Creating tiny planets by projecting panoramic photographs onto a sphere is something you’ve probably seen before, but Dutch photographer Wouter van Buuren creates his planets a bit differently. rather than shoot panoramas from the ground, van Buuren climbs to the top of towers, cranes, skyscrapers, and bridges and points his camera in every direction below. He then takes the resulting photographs and arranges them into compact worlds. Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this incredible 360-degree video by northStudio360, titled “The Nimmo Bay Experience”. They attached the camera(s) to the bottom of a helicopter, and flew through some incredibly beautiful landscapes. Simply click and drag to move the camera’s direction. Video after the break
Developer Conrad Kramer was poking around in iOS 5 when he stumbled upon a hidden panorama feature built into the operating system. It allows you to create panoramic photos by simply sweeping your camera across a scene. If you’re familiar with iOS, unlocking the feature involves changing a single line in a preference file (set EnableFirebreak to “YES” in com.apple.mobileslideshow.plist). People with jailbroken iPhones and iPods can also download the new Firebreak app in Cydia.
The camera is thrown into the air and captures an image at the highest point of flight – when it is hardly moving. The camera takes full spherical panoramas, requires no preparation and images are taken instantaneously. It can capture scenes with many moving objects without producing ghosting artifacts and creates unique images.
It uses 36 separate 2-megapixel mobile phone camera modules, which are mounted in an enclosure that’s padded with foam. Photographs can then be downloaded to a computer via USB and viewed in a spherical panoramic viewer. Video after the jump
Ken Murphy created this time-lapse showing an entire 360-degree view overlooking San Francisco using only a single camera:
The camera (a Canon A590 with CHDK installed) snapped an image every five seconds while the motorized mount slowly rotated, making a single rotation in 90 minutes. I assembled the images into this panoramic movie, in which each “pane” is actually the same movie, slightly offset in time. The panes combine to make a single 360-degree view. [#]
Microsoft’s jaw-dropping Photosynth technology has arrived on the iPhone as an app that allows you to easily create immersive 360-degree panoramas. All you need to do is load up the app and sweep your camera around in every direction, and the app automatically snaps photographs filling in the panoramic image (you can also tap it if it gets sluggish with its snapping). Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this bizarre looking homemade medium format camera spotted by tokyo camera style on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. That bizarre glass bulb you see sticking out of it is the 360 degree lens that projects panoramic views onto the 120 film inside the camera. Read the rest of this entry »
Lens attachments for the iPhone 4 already exist, but the GoPano micro is a bit different — it’s a 360° lens that records every direction at the same time. Once it’s recorded, you can go back and use a special viewer to watch the video from any perspective, panning the scene as the video is playing. EyeSee360, the company behind the product, has launched a Kickstarter project to fund it and gauge interest. After setting a goal of $20,000, they’ve already managed to raise over $50,000 with more than a month remaining. Backing the project for $50 on Kickstarter will preorder you one of these lenses.
Chris Kotsiopoulos of GreekSky created this mind-boggling panoramic photo of the sky that shows the passing of a day. He writes,
You can read about his process and some challenges he faced here. Kotsiopoulos is also the photographer behind the beautiful stacked lightning photograph we featured a while back.
Image credit: Photograph by Chris Kotsiopoulos and used with permission
Jeffrey Martin spent three days shooting a massive 80 gigapixel panorama of London, which is now the largest 360-degree panorama in the world. He writes,
This is an 80-gigapixel panoramic photo, made from 7886 individual images. This panorama was shot from the top of the Centre Point building in central London, in the summer of 2010. We hope that the varied sights and energy of London have been captured here in a way never done before, so that you can experience one of the world’s great cities – wherever you may be right now.
It’s pretty crazy how you can zoom into individual windows and clearly see people walking on sidewalks.
