
So you like to gloat in front of your frieds, ever proud that your mobile phone has a camera within that shoots maybe 10 or 12 megapixel photos.
Woooooooo. Big whoop! (Did I just say that? That is sooooo 70’s).
Okay, after setting you up so high, we’re unfortunately going to bring you down with this bit of news. Frankly, your cell phone camera is nothing more than a toy compared to what we’re going to tell you.
We know someone who has a camera able to shoot up to 348 gigapixels. In case you’re wondering how big that may be, think of it this way. You can pick out a person’s face in the stands from, let’s say, roughly a half-mile away.
During the recent Coca-Cola 600, the largest image ever created was taken. Commissioned in partnership between Coca-Cola and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials, this is one massive shot.
How big is massive?
How about 70,000 times larger than your typical selfie (you can also check it out at www.cocacola600.fancam.com).
“Although we’ve been lucky enough to have captured events such as the Super Bowl and UEFA Champions League Final, the limited time available at those events put a cap on the size of image we could create,” said Tinus le Roux, CEO of FanCam.com, which produced the image. “With NASCAR, we have a much longer shoot window and the Coca Cola 600 was the perfect race to try and push the envelope a bit.”
FanCam.com didn’t just push the envelope, it broke it. The clarity of the individual photo is outstanding. We just wish we could blow it up to normal size on this page, but that could send the bandwidth crashing down at NBC Sports — and probably half the East Coast.
Check out the photo above and the video below (which shows the making of the photo). Outstanding job, indeed.
“We strive to continually push the boundaries of gigapixel photography to enhance the fan experience,” le Roux said. “It was very exciting for our team to be able to capture such an incredible image.”
NASCAR has asked race fans to tag the photo on the CMS web site to potentially break a record for most number of tags on a sports-related photo. The current record is 33,000 tags at a 2011 Michigan vs. Notre Dame football game.
Follow me @JerryBonkowski