Nikon collaboration creates first Gigapixel time-lapse panorama of London

24 Hour London captures biggest ever time-lapse of London’s skyline Continue reading →

The world’s first ‘Gigapixel time-lapse panorama’ has been created featuring London’s skyline.

24 Hour London, taken from the roof of Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square, has captured the biggest ever time-lapse of London’s skyline.

Created by Lenstore, Nikon and Visualise, the resulting image can be seen here.

In total over 6,240 photos were taken across a 155 degree view over 24 hours, and subsequently stitched together to provide the seamless view of London.

The creators claim there has never been a panorama taken with such incredible detail, as the project used pre-programmed robotic motion-control technology to repeat the same pattern of photos 260 times an hour for 24 hours, without a single pixel of discrepancy.

The finished product allows you to see London change colours across the hours, from sunrise to sunset. It allows those who have never travelled to England’s capital to experience it in the highest quality ever seen.

What makes 24 Hour London unique:

• It is the first instance of combining time-lapse and Gigapixel technology
• The image is 7.3 Gigapixels (7,300 Megapixels or 7bn pixels), which is over 1000x more powerful than the camera on an iPhone X.
• The Camera used was a Nikon D850, which was chosen due to its 45 megapixel sensor
• Lens used was a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8, which was able to shoot in such detail that you can easily read signs up to five miles away in the photo
• The robotic motion control technology is more often used for Hollywood films such as Gravity, to allow accurate fast-sweeping shots. This was the first time it has been used to take a time-lapse photo