GigaPanner

That’s right, just a week after promising availability in April, and twelve days ahead of schedule, the GigaPan EPIC Pro is now available to order.

Also check out Jaime’s scoop on GigaPan.com (English Translation by Google).

The long wait is almost over. The GigaPan Systems website has a new splash page announcing that the long-awaited EPIC Pro model – designed to handle professional DSLR camera/lens combinations is going to be available in April for $895. You can sign up today for notification of availability.

It seems that the NY Times article has made CrunchGear sit up and notice GigaPan, too. Remarkably though, they can’t even get the link to the GigaPan.org site right. D’oh!

In the Technology section of today’s NY Times is an article by Anne Eisenberg about GigaPans and the GigaPan robot entitled: Sweeping Panoramas, Courtesy of a Robot. The article does a very nice job of introducing the capabilities of the robot and hints at the joys of shooting and viewing GigaPan photography. It’s a great introduction to the technology for those who aren’t already familiar with it, and the Times deserves credit for using their website to embed an actual GigaPan photo with the article – something that you just can’t experience in the print version of the paper.

(Unfortunately their web team was not so successful in linking from the online story to a GigaPan user page [Full disclosure: I was interviewed for the article and that is my user page] and another GigaPan image of Hanauma Bay by Richard Palmer.)

I’m not sure how long the webpage has been active, but it appears that the GigaPan robot has a new home at GigaPan Systems. All of the basic information on the pages there seems pretty similar to that of the GigaPan robot pages that are still active at Charmed Labs. I haven’t heard any official announcements about this new page, but I’d speculate that GigaPan Systems is the new commercial entity being spawned to market the GigaPan robot once it emerges from Beta testing.

Speaking of Beta testing, it’s not clear whether or not the Beta testing cycle is complete. I’ve heard hints that the original group of ~300 beta robot units is nearly or perhaps completely exhausted. For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to get a robot during the initial Beta testing phase of GigaPan development all hope is not lost; there may well be a second round of Beta testing from Charmed Labs if this post on their forum is accurate.

In any case, if you’re eager to be notified when the next batch of GigaPans become available, it might be worth signing up for e-mail updates either on the GigaPan Systems contact page or what looks to be the same form at the old Charmed Labs site.

I’d love to hear from someone who knows more about whether my suspicions are on the mark or not.

Welcome to GigaPanner, a new blog dedicated to covering gigapixel photography and the folks who practice it, with a special emphasis on the GigaPan project. This blog is brought to you by Ron Schott. I’m a geology professor at Fort Hays State University and I’ve been a GigaPan beta tester since Thanksgiving 2007. You can find more details about my vision for this site on the About page. I welcome your comments and suggestions and I hope you’ll enjoy following our progress as this site evolves. Edi and Berti (below) and I will do our best to make your visits worthwhile.