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| GigaPan Panoramas  Note: Images contained on this site are not for Commercial Use - in some cases, permissions to photograph a location (especially interiors) are only given for non-commercial use. Any misuse of images where copyright belongs to Chris Atkinson or the JustSwanningAround website will deemed to be breach of copyright. Please ask permission here if you wish to make use of any image, even if it is for non commercial use. Gigapan panoramas, Imager units and Stitcher software - 11,000 photos so far! While we continue to use the early beta Imager unit, as shown below, Gigapan Systems are still developing new models and new Imager units have released in 2010. The Gigapan Epic Pro Imager unit appeared and this is suitable for use with larger DSLR cameras, while the use of the Gigapan Epic (for compact cameras) and Gigapan Epic 100 (for larger compact cameras and small DSLRs) were released in 2009.
 In mid 2010 beta testing of the Stitcher software was to all intents complete having brought about a speeding up and increased accuracy in the stitching of especially, for example, large 360º GigaPans. As with all software, little gremlins creep in in certain situations and these can change between versions of updated software, so the beta testing helped check for possible flaws and improvements. The improvements to Stitcher were very promising - new panoramas and gigapans previously taken at the early stages of the beta program proved a useful means of comparing the progress that is being made. The main difference was in the speed of the panorama being stitched, with the improvement being quite considerable, as was shown by my re-stitch of the very large 360º gigapan using 704 images of Hexham Abbey's interior. The re-stitching took about 1½ hours as opposed to 15 hours for the first original stitching! This in itself is really good and helps encourage the photographing of very large Gigapans. Also improved was the the joining of either end of a 360º panoramas - this now works well, while the provision of a 'preview' of how the completed panorama would look helped to give confidence that everything was working well. As a result of the beta program, a new GigaPan Stitch version 1.0 was released and is now provided with all GigaPan Imagers. So the line up for GigaPan produsts in 2010 is as follows, and this remains little changed for 2011: GigaPan Epic (for compact digital cameras) GigaPan Epic 100 (for larger compact digital cameras up to medium sized point & shoot digital bridge cameras) GigaPan Epic Pro (for most digital SLR cameras) GigaPan Stitch v.1.0 (for stitching together all the images of the panorama, and then uploading the completed GigaPan) and the website GigaPan.com (where the completed GigaPan panoramas can be uploaded to, viewed and explored)
Project History: For the main part of 2008 we took part in the testing of the Gigapan Imager robotic camera mount - this wa with a beta test of a unit that is hoped can be sold at a value for money cost and can be used with compact digital cameras. The panoramas produced using this camera mount can be made up of several hundred images taken at full zoom - the maximum number of images that I have taken so far in the beta test for use in one panorama is 704, and this took 19 hours to stitch together!! As a result though the final panoramas have such a high level of detail that the image can be explored to find interesting, amusing or unusual details. A snapshot can then be taken of these details and then shared with other users. When used with Google Earth it becomes a wonderful way to explore places around the world. Altogether in the four main months of the beta test 7500 images were taken for various panoramas - now in early January 2010 we have taken over 11,000 photos! That's a fair bit of computer hard disk space! However, as mentioned above, this very large panorama of the interior of Hexham Abbey in the north east of England has been one of the most popular of my gigapan panoramas produced to-date, has received acclaim from the creators of this project and indeed has been used by Gigapan in their presentations about the project and its progress! In the last quarter of 2008, our participation in the main beta Gigapan project wound down, although another 1500 Gigapan Imager units were released for further beta testing - these Imagers were the same as the original beta units. Stock of remaining units was then made available for immediate purchase at a discounted price. The beta program resulted in two modified Imagers being released in early 2009 - called the Gigapan Epic (at a cost of about $379 but currently discounted