Handmade 4x5 camera by Jack Tait

In the next few posts I'll provide information about some of the great handmade precision cameras by Jack Tait. Please read my previous blog posts to know about other handmade panoramic cameras made by Jack.

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

The Horizon 205 PC camera

The horizon 205 is a medium format swing lens panoramic camera. This is manufactured by the same company in Russia, which also produces the Horizon 202 and S3 series of panoramic cameras. 

This camera utilizes 120 rollfilm and the frame size is 50mm x 110mm . The lens is a fixed 50mm f.3.5 - f.22 with vertical shift. The following shutter speeds are provided: 1 sec., 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/30, and 1/60. 

Thanks to the owner of nightphoto.com for allowing me to use these pics. For more details and pictures of this unusual camera visit this page.

Do visit Nightphoto's homepage to know about many more interesting and unconventional cameras.

The Photographica 73 show by PHSNE

Recently I've been to the Photographica 73 show organized by Photographic Historical Society  of  New England (PHSNE). This bi-annual event  offers members and the public an opportunity to browse and buy new and vintage photographic items that include cameras,lenses, accessories and old prints.


I was lucky enough to pick up a handmade 127 format  panoramic camera for $12 (!!!). I'll write about it sometime later.

If you're interested, visit the PHSNE website to know about their activities including auctions and about the next Photographica show.

Panophic swing lens panoramic camera

The Panophic swing lens panoramic camera was made by the Panon company of Japan, the same company also manufactured the legendary Widelux cameras. 

The pictures shown here are that of a camera which recently got sold in ebay. I thank the seller for allowing me to use these pics.

Click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Pictures by 6x16 panoramic camera

Here are some example panoramic shots taken by Stan Patz by his 6x16 handmade panoramic camera. One can easily get the idea how beautiful they would look like when fully blown up.

Click on the pictures to see the bigger versions.

Visit Stan's website  http://www.patzimaging.com to see more of his works. For more details on this camera follow THIS link.

 

Please note that for all the pictures in this post ©Patz Imaging

Stan Patz's 6x16 panoramic camera

This 6x16 panoramic camera was hand built by renowned NY based photographer Stan Patz. The camera was fabricated out of two 6x9 rollfilm bodies. It has a scale focusing system and the lens is a 90mm Ilex Acugon. It took Stan more than one year of part time labor to finish this elegant camera. The camera takes four pictures on 120 film.

I thank Stan very much for allowing me to use the pics. He also provided some example panoramic pictures taken by this camera. I'll be posting them in my next blog entry. Please note that all of these images are copyrighted to Patz Imgaing.

Visit Stan's website  http://www.patzimaging.com to see more of his works. For more details on this camera follow THIS link.

Stereo Realist Panoramic Conversion by Gene F Rhodes

 I remember this '625eq' camera while browsing the links in Robert Monaghan's site long time ago. Recently I rediscovered the same while I again started browsing  Robert's archived site. 

The camera was handmade by Gene F Rhodes well known for his  website photoprojects.net. Though the original website is now defunct, you can retrieve a good amount of information from the archived website available here.

This 35mm converted stereo camera is known as '625eq' because it offers the same aspect ratio what a 6x25 medium format panoramic could provide. The description as I copied exactly from his website is as follows: 
A hand built, fixed lens,  35 mm wide-angle / wide-image panoramic camera made from a damaged Stereo Realist camera body and a  47 mm  f8  view camera lens.  If this were a medium format camera it would be 6 x 25 cm. The Realist's frame and film advance gearing were rebuilt to accommodate a new enlarged 24 x 102 mm image frame.  Three scans are required to load each 102 mm negative into the computer. According to Ron Leven of Schneider Optical the 47 mm  f8 super angulon lens has an image circle of 113 mm at  f11, and a 40.5 mm  filter thread. After many light drop-off tests I find this lens to be unusable without some kind of center filtering, and B&H Photo accepted a  special order for a Heliopan center filter, but they never delivered. This project was my most interesting, but it is now terminated

 This is so far the most detailed description I found about  the panoramic conversion of a stereocamera:

Job 1--Film Advance:    In a Stereo Realist the film take-up spool pulls the film through the camera. The film drives a star wheel sprocket which is shaft connected to a slotted disk cam in the upper chamber.  A cam follower rides on the edge of the disk and is shaft linked to a spring coil brake around the shaft of the take-up spool. When the follower drops into the slot the brake is applied and the film stops. A reset pushbutton moves the cam follower out of the slot, releases the brake and allows the film to be advanced. For stereo format the star wheel makes one turn per exposure but in the new camera the star wheel makes 2.2 turns. The first job was to separate the star wheel and cam with gears to get the 2.2 :1 ratio. The star wheel bearing support was in the image area of the new camera and had to be removed and a new bracket had to be created to support the star wheel, gears and a new cam disk. This required the cam follower to be modified to align properly with the relocated cam. (The gears and bearings were scrounged from my junk box as was the items below.)

Job 2--Lens Mount:      I didn't want to do any unnecessary machining so I decided to use a screw thread focusing technique much like screwing a lid on a jar. In this case the jar is from a pressure transducer bought at an aircraft surplus store and a matching 55 mm threaded lid. The lens is mounted through the lid creating an assembly that is compact and easily removed. The jar was shortened and modified so the front cover could clamp it to the camera. The lens mount was something to be proud of until I discovered severe light leaks. Now it is light tight but kludged.

Job 3--Center Filter: The light drop off at the ends of my negatives is 2-3 stops, and none of my many hand made filters were usable.  I have been using Picture Publisher software to correct the light drop off by using a especially created filter mask. This was satisfactory for a time, but is not a permanent solution.  (See above photos for before/after comparison.)

Job 4--Focus Calibration:   1/8 turn = 20',   1/4 turn = 10',   1/2 turn = 7',   3/4 turn = 6',  1 turn = 5',    2 turns = 3',    4 turns = 2',   9 turns = 1'   and 12 turns = lens fall off.

Note:  The viewer lens is from a one shot Kodak pan camera, but it brackets the image and shows the horizon. When in doubt, I use the yellow bubble balance.

You can visit this page for the description.

The bottom  picture compares the film sizes obtainable by this camera with others.

I thank Mr. Rhodes very much for providing the picture and information on his great handmade panoramic camera.