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BEECH FOREST

ROUTEBURN TRACK, NEW ZEALAND

Image Number 176

In 1850 a Dutch botanist recognised that beech trees in the southern hemisphere were different from those in the north. He named them Nothofagus, meaning false beech. Southern beech trees can be found on slopes around much of New Zealand; their inaccessibility means that many forests are still intact.  This beech forest on the Routeburn Track in the South Island of New Zealand features in the first "Lord of the Rings" movie.

TECHNICAL NOTES

Captured by Atticus Webb on a tripod mounted Zeiss Contax 645 medium format camera with Zeiss 80mm lens at F22 with an exposure of 1 second.  File size 260 meg, 8 bit.  The image was registered on a Phase One IQ180 80 megapixel digital back at ISO 100.  The combination of sensor size and megapixels from this back captures approximately five times more detail than the highest resolution 35mm SLR camera currently available – and explains the exceptional resolution of the image.