Thursday, December 31, 2009

Handmade panoramic cameras by Dirk Fletcher



In this last post of this year, I wish to mention about the  handmade panoramic cameras I first came across, and which somewhat kindled my interest  in panoramic cameras and  panoramic photography in general.

I first saw these  two cameras in Robert Monaghan's site about five years ago. These are handcrafted by eminent professional photographer Dirk Fletcher.

The camera at the left was made from three bodies of Pentax K1000 and fitted with a 65mm f/8 Super Angulon on a focusing mount which yields  a 24cm x 4.5 inch original that could be printed in a 4x5 enlarger. The design and fabrication of this camera predates the Hasselblad Xpan. It took  Mr. Fletcher a good amount of work to  uncouple the clutch mechanism from the rewind mechanism of the K1000.

The bigger camera at the right  is based on a 6x17 torpedo back with the front of 2x3 anniversary speed graphic that was fitted with a 90mm f/5.6 Schneider Super Angulon. It used a grip from a Linhof Technika three and a masked finder from a 25mm Canon rangefinder lens.

I thank Mr. Fletcher for allowing me to use this picture and for providing the details of construction of these two cameras.


To know more about Dirk Fletcher's work visit his website www.dirkfletcher.com

Mr. Fletcher also maintains an interesting blog http://dirkfletcher.blogspot.com on different technical and inspirational aspects of photography including camera modifications.



Last but not the least, I wish all visitors of this blog across the world a very happy new year. Thanks to you all, who supported this blog by providing pictures, information, comments and encouraging words. Thanks are particularly due to Olaf Matthes, Matt Sampson and Gildas Le Lostec.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Another Matt Sampson ingenuity: A great Mamiya 6x12 conversion




In another brilliant 6x12 panoramic conversion Matt Sampson used the film holder from a Mamiya Press 6x9. The camera also uses a 65mm. lens from the said camera.  

The modified 6x12 camera required a new pressure plate because that of the Press camera covers  only 6x9 and 6x7 format. Matt replaced it with a new piece,  handcrafted from sheet aluminium. In the earlier model the helicoid mounted lens was fitted to the camera body with the help of a plywood box. The later version mounts the helicoid on an aluminium plate mounted to the box.

To know more about the construction details of the camera and in Matt's own words, visit this forum post

Visit http://www.mattsampsonphotography.com to view many beautiful examples of panoramic photographs taken by this camera

I thank Matt for allowing me to use the pictures and for some very helpful pointers. I also thank Olaf Matthes for bringing this camera to my attention.



Sunday, December 13, 2009

A 4x10 panoramic camera!!!!!



Panoramic cameras come in all varieties so far film size is concerned, from subminiature to ultra large formats. Though smaller format cameras are easy to handle, photographers who need quality negatives hardly ever compromise with large format.

I recently came across a grand 4x10 camera handmade by Mr. Matt Sampson. This camera also finds mention in Lee Frost's book  'Panoramic Photography'.

This camera is mostly made of wood and uses Schneider 121/8 Super Angulon lens in a Schneider helical mount on an Ebony top hat panel. According to Matt, he originally designed the camera around a Schneider 90XL lens with the 121mm as a second option,  however  the 90mm was too wide for most cases and so the 121 is used now.


The focussing ground glass was made by Satin Snow of US. Matt suggested that a magnifying plastic fresnel, commonly available from bookstores or overhead projector fresnel might be a low cost alternative for composition, though it may be too coarse for focussing.

To keep the system handmade as much as possible, the darkslides too were made by Matt himself by joining two conventional 5x4 slides together end to end and reinforcing with metal angle. The sheaths are a sandwich of thin ply and tinfoil. Making the slides light tight was a difficult job but was successful eventually(Click the picture at right)


Visit Matt's website http://www.mattsampsonphotography.com to view the galleries and many examples of panoramic shots taken by different handmade panoramic cameras. An example picture of the Bat's Head taken by this camera is provided below.




I thank Matt very much for his generousity in  providing the pictures, the details of the camera and for his encouraging words. I'll write about his other handmade camera in my next post. Thanks to Olaf Matthes for pointing me  to this source of information.

Mamiya based 6x12 panoramic camera



This is a great 6x12  camera handcrafted by Steven Icanberry. This camera is based on a 6x9 Mamiya roll film holder. Steve added an automatic film counter and hence one can use 220 roll film as well,to  get 12 exposures per roll. The camera is easy to load, lightweight and well balanced. The present version is equipped with a Mamiya Sekor 75mm 5.6 lens. A newer version with Schneider Angulon is expected soon.

