Kaidan Announces KiWi Panoramic Tripod Head Upgrade Bundle Aimed at iPIX Photographers

Washington D.C. ­ Government Video Technology Expo ­ November 28, 2001: The world's leading provider of immersive imaging solutions, Kaidan Incorporated, today announced a limited-time promotional iPIX upgrade package for their KiWi 880/990/995 Panoramic Tripod Heads. These KiWi tripod heads are designed to work with the Nikon Coolpix 880, 990 and 995 digital cameras respectively and are used to orient, position and increment the camera for panoramic photography. The offer compliments the recently announced 2.0 version of the iPIX 360 Suite and iPIX Suite Pro software, which provides iPIX customers with a new capability of stitching a full spherical scene from three equally spaced hemispherical fisheye images. The aforementioned Kaidan tripod heads feature interchangeable indexing disks and therefore have the flexibility to capture two or three (any number from 2 through 22 are optionally available) equally spaced images that can be used in conjunction with the new iPIX software as well as other stitching applications such as Photovista (MGI Software, Inc.) and Panoweaver.

The upgrade package includes either a Kaidan KiWi 880, 990 or 995, a copy (Windows) of Photovista panoramic imaging software from MGI Software, Inc., and a expanded set of indexing detent discs (2, 3, 5, 6, 14 and 18 position). Photovista is a complete panoramic stitching program that provides detailed high-resolution panoramas using as few as 5 shots (when shot with the Nikon Coolpix fisheye lens that is also used for iPIX images). Even more detail, and the ability to zoom in while maintaining a high level of detail, can be obtained with the Nikon standard and wide-angle lenses when used with the 14 and 18 position discs on the KiWi. The package gives the photographer full creative control with all the Nikon Coolpix lenses and with a variety of imaging options and software applications.

The package sells for .95, which is a savings of approximately off of the suggested retail price and is only available directly from Kaidan. In order to qualify for the discounted price, the old iPIX rotator head must be sent into Kaidan.

According to Sal DiPaolo, Director of Sales and Marketing for Kaidan, "Whether you're using iPIX software with 2 or now 3 circular fisheye images, Easypano's Panoweaver for QuickTime VR cubic output with 2 circular fisheye images, or MGI's Photovista with 5 or 6 full-frame rectangular fisheye images, you only need one Kaidan tripod head to get the job done. We realize that photographers have numerous software options for creating immersive environments and we provide an assortment of discs with our KiWi tripod heads just for that reason. We want to support the software choice of our customers for today and tomorrow."