OpenCV (python) memory issue

[giancan]

Hi everybody,
is there anyone with experience with opencv for python?
I was wondering if there is a way to allocate some memory on demand, since when I try processing images (usually bigger than 800x800 pixels) I get a "OpenCV Error: Insufficient memory (unable to allocate 59500564 bytes)" message. (bytes may be more or less, according to the images obviously).
The solution I am using is to scale down the images, but I am curious to know if there is another workaround.

Thanks,
Gianluca