45 Gigapixel Image of Dubai Sets Record as World's Largest Photo

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.

[Take a Look]