GigaPan Epic Review (Verdict: A Cruel Yet Fantastic Tease) [Review]
The price: $380, plus your point and shoot digital camera of choice.
The verdict: The Epic really is an interesting product, but it's lacking the polish and execution that most of us expect in a $400 gadget. Let me explain.
You'll need to lock your camera's zoom, focus and exposure down, lest various pictures be lighter or darker than others. This can be easier said than done on the dummy point and shoot cam! eras tha t the Epic is designed for. And taking a large panorama is still a process that will take several minutes to complete, meaning that there's a good chance pedestrian will stop and stare into the lens in any public atmosphere you choose to photograph. Also, GigaPan's software essentially requires you to upload images to the web, then grab stills through that interface. A simple mega TIF output would have been a welcome option. UPDATE: Apparently I missed the export screen.
Still, check out the shot I was able to capture outside the Hancock building in Chicago, despite not locking down the f-stop. (Check it out for yourself here.)
Neat, right? You create a photo that can be zoomed in to the full potential of your lens while still maintaining a vast master shot.
Here's the real issue: Manual overrides are reasonable for the average Gizmodo reader. What's tougher is that the battery life is atrocious. The Epic runs off of 6 AA batteries that, for me, took about 200 shots (or two panoramas) before dying. (GigaPan has assured me that premium batteries can take 1,000 pictures at room temperature.) Believe it or not, 200 shots is a limiting proposition, especially for the average guy who would be interested in this unit. I actually ran out of battery during my example shot—a whole column of photos is missing. Why would a company design such a functional product with such an obvious Achilles' heel?
Then again, give me a heftier battery option and maybe some SLR compatibility, and it's on.
GigaPan Epic In Brief:
If you were interested in the 
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Most point-and-shoots have extremely similar feature sets now, whoever they're from—smile, booger and blink detection; image stabilization and other boingos you never use. So Canon's choice to focus on look-and-feel stands out—and pays off.
The SD970 is the fully loaded model with 12MP, 3-inch screen, 5x optical zoom lens, 720p video recording and more creative features like Zoom Blur and Creative Light Effect. Unlike the other cameras though, you don't have a whole rainbow of colors to pick from. It's $380.
The SD960 stepdown knocks off $50 for shrinking the screen to 2.8 inches and zoom to 4x (but it's a 28mm wide-angle lens), but it's still 12MP and can shoot 720p video. And it come in a few different (pastel-y) colors.
The SD780 has a tapered boxy look to it that I really liked because it felt classy, but spec-wise it's a stepdown from the SD970 and SD960, with a smaller 2.5-inch screen, 3x optical zoom and fewer whizbang modes. But it's still 12.1MP and does the 720p thing for $280 when it drops next month. Multiple colors, all very metallic, but the hot rod red is pretty nice.
Aesthetically speaking, Canon's SX200 pro point-and-shoot is my second favorite camera of the bunch, after the 
Other vital specs: 12MP sensor (Canon likes the number 12, I guess), 720p video recording and a 3-inch screen. Yep, there are multiple colors too, a cherry red besides the black and blue I've got here. It's available end of next month for $350. [
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