Magnorama

New panoramic cameras from Holga

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Recently two film panoramic cameras are launched by Holga, one is a 6x12 and the other one is an interchangeable lens 24x72 35 mm panoramic.

http://shop.holgadirect.com/products/holga-120-pan-panorama-camera

http://shop.holgadirect.com/products/holga-135-pan-panorama-camera

Blog Update

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:53:00 +0000

I've been a bit busy for the last few months to update my blog. However, I gathered information on quite a few handmade panoramic cameras meanwhile. I'll soon be posting about at least 3-4 pano cameras before the end of this year. These will include fused body cameras, stereo to pano converted camera, large format rotational panoramic camera and others.

Wishing you a very happy new year in advance.

Nimslo based Holgawide

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:31:00 +0000

In another Nimslo panoramic conversion, Dirk Fletcher fused a Holga Medium Format Lens to a Nimslo body, for which the metal septums were sawn off.

I first came across this camera modification by Dirk in John Evans' book "Homemade Cameras: From Tin Cans to Precision Engineering", which I wish to review soon.

You can get the details of construction from Dirk's blog post, and can also see example photographs.

I thank Dirk for permitting to use some of the pictures from his blog site.

Handmade cameras by Kensuke Hijikata

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Somedays ago while hunting for handmade panoramic cameras in the internet I came across this interesting post in photo.net . The post mentions a Japanese photographer and cameramaker who built a 24x72 panoramic camera made out of two fused bodies of Konica 35 rangefinder, and which was featured in the March 1998 issue of Popular Photography magazine.

The post didn't mention about the cameramaker but I was able to get the copy of the magazine from my local library and found the cameramaker to be Kensuke Hijikata.

Kensuke Hijikata is a Tokyo based professional photographer/cameramaker who have fabricated more than 100 cameras, including a 4x5 TLR. He also established a handmare camera club which has grown up to 60 members. At the time of reporting he was making 4-5 cameras per year.

Pictures of four of his handmade cameras (along with pictures taken by them) were presented in the Pop Photo article, including the 24x72 Konica based panoramic. The other cameras were a 6x7 with 80mm Schneider Xenar with a movable groundglass finder,an interchangable lens double railed 6x9 and another interchangable lens close focusing 6x9 technical camera. He named his brand of cameras as 'Kentax'.

The panoramic camera Kentax 2472 was equiped with a helicoid mounted 47mm Super Angulon. He also made his own viewfinder.

I was not able to find much information about Kensuke Hijikata over the internet, except for this site which is in Korean and mentions some of the cameras made by the Handmade Camera Club members. Use a suitable google translator to decipher it if necessary. It mentions about a very uncommon 110 film based panoramic camera( the only other subminiature format panoramic camera I know is the Viscawide)

I found another link that tells about two mirror based pano cameras he designed which can use 4x5 or medium format film. Thanks to the original poster in the Yahoo Cameramakers Group.

I'll try to post the pictures of the cameras mentioned once I'm through with the copyright issues.

A 24x108 flatback panoramic film camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 03:38:00 +0000

This is a flatback panoramic camera providing around 4.5:1 aspect ratio on 35 mm film. The body was made out of a few sawn off Yashica MG rangefinders. The lens is an usual Super Angulon. For more details of the camera and examples of photographs taken by this camera visit the Clubsnap Forum

Thanks to Olaf Matthes who brought this camera to my notice and thanks to ed9119, a moderator of Clubsnap who took the pictures of this camera and granted permission to post them.

Another example of Thomas Roma's 6x9

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:21:00 +0000

Here goes another example of Thomas Roma's 6x9 handmade camera that recently got sold on Ebay.

This time I got more pictures of the camera so one can have a better idea about the construction details.

I'm very thankful to Mr. Bruce Kinch, (AKA Dedwax in Ebay:Please read the disclaimer to the right of this webpage) for kindly permitting me to use the pictures of the camera. Like many times earlier, thanks are also due to Olaf Matthes for pointing me to the auction.

Enjoy some european panoramas

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:15:00 +0000

A very good site for european panoramas http://superpanoramas.com/eu/english/index.asp. Enjoy some more photos here.

The Panorama Journal is back

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 04:18:00 +0000

'Panorama', the journal published by the International Association of Panoramic Photographers (IAPP) is now again made freely available.

You can select individual pdf copies from a list here or can directly go to the index of archive

Visit the IAPP site for many useful resources on panormaic photography.

The Lipari-Rama panoramic camera - II

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:38:00 +0000

Here go some more details of the Lipari-rama camera, particulary the parts involved in the rotaion. The previous post detailing the camera body can be found here.

To see some fascinating panoramas taken by this camera visit Randy's Flickr page

I thank Randy for providing me the pictures along with their descriptions. Please note that the copyright for the pictures belong to him and you may not use them without his permission.

The Lipari-Rama panoramic camera - I

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:27:00 +0000

I first read about this camera in Joseph Meehans book on panoramic photography. For long, I searched for this camera in the internet but never found any good closeup picture of the same.

