Aquileo | Magnorama

Aquileo | A Graflex/Wray Stereographic conversion: the CieLisT panoramic camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 04:38:00 +0000

While searching google.co.uk for images of panoramic cameras, I stumbled upon a fascinating find on John Wade’s website. John is well known in the photographic community, having authored over thirty meticulously researched books on photographic history, antique and specialty cameras, and related topics.

This particular camera belongs to John’s personal collection. It was originally built by C. Leslie Thomson, an engineer renowned for fabricating his own panoramic and stereo cameras.

Impressively, its film path measures 95 cm. In modifying what began as a Stereo Graphic camera, the twin-lens assembly was replaced by a rectangular lens cone fitted with a Schneider-Kreuznach Angulon 90mm f/6.8 lens. A Zeiss Ikon viewfinder designed for a 30mm lens (with panoramic masks) aids in composing the scene. Meanwhile, a new frame counter labeled “1–8” replaced the original counter, ensuring that the disc rotates fully twice as the 95 cm long exposed film is winded up.

I’m very grateful to John for allowing me to share these photographs. He even provided a rear-view image that shows the camera’s construction in greater detail.

I highly recommend you visit John’s site and explore the wealth of information he’s compiled. His many books are especially worth a look, and I’ve already put Clockwork Cameras on my personal wishlist.

You can listen to John's interview on panoramic cameras where this particular camera finds a special mention.

Aquileo | A Superb Book on Panoramic Cameras by Brian Polden

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 18:46:00 +0000

During a recent conversation with Garry Alexander about the Electropan Panoramic camera, he recommended an extraordinary book on panoramic cameras. Intrigued, I immediately ordered it from a UK-based vendor. I’m delighted to report that it’s a truly remarkable resource—easily the best, most comprehensive book on this subject that I’ve encountered so far.

At around 550 pages, this hefty volume delves deep into the history and technology of panoramic cameras, from photography’s earliest days to the present. It’s packed with photographs, cutaway diagrams, and an impressive wealth of well-researched details on countless panoramic camera models. For anyone who’s serious about panoramic photography, this book by Brian Polden is absolutely essential. We owe him our thanks for creating such a valuable contribution to the community.

Because the book is quite extensive, I anticipate needing at least a month to go through it thoroughly. Once I’ve done so, I’ll be writing a comprehensive review on it.

Meanwhile, I want to acknowledge Garry Alexander for alerting me to this gem. Garry maintains an excellent website dedicated to panoramic cameras (among other interesting cameras), and he’s also deeply involved in mechanical automata, another topic that fascinates me. If you share a love for mechanical marvels like I do, I highly recommend visiting Cabaret Mechanical Theatre to explore more of Garry’s interests.

The book was published in 2019 and there are only a few resources discussing it. You can have look at the table of contents from the Publisher's site.

A glimpse on Seitz's Roundshot series of pano cameras as mentioned in this book can be found from Seitz's web page

I purchased my copy from PostScript in the UK, and their service was commendably quick, delivering the book across the Atlantic. I’m very pleased with their professionalism and would highly recommend them.

Aquileo | A rare Find: The Electropan Panoramic camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 17:45:00 +0000

My first encounter with this intriguing camera was in Joseph Meehan's authoritative book on panoramic photography, where it was briefly mentioned under the category of swing-lens panoramic cameras. At that time, my curiosity was piqued, but my initial internet searches yielded no results.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. While revisiting Meehan's book, I was reminded of this elusive camera. A quick online search this time bore fruit—finally, a clue! It turned out the camera was sold on eBay back in March 2024. From what I’ve gathered, it’s a motor-driven swing-lens panoramic camera, reminiscent of the iconic Noblex models.

Details about this camera remain scarce, If you, dear readers, have any information, photographs, or insights about this camera, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

You can find a picture and a few more details about this camera on this linked page.

As I was writing this blog post, a little bit more delving into the matter revealed more information on this camera. It appears that Electropan was built by Kornelius Scorle, some old pics of him and his cameras appeared in the August issue of IAPP magazine which can be found here.

