Review : a VERY Panoramic 24x108mm homemade camera


ed9119

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 11, 2002
11,014
48
48
61
Singapore
www.walkeast.com
This cam was made by our very own Clubsnapper e905591s

Siew Yuan is a very humble guy and a Clubsnap participant in this year's Crossing Bridges 7 trip which just concluded.

I spotted him and his camera one evening in Bacolod , Philippines outside the town's City Hall . I didnt think too much about it until i noticed that his camera was wider than normal

Upon closer inspection............ the enormity of his efforts sank in and I was in total AWE...

I had the privilege to see the camera in action (and IT DOES take 24x108mm panorama images)

Totally manual without a light meter, e905591s literally cut a few Yashica MG rangefinders up and put them together again as a single camera . The winding mechanism works

Looking at the finished product, I really could not make out where the 'surgery' took place.

The lens was a large format glass and mounted very nicely (and accurately )

Kudos to e905591s ..... I'll ask him to post a few comments and images if he is not embarassed enough by the accolades

Ladies and gentlemen............. a local effort worthy of praise

profile1.jpg


profile2.jpg
 

The man himself.........
inventor.jpg


Notice the pano 'framelines' using tape across the front of the viewfinder.....
front29.jpg


MUCH wider than a regular DSLR
comparison.jpg


I could NOT spot any significant 'surgery' marks
back26.jpg
 

Last edited:
I hear that he took about a month to complete the project

pass the word around to the other forums if you feel this worthy of mention
 

Last edited:
This is more than worthy mention. It looks really great. As a keen panoramic shooter, this certainly pique my interest. I can roughly see where the joins are at the back and 2 hot shoes!! I can make a good guess that he certainly has the whole thing thought through thoroughly since it is difficult to make out where the surgery was done.

I have tons of questions to ask him but for now just 1 question. Is this a single shot panoramic?

I am guessing so. Using a large format glass so that the image from the lens fills up 108mm of the film. Because of the wideness of the film to fill up, he has to widen the camera too. This also explain why he has to shift the shutter mechanism onto the lens as the original shutter may probably will be offset from the center and not wide enough. Or am I wrong?:sweat:

PS. I wonder if the original camera able to meter off?
 

omg... words can't even begin to describe this... :bigeyes:

salute u! now... can we see some scans from this? :heart:
 

oh man, I can feel his PASSION! :thumbsup:
 

I've asked Siew Yuan to continue this thread ...... obviously there are alot of things about this camera I am in no position to answer

1. some sample images and what the negative looks like
2. the insides of the camera
3. how he engineered and planned the whole thing
 

power !!! this is hard core man. Really would like to see how he do it .. :)
 

:bigeyes:

*salute*

would love to see the product!
 

Wow :eek:, even my surgery skills couldn't match with his... honestly I tried to make an interchangeable lens compact camera, but the final product was rubbish... as in that the whole camera was covered with scotch tape:embrass: and glue...
 

Last edited:
Really neat piece of engineering. Respect. :thumbsup:
 

It is very kind of eddie to put up some pictures of the pano camera I am using. Maybe I will try to fill in some information that is left out by eddie as we hardly have time to talk more during the very hectic schedule of Crossing Bridges 7.

First, some history about the pano camera. The idea of having a panoramic camera came about when I was preparing for a trip to New Zealand in 2009. At that time, the only 35mm panoramic cameras were the expensive XPAN/Fuji TX series or some swing lens camera from Noblex and others. Next would be the even more expensive medium format pano cameras that shoots 4 frames/roll. Since I am not prepared to invest into such expensive equipment, alternative has to be found.

Looking at the half a dozen or so of Yashica GSN rangefinders in my dry box, the idea of sacrificing two of them to make a new camera starts to form in my mind. Digging out the selected GSN pair and armed with a ruler, it occurred to me that it is indeed possible to somehow join the pair up and have a 35mm pano camara with the film gate measuring about 24X100mm, thus giving me about 1:4 pano ratio.

Two months before departure to NZ, I was looking in CS for a suitable lens and focussing mechanism. That must have been the most tricky wildcard of the project because neither is common. Then one fine day after a month of searching, a fellow CSer was selling a Schneider Angulon 65mm f/8. The tiny LF lens was mine after a brief meeting with the seller. But I still have no idea as to how to focus it. Worse come to worst, I was prepared to mount the lens at a fixed hyperfocal distance and be done with it. Meanwhile, the process of sawing the GSN pair apart has started......

As the departure day draws near, I started to wonder if the camera (now in bits and pieces and without focussing mount) will ever see the light (and hopefully capture it on film) in NZ. Then I saw somekind of tele-converter with focusing heliocoid chucked in one corner of a shop (where you convert cash to junk... haha). Surprisingly, the rear element group of the Angulon fits perfectly into the gutted tele-converter.

With all the major parts in possession and two weeks to departure, the real assembly work starts in earnest with the help of a few tools like hacksaw, files, drill and epoxy glue.

I always like to call the outcome the YPAN.....
 

did you take a chainsaw to the cameras :) ....... how was it cut ?

are u able to show some pics with parts dismantaled to re-construct how everything came together ?

and any sample images ?

and how did you put it all back so nicely without much scars ?

getting more and more curious the more i look at it
 

YPan!Power!
Salute! Salute! Salute!:thumbsup:
 

Two months before departure to NZ, I was looking in CS for a suitable lens and focussing mechanism. That must have been the most tricky wildcard of the project because neither is common. Then one fine day after a month of searching, a fellow CSer was selling a Schneider Angulon 65mm f/8. The tiny LF lens was mine after a brief meeting with the seller. But I still have no idea as to how to focus it. Worse come to worst, I was prepared to mount the lens at a fixed hyperfocal distance and be done with it. Meanwhile, the process of sawing the GSN pair apart has started......

As the departure day draws near, I started to wonder if the camera (now in bits and pieces and without focussing mount) will ever see the light (and hopefully capture it on film) in NZ. Then I saw somekind of tele-converter with focusing heliocoid chucked in one corner of a shop (where you convert cash to junk... haha). Surprisingly, the rear element group of the Angulon fits perfectly into the gutted tele-converter.

the real assembly work starts in earnest with the help of a few tools like hacksaw, files, drill and epoxy glue.

maybe I am just a frog in a well.... this is the first time I see that the focusing elements doesn't goes together with the lens.

"synchro comdur" (this is best I see from the photo) This is where the shutter is? Does this thing comes together with Schneider Angulon lens?

With an adapted view finder and the shutter in front of the "focusing" teleconverter, I am wondering how does the focusing works here?

Using such basic hand tools, you did quite a good job "tearing" it apart and putting them together.