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Camera
say "make me a big print from this negative". Once you get home, use a pair of scissors to trim the big
print until it is long and skinny and contains the subject matter of interest. This may sound absurd but it
is in fact how most 35mm "panoramic mode" cameras operate. They use the same lens as in normal
mode and mask off the top and bottom of the frame. Then the laboratory knows that you wanted a long
skinny print and it is obvious which portion of the neg to print (i.e., the non-blank portion). APS
cameras do the same thing except that they record the panorama mode magnetically on the back of the
film. The entire frame is exposed and you could later change your mind and ask the lab to print the
whole frame.
You won't get very high image quality if you print from only a tiny portion of a tiny negative. But that
doesn't mean you need a true panoramic camera. You could just use a big view camera and bring the
resulting 4x5, 5x7, or 8x10 sheet of film into a pro lab and tell them to print only the central portion.
If that seems like a waste of film and effort, then the Fuji 617 that I own is for you. Fuji takes one of
their 5x7 view camera lenses and attaches it to a body that handles 120 and 220 roll film. So the
photographer is freed from the bulk of the 5x7 view camera, from the drudgery of loading sheet film into
film holders, and from having to spend $6 per exposure on film and processing (instead it is perhaps $3
per exposure).
Panoramic cameras don't have the perspective correction flexibility of the view camera from which they
were cut down. This is very annoying if you're trying to capture architecture in a city. Panoramic
cameras don't have the close-focus capability of view cameras. This is annoying if you want to include a
person's face prominently in your image. Panoramic cameras can be unbelievably expensive compared
to the view cameras from which they are derived. For example, Linhof makes a 617 camera similar to
my Fuji. A Schneider 72mm lens for the camera is $4000. The same lens ready for use on any view
camera was $1500 (prices from B&H Photo in December 1998).
There are panoramic cameras that do things you could never do with a view camera and cropping. These
have rotating lenses that capture up to 360 degrees onto long strips of film, e.g., the $650 Spinshot
camera makes 7 frames on a 36-exposure roll of 35mm film. The Noblex is the standard rotating-lens
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/camera (7 of 9)7/3/2005 2:22:21 AM