramic. However, what you're actually doing is pixel peeping. It's fun, but that's essentially what's happening.
It's fun and I'll keep using it.
i thought it wouldn't mount slrs. how did you get a d700 on it? maybe there's hope for my d90.
secondly, it's not pixel peeping if you print images the size of walls. which was what i did (am doing).
Holy Crap, I hate to say this but this looks horrible. I think the stitching software it comes with isn't very good. This was done with Autopano Pro
http://www.tbdhc.com/royaledwardmedia/royaledwardarms.jpg
There's no special hardware used in this shot, just a digicam and a regular tripod and it looks much better than your robocam shots. :\
The panoramic shots on this page are done with a Nodal Ninja 5 calibrated PanoHead, good tripod and high quality SLR. (Canon 40D, 24-70mm F2.8L USM lens) which I picked up later on.
http://www.tbdhc.com/andras.shtml
(There's some distortion but that's unavoidable as I was messing with perspective to uncurve the buildings.)
that's not due to the robot, it's due to the automatic exposures.
This is response to hansning:
I've seen pictures where the person said they used a Nikon D3! I just can't imagine it fitting. It is supposed to work with small DSLR's and lenses for a total weight of up to 3 pounds. The 75-150 lens is an old manual lens that's lightweight and best of all, skinny enough to fit between the shutter button assembly plate that's on the Gigapan.
The mount that the SLR sits atop though does bend because of the weight, so even if the Gigapan is level the camera is tilting somewhat. My philosophy is to just try it and see if it works. If it does great, if it doesn't, well, at least you tried.
Ok, where's the part where you took all the frames, over like a 30 minute ultra-slow rotation, and played them at speed as a video?
Review fail... This is the most fun feature of these overpriced step motors.
hi, name of the Gallery is spelled wrong :D Though that you guys might want to know :)
Too late and cumbersome to change it now I imagine, and nobody will notice, or care, anyway since they'll be busy looking that the shots.
how about a video of the thing in action?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfpJ5fiwT_8
You are right, a video is more interesting, and look it also tilts, now that's more useful and harder to do in classical ways and still get precise results.
and seriously, why didn't you guys use a decent camera with it? D90 perhaps?
Why didn't they use one of the winners of their own test is the question, the answer being: because they wasted all their money on buying 500 phones due to a phone-addiction.
They need to add 'epic giga-tilt™' to get some sky in too.
The thing is, all you really need is a good panorama tripod (to keep the same focal point) with markings on both axis and a neat piece of software to tell you how many degrees to rotate after each shot, based on your current lens. Should be faster, too.
This is very cool technology, but good panorama's can be shot handheld... I like the challenge of shooting panorama's, using a tripod if I remember to have one, but usually end up doing w/o. For stitching, Autostitch (Free) or PT GUI both work very well. Have a bunch posted (all at 1200 pixels tall and up to ~12,000 pixels wides) at:
http://rocket9.net/page2.htm
And also a bunch recently shot all handheld at FunSpot at: http://pinball.rocket9.net/
Try pricing a professional panorama mount if you think this is pricy.
http://www.buycheapguide.com