GigaPan Epic Pro helps create 44,880 megapixel panorama of Dubai skyline, world's largest digital photo
By Sean Hollister 
posted May 10th 2010 4:06PM
posted May 10th 2010 4:06PM
Update: Gerald Donovan writes in to let us know that while GigaPan did help him sort out technical issues in uploading the approximately 1,000,000 images that make up the finely-detailed panorama, the company did not sponsor or commission his work. Incidentally, he's been shooting panoramas of Dubai for some time now. GigPan did revel in the aftermath, however, as a PR after the break shows.
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.
That video was absolutely pointless
@yulebellow
Agreed, but the pic is just amazing.
You can read a sign hundreds (thousands?) of meters away.
@yulebellow
Haven't been in Dubai yet. Is there a place in that city where you aren't surrounded by a dozen construction sites?
I mean they should have sped it up from the very start and kept it at 2x speed until they got to the viewing platform, they could have easily condensed that first 2 and a half minutes to 60 or 30 seconds, and added some classy but fun music.
Also instead of showing 30 seconds of the gigapan working at tortoise rate, put the camera on a tripod and record it over an hour or so and play it back at 16x speed so we can easily visualize the progression, that would have been awesome
And maybe they should have grabbed a different camera instead of using a flip video
@SeeKo Yes, if you stand on one of the construction sites you're only surrounded by 9 of then
@alzrnb
Smart Answer Fail! A dozen = 12. ;-)
You guys aren't getting the amazing thing about this...
I'm a graphic designer, opening and editing an image of that size would take some kind of super-computer...
I've got a beast of a system, and it struggles editing 4gig photos/files in photoshop. 25 gigs is insane.
That's awesome.
.
Wow this is amazing!
@yulebellow
Paris FTW (NSFI - not suitable for ipad)
http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html
@Darkroom
Dubai is pointless, but amazingly awesome and amazing, it has a huge bank so people test all kinds of new tech there. BTW it is number 1 in the architecture scene so no, not pointless. and it has oil.
@yulebellow I considered doing a timelapse of the whole thing. Perhaps next time.
The video was shot with a 5D Mk II and 24mm TS-E Mk II.
I can see my house from here
and I live in the UK.
@fowenati All built by laborers who had their visas taken away on arrival so they couldn't leave the country who are then paid way less than promised. Just google Dubai Slavery. It's disgusting.
@waffletronic
I hope you are not searching negative stories about every city on earth ... if thats the case , you can only live at the north pole.
btw , i have heard that dubai construction gave jobs to millions of people from subcontinent who were not given good livelihood by there own countries and never allowed entry into western europe or America. Its too easy to find problems and bit difficult to get a solution :)
oh snap, thats probably going to far...
@deliteguy
Yea but at the video's end they say they used 5D Mark II not 7D
Both are different cameras
@GnuGeek 7D for the pano, 5D for the video.
File size: 27.5 GB!!
27.5GB of debt
Want to see that picture!
You can very clearly see a dude (black hair and beard, wearing a brown shirt and matching short pants with black sandals, I think they're addidas) washing his bus window with a yellow hose.
This is just creepy.
Get my face off that image! Or I'll sue!
I wish I could see the real picture it seems scaled down at the link
But this although not the same is much more interesting
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/12/13/a-spectacular-view-of-the-entire-milky-way-using-open-source/
Also That tower is amazing
@racerbmw
Yeah, where's the source pic in all of it's 45 gigapixels glory?
@racerbmw
Try zooming in! It has amazing details even at a very very long distance... you can see the windows of the houses behind the towers and all!
What a monstrous sensor/lens combination!
@racerbmw That is the full picture, it just only focuses in all the way on a small portion at a time. If you zoom in all the way, it will only give you full resolution of the part on the screen. It would take hours (maybe days depending on your connection) to show full resolution of the entire image at once.
I do like how when you zoom in on a person, you see them like 5 times because they were moving. And wtf happened to make the buildings curve? Either they f-ed up stitching it together or the wind was blowing the building pretty far.
I don't understand why I can't see any glitches in this image, like with cars driving on the road. I would assume that there has to be a spot with like half a car from when it took one pic and then when it took it right next to it the car was no longer there.
@Drez143
It has to do with the stitching they used, but here's a ghost van, just so you can have something. It's near the middle of the picture, just above where the road has been re-routed.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5319/ghostvan.jpg
@Drez143
One of their pre-defined spots to looks at is "ghost guy" that moved during the shots.
@Blade
yeah, how dare he move over a 3 and a half hours as some people take a really big picture...
@Drez143 The glitches show up slightly different. They show like ghosts. For instance, find the building with the bright blue top. There is a grass field directly to the right of it, in front of the red roof hotel looking complex in the background. You can see the guy with the red shirt was moving around.
@Blade He's pretty much the only person I can find in the entire picture.
maybe it's a ghost town...
*pan*zoom*
desert
*pan*zoom some more*
more desert
@Darkroom *pan*zoom*
Osama?!
@Darkroom That too.
Pesky atmospheric haze prevents me from seeing countless Princess Jasmine-esque hotties in their penthouse suites at 7 miles.
@rhackin
true true.
@rhackin
yeah, that was the only thing I found disappointing. The haze really cut down on the detail at greater distances. Still a pretty awesome shot
@ddddd
I used it just fine
-Macbook Pro 13
Okay, it's Where's Waldo time! Find Waldo...here's a hint: He's right next to a McDonalds.
@rhackin Screw Waldo (or Wally), I want to find a person outside and in focus.
Holy shit
I wonder if they used photoshop photomerge or some other program.
@Jimbojones Why would I want to use that? Whenever I do bokeh stitches or panoramas, I use CS5's photomerge option. It works really well for the most part
@Neil1138 The hardware ships with proprietary software that runs overnight to stitch the images together.
Dubai looks like the swan song of humanity. The final "F*ck You" to mother earth before she wipes us out.
There seems to be 10 skyscrapers per each tree on that picture. Looks like a ring of hell to me...
@motorolo
...and every tree you see in this region was planted by a person.
@motorolo
Shut.
Up.
@hikeskool
Bite.
Me.
@motorolo
Dubai may not speed up the demise of mother earth. It may wipe us out due to abundance of idiots on mother earth.
Do you know that Dubai is located in desert region. In case you remember from your geography lessons, desert landscape has scarce trees. Its not from now or last year or last decade ... its been like that for ages unknown .