Ideas on how to fire the shutter for Gigapano photography

[megamanex]

Hey all,
New poster here, but I've been using the X1d extensively for digital set scanning, asset recreation, and digital photogrammetry on a few television and film projects for Fox and Disney.


I'd love to incorporate the camera into my Gigapan setup and retire my Pentax 645z, but the lack of being able to trigger the shutter has put the kibosh on that.

Do you all know, or have any methodology, to fire the shutter in some creative way to make it actuate?  I could 3d print a chassis to hold an arduino system to fire an infrared "go" signal if anyone know if the camera responds to infrared commands.

I guess it really comes down to the following:
A.) Is there any indication of a potential firmware upgrade that will allow the camera shutter to be triggered via usb signal through the usb-C port?
B.) Can it be triggered via infrared signal or some form of robotic shutter actuation as a stop gap until "A.)" is a potential possibility?
C.) Or the camera isn't capable of these things and I shouldn't look to retire my Pentax 645z for the time being.

Thanks for reading the post and any potential suggestions.

[hcubell]

Contact Peter Lorber at 561-361-0031. He is a Hasselblad dealer in Florida with lots of experience with the Gigapan and will have the answers.

[megamanex]

I reached to Peter, such an extremely knowledgeable fellow!
Will be discussing further with him next week!

This doesn't solve my short term need, though I've a theory that I'll be putting to the test this week.
In the near term, the automated button pusher (albeit lower end model) Gigapan Epic 100 seems like it may work for a partial solution to the scenario I'm facing, though bracketing would be handled by repeating the panorama immediately afterwards using different shutter settings.  It is slower, but allows the X1D to be potentially usable in this manner.

[rent]

Very interested to see any development in this area. If H has an open API, I may be able to develop some app for this.

[megamanex]

I'll post updates as I test the setup out.  Currently I've been using the Pentax 645z with the Epic Pro mount to stunning success over the past few years to create 200+ gigapixel, 7 stop hdr panos, but I'd ideally want to phase the Pentax out and replace with the X1D.  The smaller gigapan setup with button pusher is really a stopgap (though theoretically possible, which I will be testing this coming weekend).  In an ideal world the X1D will gain the addition of 5 or 7 exposure brackets at 1-2 stop increments in a future firmware update which would allow me to not have to run the head 5 or 7 times to capture the full dynamic range of the panorama.

For those interested in the typical results:
With a 45mm medium format lens on a 50 megapixel sensor, I can acquire a 7 stop bracketed 360 degree hdr pano at 75000x50000 pixels in about 10mins, 30seconds in normal daylight conditions at iso 100, and at 400iso in dark environments at around 21mins.  Typicaly stitches take about 7 hours in AutoPano Giga with stunning results and scratch stitches in ptgui take about 14 mins on a single Titan Xp gpu.  (This is on a dual 12 core xeon v4 with 128gb of ram and m.2 based scratch drives).

8k panos from this type of source typically compile in 3 mins on a titan in ptgui and 35mins in AutoPano Giga.

Total time for the user to actually work the stitch through:  About 6 mins.  AutoPano Giga has an importer for Gigapan heads and I use it to build the PTgui setups as well for when I need fast previews of the stitch.

[Domip]

@Megamanex
This is very interesting... where can we see examples your work?

[megamanex]

I'll make a shot or two for you all for the forum, but almost all of my work is under heavy NDA and locked away.
I believe some of the star wars Panos may be out in the ether somewhere, though they'd be heavily scaled down for marketing usage.

[megamanex]

I've attached a scaled down crop of a part of the top of a raw pano from one of the sets I've captured.
I've also circled the area in red to illustrate the location of the 1:1 crop image which is the second attachment.
This is an extract from a 9 stop hdr stitch so you'll see what looks like aberration and fringing.  I typically would make a single exposure resolve from this that would be "print ready" and not contain that artifacting, but this is what I have on hand at the moment.

The original source of this image was a faster (about 7mins to capture), lower resolution pano at 58154x7128 pixels.

[NickT]

Thanks for sharing megamanex!

[Hassilistic]

Hi megamanex, to answer your question,  X1D has 2 great things going for it, a USB 3.0 Type-C connector and a Built-in high speed Wi-Fi whereby you can control the camera wirelessly using Phocus Mobile on an iOS device.

With the USB 3.0 Type-C try connecting that to an external monitor/storage device like the Atomos or Blackmagic Video Assist and see if it will take over the Touch Screen control/trigger and manipulation of control settings.  I don't have an X1D but Rather an H5D, so I can not confirm, but I have a strong feeling it can work.
As for WiFi, purchase (Provider dependent) a USB wireless/Data Router for Onsite work, and set up in seconds your own network on site.  I am not sure but I am wondering if X1D will connect directly to iPad Pro/iPhone (has anyone tried?)

[megamanex]

Hey All,

-Hassilistic, the Phocus app is very limited for these type of things (as far as I've found digging through it and hoping for bracketing and all) and I've tried with My Atomos to no avail.

The Good news is that the Gigapan Epic 100, the very low cost pano robot, works perfectly as I suspected using the "button pusher" to actuate the shutter.
The Bad news is that to shoot a full dynamic range hdr, the pano head needs to be run multiple times.

It's not an ideal situation, but fully functional as a stop gap for the time being.
I'll stitch a low dynamic range test image for you all this weekend.

Thanks for all the information everyone!

[Hassilistic]

Gigapan Epic 100

Careful as that has a load capacity of only 3 lbs.

[megamanex]

Hassilistic,
The good news is that the x1d with the 45mm lens is only 2.5lbs, 1142 grams.
It's moving with little to no effort on the rig.

It still isn't my ideal setup but it's useful.

[megamanex]

I've a link below of a 67% scale (45,000 x 20,226) stitch of a test pano shot this afternoon.  It has one glaring stitch error, though I've yet to completely lock down my measurements.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnpSmqyujhfTbb0VQZartruzhVM

[Hassilistic]

I've a link below of a 67% scale (45,000 x 20,226) stitch of a test pano shot this afternoon.  It has one glaring stitch error, though I've yet to completely lock down my measurements.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnpSmqyujhfTbb0VQZartruzhVM

Fantastic detail: "Dept. of Beaches & Harbors" written on that Volleyball net

Would an ND filter helped hold back the direct sun glare on the right portion of the image, for it went as far as effecting the sharpness and resolution..