London skyline, longest time-lapse on Lenstore site

The world's first gigapixel time-lapse panoramic image was captured in London. From sunrise to sunset and beyond, being able to explore the city in detail with an immersive panorama in very high resolution. A magic possible thanks to the 7 billion pixels of robotic technology with pre-programmed motion control. The work is online on the Lenstore optical lens company website

lense, the British multinational leader in contact lenses, together with Nikon and Canary Wharf Group have completed the feat of shooting, hourly, 260 panoramic photos (about 155 degrees) of the skyline Londonfor exactly 24 hours. This technique, which leaves no room for pixel mismatches, resulted in a total of 6.240 ultra-high resolution photos being produced. The project was completed in April 2018, but only now is it possible to see the result of the operation, also on the Italian site of Lenstore (.it).

The image of 7.3 gigapixels (7,3 billion pixels) is 1000 times better than an image taken with an iPhone X. The camera is a Nikon D850 with a 45 megapixel dynamic range sensor. The lens used is the Nikon AF-s NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8. There is no such thing in the world. Or rather: it is the first time that such very high resolutions are applied to time-lapse. The miracle is made possible by robotic technology with pre-programmed motion control.

24 hours in London by lense

It is a technology often used in Hollywood movies, such as Gravity, where fast and precise camera movements are required. The technology has provided the precision needed for each shot so that each image is exactly the same location as the image 24 hours ago.

A similar project can only arouse the curiosity of experts as well as the curious. For this, the authors have also collected photos from behind the scenes. Also, it exists a video showing the robotic technology employed in action.