Some time ago, I found quite a few pictures taken by this camera in Flickr. Upon request, the owner of this camera, Mr. Randy, promptly sent me the pictures of this camera which he owns since 1991.

The Lipari-rama was handmade by Jim Lipari of Omaha, NE. He was a renowned authority on Cirkut panoramic cameras. Google his name for more information.

This camera is a rotational panoramic camera, build on the body of a Nikon film SLR. Other camera brands too were used so far as I know. Like most other rotational cameras, a small battery operated motor rotates the camera as well as continuously draws the film. The exposure is made through a very narrow slit on the plane of the shutter curtain and with the mirror raised. The exposure is altered through controlling the rotation speed, which is in turn, a function of the applied voltage (see the pictures).

I just came across some more information on Jim Lipari along with a photograph of him with his Lipari-Rama camera ,in an old issue of the Panorama magazine. You can download the pdf from here (Page 3 top left). The camera was mentioned as 'Lipariwide'.

To see some fascinating panoramas taken by this camera visit Randy's Flickr page

I thank Randy for providing me the pictures along with their descriptions. Please note that the copyright for the pictures belong to him and you may not use them without his permission.

A mahogany 4x5 with 6x12 back

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:08:00 +0000

A real elegent masterpiece by Jack Tait. The camera is a mahogany clad, aluminium frame 4x5 camera able to take 6x12 back for Panoramic work.

I thank Mr. Tait for providing the pictures and information on the cameras. To know more about him and his works, visit his website:

http://web.me.com/jacktait/Taitographs2/Home.html

A superwide 6x9 by Jack Tait

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:58:00 +0000

This is Jack Tait's another beautiful example of craftsmanship. According to him, this is probably the best engineered camera he ever made. The camera is now owned by a City of Bath photographer. This is a superwide angle camera 6x9 able to take panoramic pictures due to its extreme wide angle. 47mm lens.

I thank Mr. Tait for providing the pictures and information on the camera. To know more about him and his works, visit his website:

http://web.me.com/jacktait/Taitographs2/Home.html

Some more Jack Tait cameras

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:41:00 +0000

In continuation to the previously described cameras made by Jack Tait let me present some more from his inventory.

Here goes a little introduction about him: Mr. Jack Tait is a UK based camera maker. who constructed a number of beautiful precision cameras . Beside building cameras he established two schools of photography and one of design, written a few books and practiced as a freelance. He is also well known for building 'Taitographs', which are some very interesting analog plotting devices.

This particular camera is a 4x5 wide angle metal camera with large amount of rising front and can be used with Horseman 6x12 back. The camera is now owned and used by a professor in Lancashire for architectural work.

Do visit his website to know more about him, his cameras and other very interesting objects.

http://web.me.com/jacktait/Taitographs2/

I thank Mr. Tait for providing information and pictures of many of his handmade cameras.

The PANNAROMA exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:17:00 +0000

As mentioned in my earlier blog post the month long exhibition of the Panoramic photographs taken by Tomas Roma's 35 mm 1:3 flatback camera is now ongoing. The works of at least fifteen distinguished photographers including veterans like Lee Friedlander as well as many younger ones will be part of the exhibit.

More details of the exhibition (and history of the camera including how the idea was conceived plus design notes ) along with some of the panoramic photographs taken by participating photographers are available from http://pannaroma.wordpress.com/. Click on the name of the individual photographers to view the panoramas.

The highlights of the exhibition and a high resolution picture of the camera can be found here .

I thank Mr. Stephen Hilger very much for providing the information.

The 'longfellow' 6x18 medium format panoramic camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:49:00 +0000

The 'Longfellow' is a medium format panoramic camera that utilizes fused bodies of two 6x9 folders. The Super angulon 90 was mounted on a cone. The two backs were held using a fish plate. Though not combined into a single piece,the two pressure plates can hold the film flat quite adequately. The resulting format is 6x18.

The details of construction appears in the book "Medium and large format photography: moving beyond 35mm for better pictures" By Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz, well known for their other books on photography as well. Information on a few other handmade cameras including one made by Roger also appears in the book.

Some discussion in this context can be found in this forum post. I thank Mr. Hicks for granting permission to use these picture. His website http://rogerandfrances.com/ is a goldmine of information on many type of cameras and photographic techniques. Keep an eye over the site contents, as soon a 'how to make it' section will appear there.

The Leme rotational panoramic camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 14:09:00 +0000

This is a rotational panoramic camera from Brazil, designed by Sebastião Carvalho Leme (1918-2007). The camera is able to take 360°panoramas.

For more details of the camera visit this wikipedia entry

The picture of the camera is under GFDL licensese, the details of the which is available here

Handmade rotational panoramic camera by Mats Wernersson

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:11:00 +0000

A very nice example of a rotational panoramic camera handmade by Mats Wernersson. In these type of cameras, the body of the camera rotates while exposing a continuous strip of film through a small slit and capable of scanning a 360 degrees sector.

The Seitz Roundshot, Hulcherama and the recent Lomo Spinner 360 fall into this category of cameras. This particular camera is made of PVC plastic and utilizes medium format film. To know about more on rotational panoramic cameras covered in my blog, click here.

