Panoramic conversion of FED stereocamera

This is again from the collection Mr. Walter Dubronner. The camera was made from the body of a Russian FED stereocamera. The 47mm Scneider Super-Angulon is fixed on a unit to focus from 3 meter to infinity. The negative size is an astonishing 24x93 mm !!!!

For viewing such long panoramic slides Mr. Dubronner uses special frames (40x110 mm) and a special slide projector. The scanned  negatives can be  projected with a high quality beamer on a 4 Meter screen For exhibition he uses prints in different formats like 20 x 60 cm and up to 60 cm x200 cm.

I thank Mr. Dubronner very much for providing the details of this (and other) unusual panoramic cameras.Click here to see his handmade 6x15 panoramic camera.  I'll soon be writing on the other panoramic camera from his collection.

Jean Faoro's handmade 6x15 panoramic camera

In continuation with handmade 6x15 panoramic cameras, let me present this camera handmade by late Jean Faoro. Mr. Faoro constructed several handmade cameras . Another example can be found in one of my earlier blog posts. Unfortunately he passed away about two years ago.

I sincerely thank Mr Gildas Le Lostec well known for his  Voyager Panoramic Camera for kindly providing the information on this camera.

Walter Dubronner's handmade 6x15

 Like many times before this handmade 6x15 panoramic camera was discovered in the most popular online auction site. The camera was made by Mr. Walter Dubronner. Though the lens can barely cover the 6x17 format,  to avoid vignetting the film is restricted to 6x15 format by (removable) masks.

The lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach Angulon 120 mm with helicoid focussing that provides focus adjustment from three feet to infinity. The body of the camera is made of aluminium and covered with a brown leatherette.

I sincerely thanks Mr. Walter Dubronner for providing information and allowing me to use the pictures of the camera. Further, he also provided me pics. and details of some more handmade panoramic cameras from his collection. I'll write about them soon.

Thanks are also due to Olaf Matthes for bringing this camera to my notice.

Self published books on panoramic photography

I'm surprised to see so many books on panoramic photography available from  self publishing sites like blurb.com  or lulu.com

Some simple search phrases like 'panoramic photography' or 'panorama' can yield you a great many hits. Otherwise search by the name of your favorite panoramic camera or format like 'xpan', 'noblex', 'widelux', 'horizon 202','6x17' etc.

A convenient way to know about other panoramic photographers and their artworks.

A beatutiful rotational panoramic camera by Jean Faoro

Some time ago I wrote about the Voyager panoramic camera handmade by  Gildas Le Lostec , who is a member of CAP360, an informal club for panoramic photography enthusiasts, including streak chronophotography using handmade cameras.

Mr. Gildas provided me the details of two very beautiful panoramic cameras handmade by a former member of this club, Mr. Jean Faoro. Very unfortunately Jean Faoro passed away two years ago.

The first of the two is a slit-scan rotational panoramic design derived from the body of a medium format camera. The camera can accomodate a very wide angle lens and can take full 360 degree panoramas !!!!!

As you can see from the photograph the camera is electrically powered.

I thank Mr. Lostec very much for enlightening me about the work of this great camera maker.

I'll post about his second panoramic camera soon.

A compositional/framing aid for photographers

The 'Visual Departures Visualizer' a nice gadget for previsualizing the scene to be photographed and for choosing the lens with the requisite focal length.The visualizer is made of plastic with a rectangular or square hole cut in it, matching the aspect ratio of the camera's format. A measuring tape is attched to it calibrated with an array of useful focal lengths.

One simply looks through the Visualizer's window from the required distance, moving it back and forth until the subject fills the window . Then the calibrated tape is pulled to "measure" the distance between the eye and the Visualizer to ascertain the focal length of the lens to be used.

This visualizer is available in a variety of camera formats from  B&H Photo Video

The link to this particular product is here

To have a look at the other side of the visualizer and in some other formats go to this page

I thank B&H Photo Video for allowing me to use this picture.