| PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY |  |
I bought this camera not for shooting classic panoramics of the Alps or the typical "beach with palm-tree". This format - very similar to the human field of view - offers big potentials in the different sectors of photography.
Wasting it just for "beautiful" landscapes is not my thing.
lens:
2.8/28mm, fixed focus, angle of view: about 120 degrees
shutter speeds:
1/2, 1/4, 1/8
1/60, 1/125, 1/250
(realised by combination of three different slit-sizes and two slit-speeds)
apertures:
f2.8 - f4 - f5.6 - f8 - f11 - f16
Because it's a fix focus lens, teh depth of field depends of the aperture. With f16 you will get sharp pictures from 1m to infinity.
film size:
35/135 in standrad cassette
picture size: 24x58mm (19-23 frames/roll)
what else ...
- circular level mirrored in viewfinder
- filter (grey , green, skylight) will be clipped in front of the lens
- a little bit noisy (long exposure times)
All the pictures are made with the russian spin-lens-camera Horizon 202 (pure mechanic - after 13 years of use I changed the seals).
The cameras produces REAL panoramic pictures, not cropped wide-angle-pictures.
Advantage: less distortions as if you use one of these pseudo-panoramic-cameras and - yes, it's la complete different look
There is another model-type - the Horizon 202s - with two additional shutter-speeds.
For realising close-up-shots under bad light-conditions an optician has made
a special lens for me (0.5dpt.) which was built in one of the filter-holders.
With the lens it's possible to get sharp pictures in a range of 2-6 meters with f2.8.
Costs: around 75 Euros.
You have made experiences with similar constructions? - email me
The weak point: the seals
Sooner or later everyone who's working with the Horizon will make the acquaintance with leaking seals - resulting in irregular stripe-patterns onto the negatives.
With a good hand it's possible to build replacements and change the old ones.
Horizon? - Noblex?
The Horizon is faster than the Noblex (which has to speed up the lens) so I think it's the better choice for "spontaneous" photography. The new Noblex 135UC has an improoved drum-control - so it's got more fast - but there is still a delay. Also you can react very quickly to changing light-conditions because adjusting aperture and speed is done very fast. The viewfinder is astonishingly precise. The Horizon is made for tough jobs.
Last but not least: I like more the aspect ratio of the negatives shot with the Horizon. - The Noblex produces negatives which are 8mm longer - this seems to me not so harmonic - a matter of taste, of course ... - By the way: the "big" Noblex 150 (60mm roll-film) produces pictures with the same aspect ratio as the Horizon ....
You will find links to pages with more technical details on the panoramic link page.
development? - prints?
Normally I use the Kodak T400CN (b&w-film but based on the color-process C-41). - The negative will be scanned. Either with two passes (35mm-scanner Nikon Coolscan III) and compositing in Photoshop or with the fladbedscanner Epson Perfection 3200 Photo in one pass.
There are many print-services via internet where You can get good and inexpensive prints.
No problem in these days: the own book
Years ago you had to spend lots of printer-sessions and a lot of handwork to build your own book. Today there are professional possibilities for everyone to produce a book with digital printing technologies. You just need a standard-PC. Companies like Fotobuch.de (in Germany) transform the transfered data in a good-looking book.
With black & white photographies it's difficult to get a totally neutral print, but nevertheless the results are quite good.
