Now for the aircraft hangar-sized camera
Dan Chiappini19 June 2006, 4:30 AM
A project to take the world's largest photo with the world's largest camera has been unveiled in California. This is not your garden variety stitch-1000-digital-photos-together trick. The camera is built inside a disused military aircraft hangar.
I’m a gadget guy, and I’ve spent a considerable part of my life (and tragic amounts of money) amassing crap that will one day be as ridiculous as the junk the old folks wheel out when that crazy Scottish guy is in town doing free antique valuations.
I’m also a bit of a shutterbug -- and can often be found snapping madly at the local national park, zoo or sporting event. I remember buying my first digital a few years back. At a whopping 1.3 megapixels it was pretty amazing stuff for the time but, as always happens, it has now well and truly been put to shame in both size and quality by the one on my mobile phone.
So it was with great excitement that I came across this while browsing the web: a project to take the world's largest photo with the world's largest camera. This is not your garden-variety stitch-1000-closeup-digital-photos-together trick. The camera is an aircraft hangar.
Apart from the fantastic historical aspect of preserving the area, it also stirred the geek in me -- and really made me think about how much of our technology we can do for ourselves. Roll your own Linux, build your own PC and now create your own three-storey tall photo.
With even good quality digital SLR cameras now available under the $2,000 mark, photography is well and truly open to the masses. Will this be the next boom market for DIY geeks? I hope so.