Thursday, March 19, 2009

Panoramic photography websites

Though there are countless sites on the net, I serendipitously discovered some of the best of them.
http://www.photopano.com/ is a great site, though in French. Nevertheless with my very limited knowledge of French and Google translator I was able to understand a lot. This site is laden with so much good information and links.

I found the direct comparison of Horizon 202 and Hasselblad Xpan so useful.
http://www.photopano.com/h202-xpan.htm

From the links I found one great site on panoramic compositions, by Hervé Sentucq an important topic that is not very much talked about.

Then I was amazed to discover a great list of panoramic photographers

The Cyclops panoramic camera


The Cyclops is a rotating lens 6x17 medium format panoramic camera. These were made in USA in 1990s and a few versions were built.

For more information and sample pics taken by this camera visit Gary Alexander's page at:

http://www.gaspweb.co.uk/cameras/cyclops.html

The following pages by Olaf Matthes contains some more details on the camera. Moreover, you can download the information brochure as well as the operating manual for Cyclops in pdf format.

http://www.nullmedium.de/panorama/info.html   and


Also visit Graham patterson's site

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Panoramic projectors by Manfred Graumann

In continuation with the previous post, here are two pics of panoramic projectors that Manfred Graumann has made

The 'regular' X-pan sized 24x65 projector:





and the 'super' sized one for 24x93 sized frames:

Handmade panoramic cameras for super sized 35 mm negatives


These handmade panoramic cameras produce nearly 1.5 to 2 times the length of negative that of X-pan. Imagine what could be better than the wide angle drama captured by super-angulons on 24X93 and 24x120 (!!!) sized velvia.



So, hold your breathe and have a look at:

http://www.panoramakameras.de/kb-pano.htm

See 'Presse und News' section in particular

Rediscovering PocketSpot


I felt very happy to rediscover PocketSpot, a really pocket sized spotmeter. I've first heard about it in www.photo.net quite some years ago but information about it became scanty later on. The review(s) are very positive about it. Besides being much smaller than it's Pentax counterpart, it performs equally well to say the least. My only desire is the incorporation of a hot-shoe mount, like Sekonic L-208 or Voigtlander VC meter.

I very much appreciate and wish to extend my humble support to such innovative ventures by small companies. Though it's a bit expensive for me now, nevertheless it'll be in my wish list.

For more information visit the inventors' blog:

http://meteredlight.blogspot.com/

For more pics and review:

http://www.butzi.net/reviews/pocketspot.htm