GigaPan Epic imager released, your party photos will never be the same

You may have heard about that absolutely giant (1,474 megapixel) photo taken of the Inauguration using a Canon G10 and a GigaPan Imager. Well, today the company's launched the GigaPan Epic for commercial sale. It works with most point-and-shoots, and composes a single photograph from many (the inaugural photo was 220) shots. A robotic mount attached to the camera automates the process of taking all of those images, so you don't need to worry about missing any of the details. The GigaPan Epic is available now for $379, and a GigaPan Epic 100 for larger point-and-shoot models is expected "soon." Full PR after the break.

[Via Photography Blog]Launch of "Epic" Signals New Era of Panoramic Images

GigaPan Delivers High-Res Panoramas for Point-and-Shoot Cameras with NASA Technology

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GigaPan Epic, launched today, empowers experienced and novice photographers to capture detailed panoramas with almost any point-and-shoot digital camera. Powered by out-of-this world technology from the NASA Mars Rover, GigaPan makes it easy and fun to create giga-pixel panoramas.

Professional freelance photographer, David Bergman, took his first GigaPan panorama of President Obama's inaugural address, an Epic shot seen around the world. The sweeping image of the new President addressing millions of Americans has such phenomenal detail that by zooming in it is possible to recognize individual faces. Millions have visited GigaPan.org to find themselves in the crowd.

"I knew that this was an important picture, and the story I wanted to convey was the sheer size of the crowd. No single lens could have captured the scene at that quality," said Bergman. "I couldn't have done it without GigaPan."

The GigaPan Epic is so easy to use, Bergman was able to capture this historic shot the very first time he used it. The Epic includes fully integrated software and works seamlessly with GigaPan.org. Everyone can capture the same incredibly detailed images right out of the box. The GigaPan Epic, complete with the GigaPan Stitcher software, is available now at http://www.gigapansystems.com for $379.

Here is how it works: First a digital camera is attached to the Epic, a small robotic mount that automates the picture taking process. Next, the hundreds or thousands of resulting images are downloaded to a computer and the GigaPan Stitcher software automatically combines them into a panorama. Then the GigaPan.org Web site makes it easy to post GigaPan panoramas for sharing with a global community, and the GigaPan Viewer allows people to zoom in and out to explore the panoramas in detail.

"Today we are offering the general public breakthrough high-resolution imaging technology that is the result of years of research by scientists at NASA and Carnegie Mellon University," said Henry Hillman Jr., Founder, President and CEO of GigaPan Systems. "The potential applications for the Epic are limitless. The GigaPan.org site already features more than 10,000 panoramas, and our beta users have taken fantastic panoramas not only of President Obama's Inauguration, but of Yankee Stadium, Chicago skylines, Hawaiian landscapes and thousands of extraordinary images."

GigaPan Panoramas Around the World
High-resolution images captured with the beta version of the GigaPan Epic have already been displayed in exhibits around the world and online at the GigaPan.org Web site.

The City of Chicago's new tourism Web site, http://www.explorechicago.org, features enormous GigaPan panoramas of Chicago. As part of the launch of the new website, millions of visitors to Chicago's O'Hare airport will see an exhibit of 30-by 10-foot mural-size giga-pixel GigaPan photographs of iconic Chicago locations, including the skyline, Millennium Park, and the CME Group Financial Trading Floor. Photography instructor and multimedia artist Jennifer Gooch was one of the GigaPan beta users invited to take GigaPans of Chicago, and her work will be on display in the exhibit.