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San Francisco, CA - Macworld Expo – January 8, 2002: The world’s
leading provider of immersive imaging solutions, Kaidan Incorporated,
today announced a major update and revision to their QuickPan™ professional
line of panoramic tripod heads. The new QuickPan™ III product line
is a radical departure from prior offerings and features a modular
system approach. The new lineup is built around a new heavy-duty
Rotator Base and interchangeable Camera Brackets that facilitate
panoramic photography with a variety of lenses and cameras.
Rotator Base – This heavy-duty design is lighter and more
compact than previous models and the competition. The new base employs
interchangeable Indexing Rings that support any number of click-stop
positions from 2 through 22. The rings can be easily swapped at
any time and contribute to the light weight. The Rotator Base accepts
a wide-variety of Camera Brackets that are designed for specific
solutions and tasks. This new design also will work with the existing
QuickTilt Leveler base as an option. Kaidan will initially offer
three interchangeable Camera Brackets for the QuickPan III family.
The MSRP of the Rotator Base is $199.95.
Standard Camera Bracket - Designed to support most digital
and film cameras in a portrait orientation. Used primarily to shoot
single-row or cylindrical panoramas, the Standard Camera Bracket
can be adjusted along the horizontal arm of the Rotator Base in
order to locate the camera in the side-to-side orientation. There
are three slots in the bracket, that when used with various positioning
aids, provide for the fore-aft adjustment of the camera's optical
center, or nodal point, over the rotational center of the tripod
head. This bracket will be most typically used with software such
as Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring Studio, VR Toolbox's VR PanoWorx/VR
Worx, iSeeMedia Photovista and other stitching titles which combine a
single row of images. The MSRP of the Standard Camera Bracket is
$149.95.
Spherical Camera Bracket - Designed to support most digital
and film cameras and to permit the angular up/down elevation for
the capture of multirow spherical and cubic panoramas. This bracket
will be used with those software applications that stitch multiple
rows of images, including up/down "cap" shots. Examples include,
REALVIZ Stitcher and Helmut Dersch’s Panotools. The Spherical Camera
Bracket can also be positioned at a level zero degrees, thus fulfilling
the same functions as the Standard Camera Bracket. The MSRP of the
Spherical Camera Bracket is $399.95.
Twin-Axis Camera Bracket - Designed to support most digital
and film cameras that are equipped with fisheye lenses, or for those
users who desire or appreciate two independent sliding and locking
axes of adjustment. The bracket has two independent axes of adjustment
and positions the lens in such a manner so as not to capture any
more of the Rotator Base than necessary. When a camera equipped
with a 8mm circular fisheye lens is installed properly on the bracket,
only a small segment of the Rotator Base will appear in the image.
This feature makes the Twin-Axis Camera Bracket ideal for those
using iPIX software (www.ipix.com),
Panoweaver (www.easypano.com)
and other software applications that use fisheye images. The Twin-Axis
Camera Bracket can also fulfill the same functions as the Standard
Camera Bracket. The MSRP of the Twin-Axis Camera Bracket is $199.95.
According to Sal DiPaolo, Director of Sales and Marketing for Kaidan,
“Kaidan has taken all of our experience and design insight and put
it into the QuickPan III. We've listened to our customers when they
said they wanted a compact, sturdy, lightweight, robust tripod head
that supported all forms of panoramic photography. From single-row,
to multi-row, to fisheye imaging, we have it covered. Our customers
have come to expect quality and value from Kaidan and we think the
QuickPan III will be very highly regarded in the industry. I also
think we've designed a tripod head that will appeal to those photographers
who appreciate a finely crafted piece of equipment. The precise
action of the click-stops, the sculpted appearance of the Rotator
Base and the aesthetics have all come together to make this product
a real winner. Panoramic photographers now have a new benchmark.”
The QuickPan III will be available for ordering and delivery by
Kaidan and authorized resellers in Q1-2002.
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