http://www.gigapansystems.com/epic-product-page.html) is suitable for smaller compact camera, while the Gigapan Epic 100 (at a cost of about $449 http://www.gigapansystems.com/epic-100-product-page.html) is suitable for larger compact cameras and smaller DSLRs. One further Imager is being beta tested and that is the Imager Pro which will be suitable for larger DSLRs and this is now expected to be released soon in 2010. Remember that if you order for delivery to the UK there will be a hefty additional cost of UK Tax on top of the standard delivery charges! Those watching our weather forecasts at the bottom of this page may also have realised that we have had a very wet 2008 and a little improvement in 2009 which has not helped with taking panoramas (or indeed any other photography unless you are a underwater photographer!). Many events have been cancelled due to floods and poor safety conditions! Unfortunately the seaside Sunderland Airshow in 2008 was cancelled even though the weather was fantastic, sunny and bright ....... until you got to within a hundred meters of the coast where there was then thick sea fog!! So no chance of aircraft being able to fly safely ... however a quick trip up the Metro rail line to Newcastle Airport meant the chance to photograph the world famous Red Arrows before they left (see a few of the photos on our Aircraft pages), so there can be a silver lining to an otherwise bad day!! The start of 2010 brought about a traditional winter scene of snow storms and beautiful clear blue skies, which for photographers was fabulous if you could get to where you wanted! Moral of the story - never give up, but instead think hard! And here it is - the GigaPan Imager beta robotic camera mount! It also houses the mechanics for the camera button pusher arm, which presses the camera shutter button to take the photos (you can just see the arm above the silver part of the camera). The main part of the unit consists of the housing for the electronics used for calculating the numbers of vertical columns and horizontal rows needed for the specified panorama. It also houses the rotating gearing needed to move the unit from side to side (in effect to create the rows of images within a panorama). As can be seen there is also a display screen and buttons for selecting the type of panorama, for setting the top left start point and the bottom right end point of a panorama (if not a 360° panorama), and for selecting various options including to help set the unit for the particular lens maximum zoom being used. And finally, there is of course a need for batteries, in this case 6 NiMh which are hidden inside the housing. And at the bottom of the 'chain' is of course the tripod - essential to help keep the unit steady and to make sure that the unit is level before taking the panorama. You may wonder why those hands are holding down the tripod? Well, when this panorama was being taken I was standing on a high point with a wonderful view over Hadrian's Wall and the South Tyne Valley - the downside, however, was the howling gale coming through the Pennine gap straight towards this viewpoint. So strong was the wind that the tripod and unit were close to blowing over when it was facing into the wind! And nothing makes a photographer more unhappy than wasting a Gigapan panorama when it is three quarters of the way through a 360° panaorama -hence the hands trying to save the day! But don't try this at home too often or other photographers may tell you off for 'bad practice'! The resulting Gigapan panorama can be seen on the Gigapan Panoramas page of this website - it is number 3/. Northumberland - Barcombe Roman Signal Station. See if you can spot the misalignment in the panorama that resulted from when the tripod and Gigapan unit was nearly blown over! Image provided by Tom White Photo Above: For 2009 two new versions of the GigaPan Imager were released for general purchase. Called the GigaPan Epic 100 (left) and the Gigapan Epic (centre), they are similar to the beta Imager but with modifications to the camera shutter release button pusher assembly (right) to make it more robust and reliable. The GigaPan Epic 100 is for slightly larger types of compact digital camera. In 2010 the Gigapan Epic Pro version for large DLRs was added to the range - it is a larger unit with two tall side arms similar to that seen in the Epic 100. For more details see http://gigapansystems.com/system-page.html For further information see News and Press Releases on this site, go to www.gigapan.org or have a little fly around Google Earth (version 4.2 or later, with the Preview: Gigapan Photos layer selected - keep a look out for this turquoise magnifying glass with a turquoise G in the middle of an orange circle). All