Looks like Mr. Schorle is still very much into panoramic photography as this link points to his recent works.

P.S: During the holiday season I'll be posting on some more panoramic cameras , equipments etc.

Aquileo | A Canon F1 based panoramic grind-o-rama camera

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 15:47:00 +0000

To continue with the grind-o-ramas, I present one Canon F1 based panoramic camera. The information was taken from a long concluded Ebay auction and I thank the seller for using the pics.

The length of the film is 24x65 and the lens is a standard medium format 75mm f6.3

Aquileo | Grind-o-Ramas by Olivier Alonzo

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 15:19:00 +0000

In Grind-o-Rama panoramic conversions, the film gate of a SLR/rangefinder is grinded off, thereby generating a longer film path to accommodate a panoramic exposure

Recently Olivier Alonzo shared his collections of handmade panoramic cameras. Part of the collection consist of Canon 7 rangefinder derived and Wirgin Stereo camera based panoramic camera with coupled rangefinder !!!!

For this Canon 7 body, the lens mated was a Bronica 50mm. Whereas for the Wigin, a Super Angulon 47 mm (also a Mamiya Press 50mm in another construction) has been used with rangefinder coupling, generating stunning sharp 24x92 exposures.

There are also other examples of Mamiya TLR lens based panoramic cameras.

I thank Olivier Alonzo very much for sharing the information. You can visit his Flickr Gallery to get the details of construction of these cameras and see example photographs taken by these great cameras.

Aquileo | A fantastic 6x12 swing-lens panoramic camera by Simon Lund

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Sorry for keeping the viewers of this blog waiting for one year. I'm finally back with some more panoramic cameras. When I'm not posting, I'm actively collecting information on handmade panoramic cameras and I'm glad to share some of them with you today

Handmade swing-lens cameras are exceedingly rare because of the difficulties in construction. I have managed to cover only 3-4 of them before. Some months ago Simon Lund shared his story of making a 6x12 swing-lens panoramic camera and some examples of some very artistic and sharp panoramic exposures made by him.

This 6x12 camera was constructed using the 40mm lens taken from a Leica CL and the body was machined from Aluminum

Here are some more pictures showing the internals and outer appearance of the camera. A great machining example indeed.

I thank Simon Lund very much for this information. You can view his photographic website at simonlund.com and particularly the panoramic photographs from this link

Aquileo | The panoramic stereo camera by Manfred Graumann

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 17:42:00 +0000

Again a masterpiece by Manfred Graumann. I've written about many cameras built by Manfred Graumann in the past. Over the years, his website went defunct and the archived website missed many important information including information on this camera. I recently found this camera in one auction site and want to share with you.

The camera was built over a Meopta copying apparatus , the same thing which "razzledog" used to build his pano cam.

Aquileo | The IPAN panoramic camera by Michael Lawton

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 17:15:00 +0000

The first of the two short posts of today. I've written about the Michael Lawton made panoramic camera before in my blog. The IPAN has become exceedingly rare to be found in common auction sites. However, recently I found one and want to share the pics with you. Check particularly the price tag !!!!!

Aquileo | Chinese(?) made 6x17

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:47:00 +0000

The link for this camera was sitting in my bookmarks since 2011 and I overlooked it somehow. Looks like this is made by somebody from China with some very useful features incorporated like a dark slide. I'm providing the link to the archived web site where you can find the details.

Note that if you follow the link where it came from originally, you may land up on some very nice innovations from China , like this medium format example.

Aquileo | Swiss made 6x12s

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 23:53:00 +0000

These two handmade 6x12 cameras were brought to my notice about a year back by the builder himself. They are made by a person from Switzerland. Very elegant in design and of superior craftsmanship , one is a fused body 6x12 and the other being bellows focused with a 6x12 back.

I'm providing the links below, where you can find a lot of details about their construction.

Bellows focused 6x12

Fused body 6x12

Aquileo | More handmade (panoramic) cameras from Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 03:55:00 +0000

Over the past years I came across quite a many excellent Japanese sites on handmade cameras, some of which I mentioned in my earlier blog posts. Today, I'm going to present another such informative Japanese site detailing bunches of handmade cameras, many being panoramics.

