GigaPan EPIC 100 Robotic Camera Mount

While awkward to use this device produces the finest panorama photos made today. But to use the GigaPanSystems does take some practice. Also using the software can be problematicEven with the issues you will initially be confronted with, the panoramas this machine makes are incredible

Well......this has been an interesting experience so far.I ordered the unit and received it just as expected.....but that's where my usual Amazon experience took a turn for the worse.The box that my unit was shipped in look as though it had been slung together by a chimp in mid-swing. Tape was cockeyed and the box was off square.Don't get me wrong....my hopes were still intact and I wrote the packaging off as some poor souls response to my gotta have it right this second order.I didn't get concerned until I opened the shipper.Inside were a few pieces of brown paper somewhat crumpled and clearly not sufficient to protect much of anything.OK I thought...no big deal....the box the unit is in looks to be in reasonable shape.So I pop open the packaging and there sits my sorta kinda new GigaPan 100.The unit itself is wrapped in a piece of heavy plastic that's obviously been rewrapped....scruffed with a couple of holes in it......I lift the unit itself and realize that the rest of the box is empty. No manual....no warranty....nothing except for what looks like a thin rubber plate to protect the bottom of the camera....flopping around loose in the box along with the set screw for holding the camera in place.SO....since I'd spent the better part of my morning reviewing online tutorials I thought....it's here....I'll at least check it out...who knows...it might work....So I pick up the unit and open the battery compartment.......I hear something rattle around inside the actual unit....that doesn't sound good.....so I rock it back and forth until a small metal bracket that's used somewhere inside to hold a screw in place plops out into my hand.Undaunted...and with nothing else rolling around loose inside I set out to mount a FUJI EX1 to the frame.That's when I notice that the frame itself seems to be misaligned.....the main rotational arm seems to bee off kilter by 4 or 5 degrees.....but what the heck....I'll give it a shot.After all of this the irony is that the unit controls function easily.The menus make sense.Initial set up is a breeze......I think the thing would actually work exceptionally well if used as expected.The problem is that I now have no confidence.Not good to toss around highly precise instrumentation and expect it to function properly.I'm returning the item......I'm pretty sure I'd be composing a review of how swell the unit worked if I hadn't been shipped an obviously used, un-inspected product.

I have mixed feelings about my gigapan. One the one hand I have made some really cool detailed panoramas. There is one printed out over my desk that is 24 feet long and has great detail. On the other hand, it can be cumbersome and time consuming to use with no way to tell what kind of output you'll get until after the whole thing is processed. For example I've spent upwards of half an hour snapping panoramas with this rig with OK output only to turn around and catch 10 frames freehand which came out gorgeous ( though less detailed, of course ) just run through Photomerge in PS with the basic settings.The equipment is well made and reliable. If your goal is to make highly detailed panoramas there is no substitute. If you are out to make art and catch the good light you might want to consider another approach.You'll want to invest in a good battery charger and A LOT of AA's. This is a definite weak point. The website could also be more robust but they have improved on it recently. All that said, I am glad to have it as part of my kit.

I'm a visual effects artist in Los Angeles, working with film and high end commercials. I use panoramic heads for creating HDR images for digital lighting. At first, this panoramic head was quite exciting. I've had previous experience with creating 360 panoramic images, so I'd say for someone with moderate to advanced experience, it is quite fast to get acquainted with this hardware. The software is bare bones though, and it is definitely a drag on time when setting the panorama parameters (F.O.V. and start and end points). Personally, I think the benefits outweigh the longer initial setup, but I can see how some may be annoyed with the process. Once everything is calibrated, this machine is quick and precise with it's movements and it yielded excellent results for stitching. It was fun while it lasted.My bad review (initially 1 star) is due to the poor craftsmanship of my Epic 100. Within a month, the stickers on the arm by the tilt motor started removing itself. Within 2 months, the pan motor started sputtering and eventually started to fail. The same failure was starting to happened to the tilt motor too. This failure even happened when there was no camera loaded. I've followed all the guidelines of weight capacity (Canon T2i), recommended batteries and even purchased the official bag for safe transportation.All in all, I got 5 panoramas before it broke down (about 1 per weekend). The worst part is that I was on a VFX shoot and I had to rent equipment to finish the shoot. Gigapan has offered to repair it, but after I PAY THE POSTAGE to mail it back to them.I will post an update after the repairs.UPDATE:I'm not happy that I had to pay the $20 for shipping there, but they were "nice" enough to pay the return shipping. To their credit, the turnaround for repair was quick once they received it. All the repairs were fixed and the equipment is still working as of now.It should be noted that the battery life on this machine is quite poor, and 6 recharageable eneloop batteries will need to be recharged after 50-60 or so rotations of the panorama head (completing 1-2 360 degree panoramas with a FOV of around 40 degrees). I also suspect that the device slowly drains the battery even when turned off. I check the battery life after each finished day of shooting, and a previous reading of "good" will sometimes register as "low" 5 days later even without use. After some tests, I realized that the major culprit for the battery drainage is the motorized button pusher for the shutter release. Disappointing because this was one of the most exciting features of the Gigapan as it allowed you to push one button and sit back as the panorama head would do everything else for you. I have since purchased a remote shutter release for my camera, and with that the battery longevity can last multiple days of shooting.UPDATE #2:I had about two months between shoots, so I decided to do an experiment to test my theory of the device slowly draining the battery life while turned off. I fully charged a set of eneloop batteries and put them into the Epic 100. After two months or so without use, the device would not turn on. It also killed 5 out of 6 of my rechargeable batteries (newly bought to use with the Epic 100 and recharged about 5 times each). This is a problem that the customer service representative confirmed when I emailed them about the problem.UPDATE #3:Since the repairs, the Gigapan has worked consistently and the craftsmanship seems to be holding up. Having to remove the battery case between each uses is somewhat of a bother, and it's definitely not as enjoyable of a product without the motorized shutter release .I've also noticed that Gigapan has since removed the Canon T2i and it's successors from the list of compatible cameras with the Epic 100. A little upsetting because this was the whole reason I decided to purchase this over the Epic Pro. It still works, but I hope this does not have any adverse affects down the road.All in all, even with the annoyance of battery care, and (in my case) unusable motorized shutter release, my thoughts about this Panorama head are still starting to become favorable. It should also be noted that to my knowledge, there is also no other alternative in this price range for a motorized panorama head, so I have to give some credit there. I'll just warn about these quirks, and hopefully other's experiences will be fine.

Very good.