View single post by Robert
 Posted: Sun Jun 24th, 2012 03:51
Robert



Joined: Sun Apr 1st, 2012
Location: South Lakeland, UK
Posts: 4066
Status: 
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The quest for extreme detail is limited by the ability to display it.

I made a very detailed panorama across Morecambe bay of Grange over Sands, using the D1 and 80-200 f2.8 at 200mm. Although 'only' taken with a D1, with careful viewing I could see the glazing bars in windows 4 miles away, easily pick out people walking on the promenade, etc. However, in order to see these details the image needed to be printed at least 11 feet long by about 1 foot high. At that point I lost interest.

Perhaps something for the GoS tourist information office? But little other practical application.

I do wonder occasionally about repeating the process with the D200 or even the D3100 which I believe has an even higher resolution... But, I really don't know what I would do with the resulting image. It's an interesting process, which I enjoyed but without being able to view the full image easily I see little point.

A local chap has made a very nice panorama of the Duddon estuary, with very nice lighting and snow on the Lakeland fells, taken but a few yards from my home. He got around the display problem by splitting the pano into three and placing the sections above one another in a normal 24" x 30" frame, but I wasn't totally convinced by that format, despite it being well presented and nicely framed.


The images from the original post camera will never be used to create one full print, more to examine detail on a computer screen by zooming in to 1:1 for surveillance reasons and possibly creating local crops for sharing with others in the department.

This is where I have difficulty with the current trend towards even greater definition in general purpose cameras. The practicalities of actually displaying all that detail to a viewer are not insignificant nor easily overcome.

Interesting conundrum! :devil:



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Robert.