World Class Loop Shooter

Loop photographer, David Osborn, is pretty much in a field of one. He shoots with the worlds only digital panoramic camera, a Seitz 6x17. Traditional digital cameras expose the whole image in one go with the resolution of the image limited to the small size of the capture chip recording the image. With the Seitz 6x17, the image is scanned from left to right, building up the image as it goes, creating file sizes unimaginable in standard digital cameras - a whopping 21,250 pixels wide x 7,500 pixels high creating a monster 922 megabyte 16 bit tiff file. In fact, the worlds largest digital capture file. To put this in perspective, it creates an image 1,229% larger than the newest professional Nikon camera on the market today.

The resolution is made possible due to a sensor produced by Dalsa, a company with vast experience in creating high resolution imaging sensors for satellites and the space industry, with an imaging sensor currently on Mars with the Mars Rover. The benefit of this innovative technology is that it creates a printed image, razor sharp and without enlargement at 7 feet 5 inches x 2 feet 7 inches. The only camera in the world to do so.

However, technology alone will not produce a great photograph, it requires a combination of art and technology. David's image above of Westminster Bridge required over 150 hours of work to print in order to realize his vision for the scene; working like a painter, setting the mood and bringing up the finest detail. The image, however, is not a composite or fake, every detail in the image is as recorded on the day.

Seitz have been so impressed with David's work that they have given him an open brief to shoot what he wants, with selected images to be used for their global marketing campaigns. David brought over some prints to the Loop offices recently and we were totally blown away. Seeing is believing, and if this is the way technology is going, grain, artifacts and softness will be something added in post-production, not the spectre that haunts the capture process for many current photographers.

To learn more about David and his work go here, or to see some of David's work that Loop represent exclusively, go here.