A 360° Panoramic Camera
The idea behind this project was to make a 360° Panoramic Camera as cheap and simple as possible. I enjoy making things that way. The material is PVC plastic in sheets, tubes and rods. The film advances behind a slit as the camera rotates. A full panoramic image without splices is produced in one shot. It uses 120 film commonly used in medium format cameras. The film strip is 60 mm wide. The camera was made in 1988, long before people started to stitch together digital images but almost 100 years after the 360° camera was invented.
The cylinder is attached to the tripod mount. When the motor turns, the camera rotates around the stationary cylinder. This makes the film wind around the cylinder which has a radius equal to the focal length of the lens. This is the entire math you need to synchronize the film transport with the camera rotation.
The slit width is about 1.4 mm. I use a 28 mm lens so a 360° image is 28 x 2 x pi mm long = 175.9 mm. The time it takes to rotate 360° is 4 seconds. The effective exposure time will in this case be 4 / (175.9 mm / 1.4 mm) seconds = ~ 1/30 s.
The slit width is about 1.4 mm. I use a 28 mm lens so a 360° image is 28 x 2 x pi mm long = 175.9 mm. The time it takes to rotate 360° is 4 seconds. The effective exposure time will in this case be 4 / (175.9 mm / 1.4 mm) seconds = ~ 1/30 s.
The motor is powered by two 9 volt batteries. The batteries can be used either in series or in parallel. This gives the two speeds of 4 and 8 seconds per revolution resulting in exposure times of 1/30 or 1/15 s.
There is no shutter in the camera. I just take off the lens cap as I start the camera and set it back when it stops. The first and last millimeters of the shot are overexposed. But who cares as long as there are scissors around...
There is no shutter in the camera. I just take off the lens cap as I start the camera and set it back when it stops. The first and last millimeters of the shot are overexposed. But who cares as long as there are scissors around...
The slit assembly, cylinder and motor seen before the top is glued in place.
The film protection paper is attached to the cylinder with a piece of tape. The film is loaded in full daylight but must be unloaded in darkness. I am using a darkroom sack when unloading the film on location.
The slit must have clean and sharp edges. Thin sheets of black plastic works fine
The automatic stop allows a maximum of more than 360°. It's a good practice to capture a little bit more than you intend to use.
The DC motor has a built-in gearbox to reduce the speed and increase the torque. The lens mount is a rear lens cap - cheap and simple but works well.
The three switches are used for run/stop, full/half speed and reverse for unloading the film. The water levels are needed for proper setup of the camera you need them more than a viewfinder.
The full diagonal of the 35 mm format lens can be used as the film is exposed through a narrow slit. The vertical field of view is 75° when a 28 mm lens is used and the height of the image is 43 mm
Copyright © Mats Wernersson