To know more about this camera and other handmade camera's of Steven visit his site http://alpenhause.com/

To see more pics of this and other cameras he made, visit the camera gallery.

I thank Steven for allowing me to use this pictures and for his encouraging words. Thanks are also due to Olaf Matthes for bringing this camera to my attention.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The charm of palladium/platinum prints

Though this post is not about panoramic photography but on something I like no less than panoramas and that is palladium/platinum printing.

See some  mindblowing pics taken by award winning photographer Beth Dow. Her website being http://bethdow.com/.

Read her short biography here.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Voyager panoramic camera



The Voyager is a slit-scan rotational panoramic camera that uses 120 roll film and can use 28mm or 50mm Nikkor lenses. The exposure time can be varied from 1/125 to 2 seconds. The body is made of solid aluminium. The camera comes with a remote control that allows the photographer to actuate it at a particular moment and avoid his inclusion in the frame.

The camera is designed and fabricated by Mr. Gildas Le Lostec. The details of this camera can be found here. Do visit the gallery of captivating panoramas taken by this camera. More information can be found in  Gildas' web site http://pagesperso-orange.fr/panorama/

I thank Mr. Gildas Le Lostec for providing the details of this and some other cameras and permission to use the picture. 

More panoramic film formats



Here goes some scanned negatives from three different panoramic cameras. The top one is from the handmade 24x72 followed by Nipan's 24x112mm and finally Cyclops WideEye 55x155mm. The first two cameras are handmade by Olaf Matthes. To have look at some more transparencies taken by other panoramic cameras check these posts. The picture is kindly provided by Mr. Matthes.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thomas Roma's 6x9


Some days ago I found an older version of Thomas Roma's camera. This is a 6x9 camera with Mamiya Sekor 65mm obejective. To know about more of Roma's 6x9 see this post. A video clip of a recent version of this camera can be seen in this post.

Thanks to Olaf Matthes for pointing to the source of this information and I sincerely acknowledge noted photographer Mr. Jørund Aase for permitting me to use this pic. You can visit his gallery at:

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

On Robert Monaghan's medium format web site

Most of us surely have visited Bob Monaghan's encyclopedic medium format site http://medfmt.8k.com/ a great number of times. Unfortunately I've seen in recent past, some of the great articles were no longer available from the site as the corresponding html pages became nonexistent.

I got very much delighted to see that most if not all pages are archived now and some classic articles are again available for reading.

The whole archive is available from here .

There are several articles related to panoramic photography available from the archive, and I'm just mentioning a few of them here. Look for related articles to learn more.

Postcard 6x12 panoramic

Vistashift 6x12 panoramic

Medium format panoramics

Friday, November 27, 2009

The Spinshot panoramic camera


The Spinshot is a slit-scan camera in league with cameras like Globuscope, Hulcherama, Roundshot etc. I recently discovered a great source of information on Spinshot provided by Mrs. Heather Oelklaus. Click here to read her very engrossing article titled "The art of spinning" which appeared in the JPG Magazine.

Her book titled "Long & skinny" showcases some of the great panoramic photographs she has taken using the Spinshot and other panoramic cameras. To have a preview of the book click here.

To see more of her works visit her website http://www.camerakarma.com/ .

I thank Heather Oelklaus for allowing me to use the picture of this camera.

It's important to note that the Spinshot was invented and fabricated by Rick Corrales, a talented photographer and engineer. Unfortunately he passed away in 2005, only at the age of 48. You can have more information on Rick Corrales here

If you're interested in the internal mechanisms of such a camera have a look at Patent 1  and Patent 2 filed by Richard Corrales.


P.S: A crude emulation of the Spinshot can me made with a Diana camera. For details visit this site.

In case you own a Spinshot which is in need of servicing, you can send it to 3R Camera of New York.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Pics from Olaf's new panoramic camera




Here goes three example pics of Olaf Matthes' pannaroma inspired camera. As you can see, the 50mm Mamiya lens is very sharp. For more details of this camera view this post.

I thank Mr. Matthes for allowing to use these pictures.

Another gem from Olaf Matthes



Here comes another great piece of craftsmanship from Olaf Matthes. Those who are still not familiar with the work of this great camera maker click here .

