Sunday, March 20, 2011

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.

Friday, March 11, 2011

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.