Skip to main content

Record-breaking 320-gigapixel photo shows London in incredible detail

london gigapixel
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve ever visited London but left feeling you wanted to see more, you might want to spend some time lost in a new 320-gigapixel panorama of the city, which also happens to be the largest image of its kind ever created.

The astonishing photograph comprises 48,640 individual images and was captured from atop the 189-meter-high BT Tower located in the center of the UK capital.

Positioned on the 29th floor of the famous London landmark, photographers from panoramic-photo site 360Cities shot the images using four Canon EOS 7D cameras with EF 400mm f/2.8L lenses (and extender EF 2x III teleconverters). The project took place during last summer’s London Olympics.

A rugby game in Regent's Park shown in great detail from the BT Tower.
A rugby game in Regent’s Park shown in great detail from the BT Tower. Image used with permission by copyright holder

“So many unknowns and variables had to be addressed in the planning of this unprecedented shoot, really the first of its kind,” said 360Cities director Steve Hercher. “Software and hardware were pushed to the limits, and rain, wind and other potential stumbling blocks had to be dealt with. Our photography team of Jeffrey Martin, Tom Mills and Holger Schulze did an amazing job and not a single individual frame from the more than 48,000 planned was missed.”

Here are a few stats relating to the shoot:

• 320 – the number of gigapixels in the final image

• 48,640 – the number of individual images shot

• 3 – the number of days it took to shoot all the individual photos

• 3 – the number of months over which the computer processed the final result

• 60,000 – times bigger than an iPhone 4 photo

• 98 – the number of meters long if printed in normal photographic resolution

• 24 – the number of meters high if printed in normal photographic resolution

• 20 – number of miles distant to the viewable horizon

Head here to explore the extraordinary image, which, by using the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ keys on your keyboard, takes you right up close to every part of the capital – you can even make out individuals inside capsules on the London Eye.

london eye
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Topics
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Fujifilm’s successor to the wildly popular X100V has just landed
fujifilm unveils x100v successor x100vi

FUJIFILM X100VI Promotional Video/ FUJIFILM

Fujifilm has finally unveiled the successor to its super-popular X100V camera.

Read more
How to download Instagram photos for free
Instagram app running on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Instagram is amazing, and many of us use it as a record of our lives — uploading the best bits of our trips, adventures, and notable moments. But sometimes you can lose the original files of those moments, leaving the Instagram copy as the only available one . While you may be happy to leave it up there, it's a lot more convenient to have another version of it downloaded onto your phone or computer. While downloading directly from Instagram can be tricky, there are ways around it. Here are a few easy ways to download Instagram photos.

Read more
Astronaut captures stunning images of a snowy Grand Canyon
A snow-covered Grand Canyon seen from space.

In the final days of his six-month stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen took some time out of his science work to snap some striking photos of a snow-covered Grand Canyon.

The images were captured from the station in recent days as it orbited Earth at an altitude of around 250 miles.

Read more