This camera, according to Olaf was inspired by Thomas Roma's Pannaroma. It's quite similar to the Pannaroma, with the same negative format and also uses a Mamiya Press 50mm lens. Some parts are CNC milled as you can see in the bottom picture. The lens mount consists of the first two parts of the spacer rings of a Mamiya macro extension ring. In the main aluminum block there is a circular slot and the spacer ring directly fits into that.

For the details of construction click here.

The pictures taken by this camera are very sharp. I'll be posting a few examples in my next post.


Many thanks to Mr. Matthes for providing the information and pics. of this camera.

Friday, November 20, 2009

A paper made rangefinder

This is a novel gadget by Thomas Achtemichuk . You can customize,download and print this card sized rangefinder. Ideal for cameras that use zone focusing like my Horizon. I use a 1930's Simon-Brown instrument but this handmade rangefinder is possibly going to replace the old one.

Get this DIY paper rangefinder from here.

Monday, November 16, 2009

A great handmade 6x12 panoramic camera


Have a look how Steve Smith constructs his 6X12 step-by-step from simple starting materials. The lens he'll be going to use is a large format Super Angulon 65mm. He also fabricated a helicoid focussing mount of his own. The viewfinder is handmade too. The camera is now almost complete. To have a regular update visit this page.

I thank Mr. Steve Smith for allowing me to use this picture. To see more of his works have a visit to his site.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Panoraflex 6x17 panoramic camera


Panoraflex is a modular panoramic camera with solid metal body and supports lens shift. This is a 6x17 format camera, but with appropriate masks, one can get 6x12 or 6x14 sized pictures. The following large format lenses are acceptable with cognate adapters: 75 mm, 90 mm, 150 mm, 180 mm and 210 mm.

For more information visit the camera home page: http://www.panoraflex.de/

There are only a few companies left that make 6x17 cameras now-a-days. Both Fuji and Fotoman have stopped production recently. Hope that this camera will fulfill the needs of medium format panoramic photographers, who are not left with many options these days.

I thank Mr. Achim Hoos for allowing me to use the picture and for his encouraging words.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Noblex in action



Look how the Medium format Noblex camera rotates, gaining up speed and then exposes the film. Unlike most other rotational panoramic cameras it can make multiple exposures.

Compare the movements of Noblex with that of Panon (Widelux) medium format swing lens panoramic camera.

Updating my blog

I was a bit busy for the last 2-3 months or so, with my 'professional' activities, unfortunately which is not panoramic photography. As a result I couldn't write as frequently as I was doing earlier. I hope to resume my regular speed and make at least one post per week.

I would much appreciate if you can kindly provide any information regarding film panoramic photography or any novel photographic gadget which you found to be interesting. I'll post about it with due acknowledgment.

The Siciliano and Psyclops cameras by Thomas Roma

PSYCLOPS CAMERA from Kai McBride on Vimeo.


Sicliliano was a 6x9 format camera handmade by Thomas Roma. To quote again from wiki "In the 1970s, Roma started manufacturing and selling cameras under the name "Siciliano Camera Works". He produced the medium format "Siciliano". This video shows the related "Psyclops" camera. The format being 6X? :). The Psyclops was designed by Thomas Roma, inspired by Kai McBride, and built by Mr. Roma, Mr. McBride, and Dennis Santella. Read a story of the Siciliano from Joe Reifer's page.

For latest information, visit: http://sicilianocameraworks.com/

The Pannaroma camera by Thomas Roma

The "P-anna-roma" camera was made by Thomas Roma. He's "an American photographer who has worked almost exclusively since 1974 exploring the neighborhoods and institutions of his native Brooklyn, photographing scenes from churches, subways and everyday life, using a homemade camera"(from wikipedia).

Professor Roma built this camera from the gutted body of a Nikon F. The picture of which appears in Joseph Meehan's book. This I beleive one of the earliest examples of converted 35mm panoramic cameras.

Quoting again from wiki "He milled an adapter out of aircraft aluminum to go between the Nikon body and a Mamiya 50mm Sekor lens. He also made a bright-line optical viewfinder for the camera. The camera was called a “Pannaroma 1X3″, making a play on words between “panorama” and Roma’s wife’s name “Anna,” to create the word "P-anna-roma"." :)

Though I can't provide a picture of this camera at this moment, some example photos are taken by Danis Santella using this camera can be found here.

You can also read a 1978 newspaper article which tells about the inventor and his invention.

