How to make a gigapixel picture

Buck

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I need to take some more pictures. I like those panoramic pictures from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and also from Scotland. The "stacked" effect is cool, but I should be able to create that with one shot through my manual XG-1.
 

LunarMist

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I saw Max in Colorado this September. You should see his equipment for panoramas. First he hauls out three big blocks of wood for a base, then sets up a huge, heavy tripod - the kind usually used for telescopes and such. There is a mounting system which allows movement on multiple axes for multi-row pans. So I felt a bit silly shooting 25-50 megapixel single-row vertical pans with the 1Ds on a CF tripod. ;)
 

LunarMist

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Probably 95% of the subjects are horizontal, stationary scenics. Whether the body is vertical or horizontal depends on the final output and needed quality. A vertical pan of a horizontal scene theoretically yields 50% higher resolution than a horizontal pan. If the image were the usual 2:3 proportions the file would be about 22 megapixels after trimming, up to about 50 megapixel for ~1:3.3 proportions. Add 50% more pixels for the 1Ds MK II. :eekers:

I am not a panomaniac for sure. Basically I just use typical equipment (B1 monoball and Kirk L plate) and add a RRS B200 macro focusing rail at a right angle to get the nodal point over the center of rotation. The B200 is lightweight and relatively flat, so it packs well and is easy to attach quickly when needed and then remove for normal use.
 

Buck

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WIRED NEWS
Photographer Seeks Resolution
Leander Kahney and Associates
02:00 AM Feb. 07, 2005 PT

Wired News said:
Physicist Graham Flint is working on an ultra-high-resolution portrait of America -- a series of gigantic, gigapixel images taken with a custom camera made from bits and pieces of decommissioned Cold War hardware.

Weighing more than 100 pounds, Flint's camera captures images at 4 gigapixels -- a resolution high enough to photograph four football fields and capture every single blade of grass.

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