In the mid-1980s a young photographer called Ken Duncan bought himself a clunking hulk of a camera called a Widelux, sweet-talked some film out of Fujifilm, took out a mortgage on his house, bought himself a 4-wheel drive and embarked on a trip around Australia to take some panoramic landscapes. The rest, as they say, is history.

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June 16, 2009: In the mid-1980s a young photographer called Ken Duncan bought himself a clunking hulk of a camera called a Widelux, sweet-talked some film out of Fujifilm, took out a mortgage on his house, bought himself a 4-wheel drive and embarked on a trip around Australia to take some panoramic landscapes. The rest, as they say, is history.

In 2009 it’s so much easier (putting aside considerations like an eye for a picture, compositional skills, and determination). The latest wheeze in the panoramic picture business is from a mob called Gigapan Systems (www.gigapansystems.com) who build robotic mounts upon which even quite modest digital compacts are capable of capturing massive panoramas.

We are not talking a mere five or six or even 10 images stitched together. For instance, the picture immediately below, of Barack Obama’s inauguration (by photographer, David Bergman), consists of 220 images, and the final image size is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels – or 1474 megapixels.

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GigaPan Systems was established in 2008 as a commercial spin-off of a successful collaboration between researchers at NASA and Carnegie Mellon University. The GigaPan Systems Epic robotic mount is designed to accommodate a broad range of larger point and shoot digital cameras, as well as smaller DSLRs.

First, a digital camera is attached to the Gigapan Epic to automate the picture taking process. Next, the resulting images are downloaded to a computer and the GigaPan Stitcher software automatically combines them into a panorama. Then the photographer can go to the GigaPan.org website and post his or her finished panoramas for sharing with a global community. The GigaPan Viewer allows people to zoom in and out to explore the panoramas in detail.

The GigaPan System was originally used as part of a cultural exchange program, the Global Connection Project, a collaboration of scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, Google, and the National Geographic Society which aims to help connect communities and peoples around the globe through images.

A wealth of panoramic images are available for viewing online at the GigaPan “sharing community” (ugh!).

At around $450, the Gigapan Epic robotic mount is surprisingly affordable considering its capabilities. You may have to buy an air ticket to the US to buy one, but that will still work out cheaper than Ken Duncan’s first Widelux!