Some more information on Thomas Roma can be found from the Wiki entry , an interview of him from Columbia university website (where he's a full professor) and from his website .

I'm indebted to Mr. Olaf Matthes for all these informations. Do have a look at his great handmade panoramic cameras.

Mr. Roma made other camera's too including a 6x9. I'll write about it in my next post.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Old but interesting article

I found this article on panoramic photography while looking for some works of David Avison, a pioneer panoramic photographer of our times. The article is dated, but nevertheless worth reading. First appeared in the Camera Arts Magazine , you can find it here.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Pana-Vista: Another 3D Panorama viewer



Pana-Vista is a 3D-panorama viewer made my Henry Chung . Apart from 25mm x 54mm slides this can be used to view "Realist Size" mounted" 3-D Slides. To have more information on this slide viewer and price/availability follow this link. I thank Mr. Henry Chung for kindly allowing me to use these pictures.

The Fotoblur Magazine

The photoblur magazine is a high quality photography magazine available as online and printed version as well. The online version is free to download. You can access the magazine at www.photoblur.com or have a quick preview at the Top favorites gallery .

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Panoramic photographer: Michael von Graffenried




Watch noted panoramic photographer Michael von Graffenried
in action. He typically uses an Widelux and an X-pan


The original interview in German can be found here

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Stereo panorama viewers



A few manufacturer produced hand held stereo panorama viewers. Notably the Japanese Gakken and the Super-view from Hong Kong. Though these are no longer produced, one can possibly find them in used market or online auction houses.


Keith Clatworthy maintains an excellent site on stereography. Click on the links to get more info on the Gakken viewer and the Super-view. I thank him for allowing to use these pics.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Panoramic stereo camera


Though a pair of pano-cameras can be used to shoot 3D panoramics, a single camera setup is often more desirable considering the ease of handling. One of the noteworthy models is made by Manfred Graumann. The details of the camera can be found here .

This camera utilizes a Meopta body similar to that used by Razzledog. The lenses are a pair of Mamiya Sekor 4.5/55mm with shutter speed from 1-1/500 sec and B(ulb). The camera shoots a pair 24x56mm transparencies.

To know more about early models of stereo panorama cameras have a look at the book "Stereoscopic Photography" By Arthur W. Judge. A limited preview version of it is available here.

Stereo panoramas


The expansive view of a panoramic shot can be further enhanced with the addition of the sense of depth by 3D or stereo rendition. A pair of normal panoramic cameras can be used to take two stereo pictures of the same scene. These pictures when seen through a stereo viewer provide a richer view of the scene.

I found many beautiful stereo 3D shots in the website of Mr. Henry Chung, who is an acclaimed cinematographer and stereo panorama specialist. You can view many stereo panoramas in his 3D-Gallery. If you can cross your eyes these size optimized panoramas yield a very interesting 3D experience.

I thank Mr. Chung for allowing me to use the pictures. To know more about the 3D stereographic products he offers, visit his informative web site.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Article on panoramic photography

I found this article on panoramic photography, by Debbie Hagan that appeared in Art Business News. You can find it here. 

Sunday, August 2, 2009

40 great online photography magazines

I came across this link on 40 online photo magazines sometime ago. You can download high quality free pdfs from many of these sites. See also the 'comments' section at the bottom of that page, where some more magazines are mentioned.
To know about some more magazines I mentioned earlier, click on the 'magazine' label to your right.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A handmade 6x15 (?) panoramic camera

Thanks to the talented camera makers across the world, who's work help me in continuing this blog.

This time I found another handmade medium format panoramic camera from Thailand. The related web page(s) are in Thai language which I can't follow.

A Google translation indicates that the name of the camera maker is Mr. G Curtis and he's an accomplished photographer and recipient of many awards.

More details can be found here .

Monday, July 20, 2009

The Gakken panoramic conversion

The Gakken offers many good features as a candidate for panoramic conversion. Being a DIY camera, you can do quite some modifications during the assembly process itself. Unlike the Nimslo, the material of construction is completely plastic. This spares the craftsman from the hard metal milling works. The film path is 72 mm. long. Thus when used with a suitable medium/large format lens it gives an 1:3 aspect ratio panoramic.

Moominsean did an excellent job in converting the Gakken with a medium format lens. For more details visit his blog .


