We were pretty impressed by the 26GB monster photo created last year, but that’s beginning to look like the work of a 126 Instamatic camera compared to the 44,880 megapixel beastie recently created in Dubai.
Snap-tastic
The 45GB panorama of the Dubai skyline – the world’s largest digital photo – was put together to promote the GigaPan Epic Pro robotic camera mount, with all the snappin’ being taken care of courtesy of a Canon EOS 7D dSLR.
And there was an awful lot of snapping to be done, with the process requiring no less than 4,250 separate pictures, taken over a three and half-hour time frame.
If the photo was ever printed out (unlikely, we think) it would apparently be the size of nearly 1200 billboards, but it’s far more fun to zoom in… and in and in and in …on their interactive website.
Press release
World’s Largest Photo: Record-Breaking Photo Taken With GigaPan EPIC Pro
Dubai Tops Paris for Gigapixel Supremacy
PORTLAND, Ore., May 10 /PRNewswire/ — First, it was a breathtaking image of Paris that set the record as the world’s largest digital panorama at 26 gigapixels. But that record was broken as GigaPan announced today that an image taken of Dubai has taken the top spot as the world’s largest digital photo. The gigapixel image that can be viewed at photo sharing site GigaPan.org, topped out at 45 gigapixels. If printed, this photo would be the size of nearly 1200 billboards.
Recently, photographer Gerald Donovan took a majestic image of a landscape in Dubai using the GigaPan EPIC Pro robotic camera mount based on technology employed by NASA’s Mars Rover. He shot the photo using a Canon 7D camera coupled with GigaPan’s EPIC Pro robotic mount, which took nearly 4,250 pictures over a three- and half-hour time frame. With the help of GigaPan Engineers Randy Sargent and Paul Heckbert, they stitched together the thousands of photos into one very large image using Autopano stitching software and uploaded it to the GigaPan.org site.
“This was intended as a technical test,” said Gerald Donovan. “It was about exploring the limits of the hardware and software out there.”
Of course, if anyone thought of visiting Dubai without leaving their living room, this is an excellent opportunity to do so because the level of detail is so intense. The tallest building in the world is at the center of the image, a perfect complement to the largest panorama in the world.
To view the record-breaking image and other famous images like Barack Obama’s Presidential Inaugural Address, go to GigaPan.org. No special downloads or programs are required. All photographers can upload their gigapixel images to the site, no matter what hardware or software is used, record breaking or not.
[Via]
Great- hope they do one for London and some other UK cities at some point.