The Magic of Panorama

It might seem simple—just crop the top and bottom of a photo, and there’s your panorama… but it’s not quite that easy. I fully experienced this magic only recently, when I started shooting panoramas on 35mm film inserted into a 6x7.

The setup is fairly straightforward—a masking frame inside the film path, a couple of spacers so the 35mm cassette fits where the 120 film spool usually goes, and a mask for the viewfinder that turns the 6x7 format into a 24x66mm format. Once you put your eye to the viewfinder, you’re instantly captivated by the charm of the panorama! All ordinary scenes take on an astonishingly new perspective, even places you’ve shot dozens of times are seen in a completely new way.

“Real World Studio” panorama - I did it by stitching files weeks after shoot.

I had taken panoramas before—on film with a Horizon camera, and in the digital age, by stitching files together in software. But in the Horizon, the viewfinder only gives a rough idea of the future shot, and when you shoot a panorama in parts, it exists only in your imagination.

FUJI G617

There are two types of cameras that shoot panoramas—cameras with a wide-angle lens, like FUJI G617, or

Hasselblad Xpan

…and swing-lens panoramic cameras like absolute iconic camera Widelux F8 and

Russia made “Horizon”

Swing-lens panoramic cameras is especially intriguing, as different parts of the frame are exposed at different times. For instance, you can take a portrait of a person who simultaneously appears in a mirror reflection on the other half of the frame, and they will have a completely different facial expression if it changes during the exposure. It’s no wonder these cameras have devoted fans, almost like a cult following. Jeff Bridges and his wife Susan, for example, along with a couple of other enthusiasts, are trying to revive production of the iconic Widelux F8 camera. The latter is especially intriguing, as different parts of the frame are exposed at different times. For instance, you can take a portrait of a person who simultaneously appears in a mirror reflection on the other half of the frame, and they will have a completely different facial expression if it changes during the exposure. It’s no wonder these cameras have devoted fans, almost like a cult following. Jeff Bridges and his wife Susan, for example, along with a couple of other enthusiasts, are trying to revive production of the iconic Widelux F8 camera.

…and one more story from Josef Koudelka: “I was using this Fuji panoramic — but the problem was everyone stopped developing the film,” says Koudelka. “You can’t get 220 film anymore and you needed to carry about 35 kilograms extra.”

“I went to Leica and they did one camera for me that was digital panoramic, which is this S2 camera, and they make two lines and set it on black and white,” he continues. “I made four trips with it together with the film camera.”