The Gakken stereo pinhole camera

The Gakken Stereo pinhole camera comes as a DIY kit. The Gakken is a Japanese company that makes novel educational and scientific toys. The Gakken camera is lens less and accepts 35 mm film. The camera body is made of plastic and it can take either a pair of 24X34 mm stereo or a single 24x72 (!!) panoramic. This makes it an ideal candidate for a stereo-to-panoramic conversion.



The camera comes with an instruction booklet written in Japanese. Most people found the pictorial description to be self explanatory, thus making the system quite easy to assemble. You can have a look at the instruction booklet pdf before buying one.

You can buy a Gakken camera from here or here .

In my next post I'll talk about panoramic conversion of the gakken.

I thank RPMDesign of f295.org for allowing me to use his pictures of the camera. For more pics visit this f295.org forum post .

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Fuji G617 video



A good video on the venerable Fuji G617 . Unlike the GX this has a fixed lens.

Monday, July 13, 2009

The 'Yanulpan' behemoth


I always feel very excited every time I discover a new type of panoramic camera. This time I found the 'Yanulpan', a behemoth large format swing lens panoramic camera. The discovery was serendipitous, as I was searching ebay for panoramic cameras.

A little google search yielded quite a bit information about this camera. The 'Yanulpan delineator' cameras were hand made by Tom Yanul , a large format specialist.

These are very large format cameras and this particular one which is listed on ebay ( by Tom Yanul himself ) has 7" Dagor lens with 150 degrees horizontal coverage. A general description of the cameras he made can be found in this page .

Read more about Tom Yanul here . To know about the details of his camera visit the Yanulpan page. Some examples of panoramic shots of Chicago taken by this camera can be found here .

I thnak Mr. Yanul for allowing me to use the picture.

I later found a picture of the Yanulpan along with its creator Tom Yanul himself. I thank Metropole Paris for the picture.


Disclaimer: I'm no way related to the seller(s). Neither I'm endorsing their product anyway. If you are going to bid/buy based on the information I provided, bid/buy at your own risk.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Segmented and other alternative panoramas

I stumbled across this very good article by Joerg Colborg on alternative panoramas. He discussed about the works of some noted photographers who excels in segmented and other panoramic techniques.



I highy recommend that you have a look at the works of David Hilliard , Joachim Knill, Andreas Gursky , Susan Bowen and Tom Bamberger.

I thank Mr. David Hilliard for allowing me to use one of his great panoramas. You can view his artworks at www.davidhilliard.com

Y-pan: A Nimslo panoramic conversion

The Nimslo is a high end 3D or lenticular 35mm stereo camera. The camera takes four half frames exposure to make a final 3d print. The length of the film path is thus two frames long. This 72 mm long film path makes it an ideal candidate for a 1:3 aspect ratio panoramic camera, when used with a suitable medium or large format lens. You can have a look into the inetrnals of the Nimslo here.

There are some sources in both printed media and the Internet where some aspects of Nimslo conversion are discussed. The intricate steps of the construction process are however rarely documented. I found the detailed Nimslo conversion work of TheOtherSimon to be very impressive. Converting the Nimslo is not an easy job, given the stubborn pieces of metal to be milled off and other technicalities. Considering the hard work and craftsmanship involved, Simon's effort is very commendable.


The 'Y-pan" as he calls it, can be considered as a cheap alternative to it's famed 'X' cousin. Converted Nimslo's, if fitted with a suitable lens can yield stunning pictures(see my review on Meehan's book). This camera may look a bit rugged but nevertheless serves its main purpose, which is to say taking nice pictures.

It's good to know that Simon is making books filled with a series of pictures taken by this camera titled 'Journeys with my camera'. By the summer of 2009, more details of the book and photo will be available from his website www.simonlast.co.uk
Note: To view my other posts on panoramic conversion of stereocameras click HERE

Friday, July 3, 2009

The 'torpedo' panoramic camera

Some companies like Burke & James converted surplus WW-II torpedo cameras to sturdy medium format panoramic cameras. A few camera makers also modified them independently. Often they make their appearance in the used market.

I've noticed two such cameras put on auction recently in Ebay. You can find them here and here.


Disclaimer: I'm no way related to the seller(s). Neither I'm endorsing their product anyway. If you are going to bid/buy based on the information I provided, bid/buy at your own risk.


Thursday, July 2, 2009

Panoramic photographer: Andrew Fleetwood


I found this artcle in Ephotozine, by Andrew Fleetwood. Mr. Fleetwood uses an Art Panorama 6x17 to shoot captivating panoramas. The artcle is a good source of information on general aspects of panoramic photography, including compositions, framing and metering. I thank him for allowing to use this picture.