of my Gigapan panoramas can be seen by going to www.gigapan.org and then entering the Keyword "cauk" into the Search box (top left of the webpage). Select a panorama that you want to explore and then click on the View in Google Earth 4.2 link just above the Location Map - you will then be able to 'fly' across the Google Earth world and into the panorama to explore it at your leisure. Other Gigapan panoramas can be seen around the world via Google Earth if you have the Gigapan Panoramas layer selected - many of these are standard panoramas taken without the Gigapan robotic camera mount, but still with amazing detail to explore. Just keep a look out for the Gigapan magnifying glass symbol shown above. An example of one of my inital Gigapan panoramas is shown below - this is of Newcastle Gateshead Quayside taken in the early evening, and shows the Millenium Bridge, the Baltic Arts Centre, the Sage Music Centre, the Hilton Hotel, the Swing Bridge and bits of 5 other bridges! Even in this slightly dark image there is a lot to explore. Over the past few months many more Gigapan panoramas have appeared on the www.gigapan.org website and a few selected panoramas taken with my Gigapan Imager beta have been and will continue to be placed on this website [click here], so keep watching. If you know of somewhere that you would like to see with a detailed Gigapan panorama, please let us know at gigapan@justswanningaround.co.uk - we will be continuing to take Gigapan panoramas as and when the weather lets us! To explore the image above, either use the mouse wheel or click the +/- on the top left of the image window. The cursor arrows on the white circle will move you about the panorama. See what details you can find!    Images taken by Sam
Since early 2008 as part of the GigaPan robotic camera mount beta test, we've uploaded some of the panoramas onto this page to let you see some of the fabulous detail that can be explored. Also have a look at www.gigapan.org occasionally to see what other photographers are uploading - only a few of these will be taken using the GigaPan robotic camera mount but the detail is still there to be explored around the world (use the Keyword "cauk" to see panoramas using this GigaPan Imager or the Keyword "beta" to see what other testers are coming up with). Another place to explore is Google Earth 4.2, with the 'Preview: Gigapan Panoramas' layer selected - wait for the little Gigapan icons to appear and then start exploring! All my GigaPan panoramas can be explored in Google Earth by clicking on the "View in Google Earth 4.2" link below the panoramas in www.gigapan.org And remember, keep checking by this page! To explore the panoramas, either use the mouse wheel or click the +/- on the top left of the image window. The cursor arrows on the white circle will move you about the panorama. See what details you can find! 1/. Hexham Abbey As a start to my Gigapan Panoramas, I'll start with a place close to my photographic heart. A place that was said to be the 'finest north of the Alps'. This panorama is just about as big as it can get with regard to using a Canon Ixus 800IS - it has a limit of only a 2Gb SD card, and this nearly filled it in just one panorama! 704 individual images taken to make up a 1.38 gigapixel 360° panorama. 19 hours for the stitching of those images. Just over 5 hours to upload. But to my mind, well worth the effort, and just so much to explore - just look at those carved wooden roof bosses in the ceiling - would you have seen those if you visited the Abbey? Maybe you would have, but only if you were able to come to Hexham - now via the internet you can explore wonderful architecture and landscapes from the comfort of your seat on the other side of the world! You can even find out what temperature the Abbey was inside when the panorama was taken! This panorama has been used in presentations by the Gigapan program creators as an example of what can be achieved with a compact camera, a Gigapan Imager and Gigapan Stitcher! It is also one of the most popular of the panoramas that I have uploaded onto the Gigapan website. 2/. Newcastle upon Tyne Central Station To some rather a contrast to the first panorama, but in fact it too has a lot of historic importance being at the heart of the world's early railway industry. And an example of how 'modern developments' can casually ignore history and cut through the centre of previous history - the railway on the right hand side of the panorama cuts through the new castle grounds, splitting the keep (visible at the end of the railway line) from the gatehouse (hidden from view near the signal marked T521). 