Bollard

I’ve made a new page for the Cyclops panoramic camera.

I get quite a lot of hits from people searching for pictures of bollards. They often fail because I removed one so I thought I’d put this up and then people can also tell me why they are looking for them.

More Dodgy Cameras

I took the Cyclops and my home-made pinhole camera out and struggled with both. The Cyclops wasn’t swinging its lens fully and I’m wondering if I might be able to replace the clockwork with a motor. A piece of the pinhole snapped off but that’s a lot easier to repair - Mk II could be in the pipeline. Pictures, if any worked, coming soon.

As usual, a digital picture fills the space.

New Year, New Camera

I’ve been busy making a pinhole camera (120-roll, wide angle, curved back). I’ve put one roll through and it appears to work well enough to put some more through. The pictures should appear here later or failing that, a picture of the camera. I’m sure I must have taken lots of fantastic pictures since the 30th of December but until I find them this train interior will have to suffice.

Five by Four

I spent a couple of days with Tim Hunkin last week, playing with a 5×4 camera for the first time. We shot Ilfochrome paper positives and some c-41, like this one. Obviously you can’t see the resolution of 5″x4″ negatives in a 650 pixel wide web image.

Lomo Supersampler

I received one of these mad 4 lens cameras as a present. You can have the four pictures taken over 2 seconds or 0.2 of a second. I’m not sure how much I want to make pictures that depend on a time element but it’s a bit of fun. This is a short panning shot from the first roll. Lomo

Dead Camera III: It Lives

I managed to put the Cyclops back together and although it’s not perfect it has improved. It seems I managed to put the loose lens element back in the right place but it still needs some adjustment. I think the lens needs to start from slightly further around because I’m getting a dark area at the start of the swing. This means I’m losing about 1 cm of the 155 x 55 mm negative (could be worse!). There is some evidence of camera shake - the lens movement is fairly violent - but it would be a shame not to be able use it for handheld pictures.

You can also see a bigger version (edit - pic removed) and one other from this morning.

[Update: added a page (Feb '04) on the Cyclops].

The Playpen Shifts

I’ve started a page for the medium format panorama experimenting where you can see pictures of the old 6×9 folder and the more ridiculous, disposable 35mm panoramas, which obviously aren’t medium format but it seemed like the best place for them.

This picture was taken with a Bronica RF645, the negs of which are starting to look small.

Diary of a Dead Camera

No pictures from the new camera because it turned out that the suspicious noise was an element of the lens loose inside, so I only had three rolls of very blurry pictures. It was dissapointingly difficult to open up the camera and of course, the lens was the hardest part to get to. I’ve glued the glass back into the mount and repositioned it in what I hope is the right place. I should be able to get the rest of it back together but this is turning into more of a project than I’d intended.

Panoramic

I’ve been thinking about getting into panoramic photography again. Previously I’ve done 360s as QTVRs, but recently I’ve been looking at partial (less than 360) pictures.

I wanted to avoid 35mm but medium format panoramic cameras tend to be quite expensive. Then, just before Easter, in the process of selling an old lens on ebay, I noticed and bought this beast on the left.

Here’s a view of the top.

It was described as a “cyclops” and apparently made in the USA in the 1990s. There is no brand or model name on the camera. It produces a 6×17cm negative so that’s only 4 shots on a roll. I haven’t been able to find much mention of it on the web so if you know anything, please let me know. It appears to work and I’ve put 3 rolls through it today. If the pictures are any good I’ll post them here. In fact, I might post them here even if they aren’t. Update: I made a Cyclops page.