I discovered the site many years back. The person behind this site also runs the Nagoya handmade camera club in Nagoya, Japan and the site is actively maintained.

Note: The original website went defunct. You might find the old archived site to complement the information available in the new site.

Aquileo | Grind-o-rama , expanded film gate panoramics

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 22:59:00 +0000

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 23:56:00 +0000

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.

Aquileo | A Blog on Panoramic Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 19:12:00 +0000

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/

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

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Mon, 13 May 2019 03:55:00 +0000

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

Aquileo | Josef Koudelka: Shooting the Holy Land

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 12 May 2019 18:11:00 +0000

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

Aquileo | DIY camera articles by Mike Rignall

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 04 May 2019 19:47:00 +0000

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.

Aquileo | Panoramic art forms: Postage stamps

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sat, 04 May 2019 18:57:00 +0000

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.

Aquileo | Forthcoming posts this spring / summer 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 04:22:00 +0000

I'm back from the hiatus. Though other obligations impeded me to make new blog posts, I kept on gathering information on handmade panoramic cameras during the time of inactivity which I always do.

Most notably, I found a plethora of cameras made by Japanese camera makers and I'll soon write about them one by one.

I was planning for long to write a post on books related to DIY camera making and found some very interesting books. I will soon write about them.

I'll also make some posts on non panoramic cameras, particularly on the 6x9 format.

Thanks for your support.

Aquileo | Manfred Graumann and his handmade cameras

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 04:02:00 +0000

Handmade cameras by Manfred Graumann were the first ones to capture my interest in DIY panoramic photography. I first came across his website in 2005 and was amazed to see 24x105 mm handmade cameras.

I wrote about Manfred Graumann in one of the earliest posts in my blog. Over the time part of his website went defunct, and information on certain cameras were lost. Though, some information could still be salvaged using the "Wayback machine" site archiving tool.

Sometime ago I came across reports on a camera show in Ratingen, Germany which featured Mr. Graumann as well. It was wonderful to see him going strong. May he live long and make new cameras.

I'm enclosing the links pointing to the event. The pic. in this post, with him holding a stereo camera was taken from the first link. In the second link you'll find him with his handmade 24x93 panoramic.

https://www.infranken.de/regional/lichtenfels/Immer-m-ehr-Profis-bei-der-Michelauer-Fotoboerse;art220,658035

https://www.wz.de/nrw/kreis-mettmann/ratingen/trotz-trends-zur-digitalen-fotografie-gab-s-viel-analoges_aid-27774745

You can find another old newspaper report on him here.

I thank Mr. Klaus Gagel for allowing me to use this picture in my blog.

Aquileo | A lightweight 6x12 by Dirk Fletcher

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 17:28:00 +0000

This is just another example of Dirk Fletcher's ingenuity. He used two old Zeiss Netter 6x6 folders to make a lightweight fused 6x12 body and complemented by a 65mm Super Angulon.

Dirk used an m58 helical and a Contax 21mm finder which provides around the same view for a 65 mm lens in 6x12 format. He also mentioned the details of calibrating the helical and that information could be very helpful for a beginner engaged in camera making.

You can find the details of the construction of this camera in Dirk Fletcher's blog post. Dirk has made many panoramic and other cameras over the years and his posts are laden with construction details which can immensely help a novice and as well as an expert in this field.

Detailed and close-up pictures of his handmade cameras can be found in his Flickr Gallery.

Aquileo | Some handmade panoramic cameras from portugal

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Thu, 10 May 2018 02:08:00 +0000

After a long hiatus I become active again. Nevertheless, during this time of inactivity I managed to get information on at least a dozen of handmade panoramic cameras, which I'll sequentially keep on publishing here.

Today I wish to present three cameras fabricated by Chave Treze from Portugal. He has several handmade cameras to his credit and I'll present three of his cameras which are of panoramic format. You can visit his webpage at http://chavetreze.blogspot.pt/

The first one is a converted Nikon F3 panoramic , with a Holga Lens that yields 24 x72 mm exposures. The details can be found here.