The details of the camera including construction snapshots are available here.

I thank Mats for allowing me to use this picture. Mats have a great website on his own handmade cameras that include many novel analog and digital systems. Visit his site at http://cameramaker.se

Exhibition of panoramics taken by the 'Pannaroma' camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:35:00 +0000

There will be a month long exhibition of panoramic photographs at New Orleans, LA taken by different photographers using the "Pannaroma" camera.

For more details visit this site .

For those who are interested to know about this 1:3 aspect ratio, flatback 35 mm panoramic camera, made by Thomas Roma, check this blog post.

For more posts related to Roma's camera in my blog, follow this link.

The work of Gilles Peress, Raghubir Singh, and others will be part of the exhibit. Though I'm quite familiar with Raghubir Singh's work, never knew that he used the Pannaroma :-(

Thanks to Olaf Matthes who pointed out this event to me.

The Digital Horizon panoramic camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:32:00 +0000

The Italian Silvestri company is working in collaboration with the Russian Zenit company to produce a digital panoramic camera. The Zenit is well known for its Horizon(t) series of swing lens panoramic cameras.

The new camera would feature three built in units of 5MP sensor and a f/3.5 28 mm lens, and three pictures will be taken simultaneously followed by in camera stiching to produce the final panorama. Because of simultaneous capture, moving objects will not pose any problem.

You can find more information from the following links available from Photoscala, British Journal of Photography and a very informative post by Michael Przewrocki.

A pdf information brochure on this camera can be found here.

A very useful tool for retrieving dead sites

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:02:00 +0000

Many great web pages become defunct in course of time. There's a very handy tool to retrieve the information from dead web sites, provided they are archieved. You can just paste your dead link in THIS web site and if you're lucky you might be able to look at the lost contents.

I fetched the contents of many photography related sites like that of Robert Monaghan's medium format site ( and sites mentioned there) using this tool.

A good short read on panoramic photography

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:19:00 +0000

I miss Marco Pauck's panoramic web site which went defunct. Here's a short but interesting account of panoramic photography, by Marco, particularly using the Horizon 202 swing lens camera.

The great handmade panoramic cameras of Josip Klarica-II

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:06:00 +0000

This is another great panoramic camera from Josip Klarica's collection. Marked #6 in his web page http://obscuranova.com, this is a medium format swing lens panoramic camera.

Constructed by Duro Susic, Prague, Czech Republic, this takes 6x18 panoramic images. The lens is a Meopta 75 mm f/2.8 and three shutter speeds of 1 sec, 1 / 30 sec and 1 / 100 sec are available. The material of construction is metal and leather.

Mr. Clarica has a very distinctive style of photography and to know more details of it visit his website http://obscuranova.com and this link

I thank Mr. Klarica very much for providing the detailed description and high resolution pics of this camera. You can download the rest of the pics from here. Please note that the copyright for the photographs of the camera belong to Josip Klarica and you may need his permission for using any of them.

The great handmade panoramic cameras of Josip Klarica-I

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:33:00 +0000

Some time ago thru' a www.bing.com search I came to know about Josip Klarica, an eminent photographer from Croatia. The opening page of his website http://obscuranova.com pointed to the great collection of cameras he has and particularly the two handmade panoramic cameras drew my attention.

This Panoramatic camera, handmade by Mr. Josip Klarica is a replica of the "Camera Megascope", a large format panoramic camera constructed by Friedrich Martens of Paris in 1845.

The format of the negative produced is 18X60 cm !!!. The lens is a vintage Symmetric anastigmat 210 mm made by A. Ross ,of London in 1932. The exposure is made by manually turning the lens. Materials for construction include wood, leather and cardboard.

You can have an idea how big the camera ( marked #7 in his webpage) is by looking at this picture. Quite obviously due to the huge size of the negatives the pictures they yield are also simply fascinating.

Mr. Clarica has a very distinctive style of photography and to know more details of it visit his website http://obscuranova.com and this link.

I thank Mr. Klarica very much for providing the detailed description and so many high resolution photographs of this camera. You can download and view the rest of the pictures in a ~17MB zipped file from here. Please note that the copyright for the photographs of the camera belong to Josip Klarica and you need his permission(s) for using any of them.

Blog Update

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:16:00 +0000

I've been a little busy during the past one and half months or so to write any new blog entry. However, I collected information on some very interesting handmade panoramic cameras during this period. I'll write about them very soon, probably in a few days.

Meanwhile you can have a look at Josip Klarica's website, who has a very distinctive style of panoramic photography and a fascinating set of handmade cameras.

Exhibition of handmade cameras in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:02:00 +0000

I recently came across this pdf document from "Photographic History society of Canada" about a handmade camera exhibition at Japan Camera Museum in Tokyo. It appears to me that a number of handmade panoramic cameras were part of the exhibit.

It would be great if readers of this blog, particularly those from Japan provide some more information about the exhibits, particularly on the panoramic cameras.

Visit the website of Japan Camera Museum http://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/ (or a google translated version of it) for many interesting exhibits.

The website of Photographic History society of Canada is http://www.phsc.ca/