Richard Ellis
March 16th, 2006, 10:58 AM
Our local photography recently had a discussion about very large images - those taken by Hassalblad and similar cameras, with film sizes of 4 X 5 inches or bigger. These result in very large files - eg a 24 X 36 picture at 300 dpi is 77,760,000 pixels! In a nutshell, Digital can't do this, because of the difficulty and cost of producing a sensor that big. The solution is to take a lot of digital images, and stitch them together. For a variety of reasons, this is easier said than done - BUT, there are solutions, some of them not too expensive. One is under development, expected to be available in 6 - 8 weeks. It consists of a mechanism which allows the attachment of a lensless digital SLR to the back of your large camera, and takes a lot of digital images, which can then be stitched together.
The other need, which can be used by any of us, is much improved stitching software, which uses more sophisticated algorithms than that commercially available. In particular, it can handle a square image - ie a combination of 9 images, in rows of three.
It is too big to post here, but if anybody is interested, I can send you the pdf version of the slide show, which provides the summary of the presentation, and some addresses for contacts, including free software.
The other need, which can be used by any of us, is much improved stitching software, which uses more sophisticated algorithms than that commercially available. In particular, it can handle a square image - ie a combination of 9 images, in rows of three.
It is too big to post here, but if anybody is interested, I can send you the pdf version of the slide show, which provides the summary of the presentation, and some addresses for contacts, including free software.