The second one one being a 35mm slit-scan design.

The third one too is a slit-scan but medium format. Read about the camera here.

There is a nice video on the last camera in action:

I thank Mr. Chave Treze for allowing me to use these pictures.

Aquileo | More handmade panoramic cameras by Kevin Strandberg

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 05:28:00 +0000

Sometime ago I made a post on the Palm Press 6x9 camera , where I mentioned about Professor Kevin Strandberg and his handmade cameras. I recently received some more photos and details of those handmade cameras from Kevin which I would like to share with the readers.

Kevin Strandberg is Professor and School of Art Director at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington. Besides, he is an expert in camera making, an activity he's indulging in since his teens. For a good read on that, have a look at this Washington Times article. His website can be found here.

The two cameras in the forefront are two 6x12 cameras in vertical and horizontal format respectively. They were constructed using modified Cambo passport cameras and backs have much similarity to that of a Cambo Wide. One of the cameras is attached with a 65 Rodenstock Grandagon MC lens mounted on a matched focusing helicoid. The finder being salvaged from a broken Widepan camera.

The second camera has a 75 mm Mamiya Polaroid 600 SE lens with a Cambo Wide finder. The film backs are Horseman 4x5 to 120 types and the lens protection bumpers were sourced from Horseman SW lenses.

The other cameras in the background are 6x9 wide angles made of Graflex XL bodies attached to Mamiya and Schneider lenses. The farthest one in the picture is still under construction and based on a Polaroid MP3 copy camera. like one of the 6x12s, it too has a vertical format with a Mamiya Press 75 mm on it.

I thank Professor Kevin Strandberg a lot for providing the pics and details for these cameras. You can learn more about his cameras , the artworks they produced and a book authored by Kevin on these cameras from my earlier post.

You can read a short description on Kevin's "Franken Camera Project" from this Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine article.

Aquileo | Swing lens panoramic cameras by Renzo Guerin

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Tue, 16 May 2017 05:09:00 +0000

Swing lens panoramic cameras are harder to fabricate compared to their flatback equivalents. Apart from the mechanical intricacies involved, seldom one can use salvaged parts from other cameras like the body or film back /path. For these reasons, examples of handmade swing-lens panoramic cameras and related information are scanty compared to other types of panoramic cameras.

Over the years I was able to gather information on 3-4 swing lens cameras only for my blog and that's why I felt very happy today when I stumbled upon not just one but two handmade swing-lens panoramic cameras.

I found them mentioned in the blog of Guilherme Maranhao. It appears that these two cameras, one a 35mm panoramic and other one being medium format were handmade by Renzo Guerin from Brazil. Mr. Renzo Guerin worked as an engineer and is from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since his teens, he was into making cameras.

The Medium format camera is made of a 75 mm lens and the other one has a 35 mm.

The following video link shows clearly the swing movement of the 135 format camera which produces long 24x70mm exposures, longer than the traditional Horizon, Widelux etc. cameras.

I thank Guilherme Maranhao for allowing me to use this pictures. More details and other pictures of these two cameras can be found in his blog post.

Note that Guilherme Maranhao is an award-wining great photographer and a camera tinkerer too. You can find many posts on DIY photographic techniques, Camera building and modification in his blog.

For more information on his artwork, exhibitions, awards etc. visit this page.

Aquileo | The 6X14 panoramic camera by Sven Keller

noreply@blogger.com (Somak Ray) — Sun, 14 May 2017 21:37:00 +0000

In one of previous posts I've posted about the 135 mm panoramic camera made by Sven Keller from Germany. In this post, let me present another of his great creation , a medium format 6x14 panoramic camera.

The film back for this camera was made two fused Graflex 6x9 backs. For the details of constructing the back follow this link.

The lens is a Schneider Super Angulon which was mounted on a Konica helicoid. More details can be found here .

I thank Mr. Sven Keller for allowing me to use these pics. Do visit his website (in German) for many other interesting DIY camera modifications and other related stuff. The English version of his website can be accessed here.