Hi Abe,
I don't think that I would need anything more than a tripod for only 3-4 shots, but if you want to make very large prints at high resolution then the gigapan might be worth looking at. Set-up is easy and if you are only using one camera with the epic 100 then it is a one time thing for set-up/calibration. Instructions are here. When I start a new pano just mount the epic 100 on a sturdy tripod and level the device with camera mounted on the unit. Check camera alignment when attaching. Turn on camera, set fixed ISO, WB, exposure, and focus. If you are using a very slow shutter speed you could also set the 2 sec selftimer for shutter release. If you do make sure that your preset processing time in the epic 100 is adjusted to account for this. Turn on the epic 100, and when "New Panorama" appears on screen press OK, go through the checklist that pops up, using the directional arrow buttons direct the camera to the scene area that you want as the upper left corner of your pano (using LCD live view), next do the same for lower right corner, you will see info on pano dimensions and number of shots, press OK and let the epic 100 do its' thing. After a shoot I just dump the sd card files to a folder on my computer, batch them through SPP with preset WB, color mode, etc. and output 16 bit tifs to another folder. Open AutoPano Pro, point it to the output folder, it will find and organize all of your pano files (can be for just one or several panos), present previews for each pano, and then you have the option to either edit or render the panos for your desired output. Quick, easy, and good quality.
Have fun,
Carl
Hello Carl,
I would like to know you said that you use AutoPano Pro, whats your reason you chose this over PTgui and others?
Already got the Epic 100 waiting to arrive is the plate for the Epic from RRS, should arrive today and will try it on Sunday, will try to post some examples some NYC skylines.
Just finished preparing my PC to handle the huge files, fitted with 24GB of RAM which on a Win 7 Pro 16GB is usable the rest is allocated for something which I don't know, still trying to figure out why and how can make use of all the ram without massing up the whole system which happened.
Thank you for your guidance
Abe