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i haven't been following imaging software too much, but i got on a bit of a
search yesterday. i was interested in the immersive imaging things like
quicktime vr, and etc. it struck me that some of the simpler pan-and-zoom
imagers like the free zoomifier ez(*) could be a great way to present the
new many-megapixel camera images - even for straight shots, and not just
panoramas or VRs. i mean, my monitor cannot directly view a 3264 x 2448
pixel image from a sony f828 ... so it sounds neat to be able to
interactively zoom and pan within such a thing. it sounds like a great way
to web-share images with friends who have a variety of screen sizes and
resolutions.

so, are such things being widely used?

are there vendor-independant formats for such things?

unexpected downsides?

* - http://www.zoomify.com/ez/