Blog Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Panorama Journal is back

'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

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

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

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

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

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.