To view more of his panoramas, partcularly great swiss landscapes, click
here.

Razzledog's handmade 24x72 mm panoramic camera

In my earlier posts I've cited examples of some hand made 35mm panoramic cameras made by Olaf Matthes, Manfred Graumann and others.

I came across recently another such camera crafted by the renowned camera maker Razzledog.

For many of us who like handmade cameras, know how precious are Razzle's converted Polaroids. Apart from making fantastic 4x5s from obsolete Polaroids Razzle also takes interest in building panoramic cameras for both medium format and 35mm films.

More details about this camera's construction can be found in this APUG forum discussion thread. You may need to open a free account in APUG to see some of the pictures posted there. For more pictures of this camera visit this link. To find Razzle's some more panoramic cameras including handmade 6x17 go to this page.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Book Review: Panoramic Photography by Joseph Meehan

This is possibly the first book dedicated to the techniques and equipments of panoramic photography. First published in 1990, this book contains a plethora of information on film based panoramic photography.

Most panoramic cameras available at the time of publication, including swing lens, flat back and slit scan designs were discussed at length. These include some interesting handmade and made-in-small-scale cameras like the "pannaroma" ,"cyclops" or "liparirama". Comparisons of the field of view of a large number of panoramic cameras were provided too. This was done by taking photographs of the same scene by using  different panoramic cameras.

There were also voluminous discussions on compositional techniques( a topic which is not very often talked out) for each category of panoramic cameras.

The book assumes that the reader does not have any prior knowledge of basic photography techniques. So, a full chapter was dedicated to films, exposure and use of filters in the context of panoramic photography.

A full chapter is devoted to alternative panoramic techniques. These include strip photography, panoramic assemblage, multi projector panoramas etc.

There is a small discussion on panoramic conversion of a nimslo stereocamera by Andrew Davidhazy complemented with astounding examples of photos taken by the converted Nimslo. One of it appears (in a much smaller size:the Hungarian Parliament building) in Davidhazy's website.

The last chapter (but not the least) was on preservation, printing and presentation of panoramic photographs, covered in a concise but adequate way.

I found this book to be very useful for panoramic film photography and would be quite happy to recommend anybody who wants to get introduced to the same subject.

This book is out of print now but an used copy goes dirt cheap on amazon. Most likely your local library will also have a copy.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Nipan: Nikkormat goes panoramic


In another brilliant panoramic conversion by Olaf Matthes, two Nikkormat camera bodies were used. The cameras were fused together to give a long 24x108 mm negative. The lens used was a Super Angulon 5.6/65mm.

Thanks Olaff for sharing the information and permission for reproduction of the picture. The construction details are available here.

To see some pictures taken by this camera click here.

Nikon F2 based panoramic camera


A great 24x72 mm hand built panoramic camera by Olaf Matthes. In essence, the film path of the Nikon F2 was elongated by milling off portions of metal so as to expose two frames of film. The lens used to cover this new film path was a Sinaron digital 4.5/35mm with 120° angle of coverage.

Thanks to Mr. Matthes for providing the details of the camera . For more information about the fabrication click here.

Creative Image Maker magazine

The Creative Image Maker is an online magazine dedicated to traditional or film based photography. Quite a few issues are freely available for download in pdf format.

The Ipan panoramic camera


An ingenious design by Michael Lawton. The first prototype of the Ipan camera was made in 1973 and from 1979 to 1984 around 50 copies were made. Very few details are available in the internet as well as in printed media, till I discovered the excellent site of Mr. Olaf Matthes , himself being a great panoramic photographer and camera builder.

I'm very thankful to Mr. Matthes for kindly allowing to use this picture. To know more about this camera and other works of Olaf Matthes click here.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Neutral Density Magazine

I came across the Neutral Density or ND magazine while searching for some ND filters in google. This is an online magazine, that according to the publishers: "focuses on all kinds of Landscape Photography, especially Nature, Seascape, Cityscape, Long Exposure, Travel, etc.".

It appears to me that the magazine is in the stage of gaining momentum and there are quite some nice articles on nature photography and interview with some talented photographers, who shared their techniques, particularly regarding long exposures.

You can reach ND Mag here . You can also have a look at the galleries of Marcin Stawiarz and Andy Mumford, the two photographers associated to this magazine.