Grind-o-rama , expanded film gate panoramics

 Recently, some builders re-introduced panoramic cameras built from standard 35mm cameras for which the film path has been grinded away to extend the film gate.

The shutter mechanism, pentaprism etc. are discarded, retaining only the film transport mechanism. A lens cone is attached to the body with a mated medium or large format lens. Depending on the camera and the extra space that can be accommodated for the extended film path,  3:1 or even longer aspect panoramics can be made.

Check this video which reviews one of such camera , The Presspan

You can find some more internal pics of the camera here.

I'll be back soon with some more Grind-o-ramas

Hand made film camera group(s) in popular social media

I found the Facebook group "Hand made film camera" to be  a very useful resource. This is a group with over 10K members and frequented by many well known panoramic camera makers.

You can find the works of Dirk Fletcher, Freeman Lin, Steve Smith, Andrew Bieber, Giorgio Giovanni Maria Jano, Marco Kroeger and many others. Marco's cameras demand a separate post altogether and I'll write one soon. Search the groups with terms like "panoramic" and "panorama" and you'll get many hits.

I'll keep this post updated as I find more such groups in social media. 

A Blog on Panoramic Photography

I just found a very nice panoramic photography blog. The site is in French which can be translated to your language of choice by Google translator. The blog features many reviews, history, collection of panoramic photos and many more

http://modepanoramique.blogspot.com/

Meet Dick Haviland, the last film re-spooler man standing

I recently came across the following  nice article on Dick Haviland , who runs the film re-spooling company "Films For Classics". The article was published in  B&H's website.

You can read the article here 

Josef Koudelka: Shooting the Holy Land

https://aperture.org/blog/shooting-holy-land/?fbclid=IwAR3N38I33XIWIj_yMtYq7TnAuAJtYlpsNNypo5iDH4hWf6d9KNiyCTMXSzg

DIY camera articles by Mike Rignall

If you've  browsed the website http://www.glascope.com/ , which  I mentioned in my previous post, then you might have found these DIY  articles  already.

To keep the matter short,  the website,  http://www.glascope.com/ which is a great source of information on stereo and panoramic photography, has a collection of several articles on DIY cameras. Most of these are authored by Mike Rignall which appeared in the British magazine "Amateur Photographer".

Follow the link to get the  full collection of these articles.

I've covered some of Mike Rignall's cameras in my blog earlier. Search for "Wideboy panoramic camera" in google and hopefully you'll come up with many instances of Mike's handmade cameras. Check some of Steve Cox's albums in Flickr too.

I thank Mr. Peter of  http://www.glascope.com/ for kindly allowing me to use these pictures. He can also be found at the following ebay store.

Panoramic art forms: Postage stamps

The smallest size by which  panoramic pictures can be represented for the unaided eyes, are possibly postage stamps. I came across these panoramic postage stamps   years ago but never managed to write about it. For me , those were great treat for the eyes and I believe that you too will much appreciate these little pieces of art. 

Have a visit to the site http://www.glascope.com/ for many interesting topics on stereo photography and panoramics as well. You can visit their  store  to see the items they stock.

The full gallery of panoramic postage stamps and postcards can be found here.

I thank Mr. Peter of  http://www.glascope.com/ for kindly allowing me to use these pictures. He can also be found at the following ebay store.