3/. Northumberland - Barcombe Roman Signal Station An outstanding viewpoint overlooking one of the best sections of Hadrian's Wall as it climbs up and down various hills, while to the south lies the broad expanse of the South Tyne Valley as it wends its way through the top end of the Pennines. The panorama starts on the left hand side looking West North West towards Hadrian's Wall at Steel Rigg. As you move across the panorama to the right, you are looking North towards Crag Lough (hidden from view below a line of trees), Hotbank and then North East towards Housesteads Roman Fort with Sewingshields Crag beyond. As the route of Hadrian's Wall continues out of sight Eastwards towards Newcastle upon Tyne, we see the Iron Age hill fort of Barcombe Hill which has a Roman Signal Station in one corner, and then to the south of it a trig point. The view now starts to encompass the South Tyne Valley with a glimpse of the Haydon Bridge bypass being constructed to the South East (you may just spot the crane building the bridge over the river). Then as we look due South, you can see the Allen Valley coming down from the Pennines - once an area of intensive leadmining based around Allenheads. We then move our view round to the South West past remains of the old Roman stone quarries and a clump of trees on the ridgeline to the 'Long Stone' - this is thought to be a relatively recent memorial to some local coal miners killed in a colliery nearby. As the view looks directly West, you can see the Roman Fort and Vicus (civilian settlement) of Vindolanda - this site includes a museum housing some of the remarkable finds that have been preserved in the anaerobic soil conditions, such as wooden writing tablets and leather sandals. There is also a reconstruction of a turf and a stone section of Hadrian's Wall, and numerous excavated buildings to explore. The view then ends back at the start point with a view of the long ridgeline surmounted by Hadrian's Wall heading Westwards to Walltown and Carlisle beyond (out of site). And if you wonder why in this last section there is such a mismatch in the horizon, then that's because there was a freezing cold gale blowing and at this point of the panorama it very nearly blew over the tripod and Gigapan unit! This, along with the interior panorama of Hexham Abbey, is one of the most popular panoramas that I have uploaded to the Gigapan website. And here is the panorama taken a hundred metres or so to the east of the one above, but with snow to add drama to the landscape. 4/. Northumberland - Bamburgh Castle An outstanding castle standing on a dramatic outcrop of volcanic Whin Sill in an wonderful coastal location with beautiful long sandy beaches - what more could a visitor to this region want?! Well, a sunny day would have been good for this panorama, but then perhaps that meant less people on the beach to stand in the way! Lots to see in this panorama from the Farne Isles to the south (left hand side of this panorama) up the coast to Holy Island in the north. Spot a few lighthouses, a golf course, an old windmill, Lindisfarne Castle, the scene of Grace Darling's heroic rescue, and lots more. For those looking at the panorama from a technical point of view, the slightly darker part of the image on the right hand side was due to the need to change camera batteries and therefore re-lock the exposure (which obviously didn't quite hit the mark); also the Gigapan Imager takes its panoramas in vertical columns of images, so in the sea you will see that the waves don't always align - otherwise the panorama has stitched quite well. 5/. Gateshead - Angel of the North The Angel of the North by Antony Gormley, is located beside the A1 Great North Road as it enters Tyneside. Now celebrating its 10th birthday, it is seen by some 90,000 drivers a day - one of the most viewed pieces of artwork in the world! Built on top of an old coal mine it has 20m. deep foundations to lock it onto solid rock and is made of weather resistant Cor-ten steel plus a little bit of copper, which forms a patina on the surface that mellows with age. The wingspan is about the same as a jumbo jet! It is about 20metres high and the sculpture is designed to withstand 100mph winds. During further beta testing of Stitcher this image was used to see how well the changes were coming along. The early versions of Stitcher had difficulty with aligning all the lines and shapes, but the released version GigaPan Stitch v1.0 has coped well with it. This type of image, where a tall object is being viewed close to, is best seen in Google Earth rather than here or on the GigaPan website where straight lines are showing as curving lines! See it at http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/39269.kml | |
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