DIY "panoramic" SLR mask?

Jerevan

Jerevan

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Just a random idea by the kitchen table ...

I have a spare Nikon F2 and I was thinking if it would be possible to use this for a panorama project. I was thinking a mask, covering some of the film, like 12x36 for example, with the same size mask in the finder (sharpie marks on a focus screen, basically). I was thinking of using the 24 mm lens to get more of a panoramic feeling.

I would need to attach the 12x36 mask to cover the film, but I am not sure how complicated this might get ...
 
I have been doing this the easy way.
Picked up a Nikon N70 with databack. It comes with the shutter blinds to make a panorama shot. When using the feature there are frame lines that light up in the view finder. I use a 28mm lens with it. The N70 is a nice camera although not a popular one.
Picked it up on fleabay for $15.00. A poor man's Xpan for sure 😀
 
Cheat! I've been doing it for years. Two strips of tape is all it takes. I used aluminum tape and cut it 10mm wide. I put one strip across the top of the opening just below the upper film rail and the other across the bottom. You can mask the finder with whatever works.
Free tip: Get a full frame fisheye, hold the camera level, and take landscapes. Often it is not to obvious that a fisheye lens was used.
Certainly the N70 suggested above would be a much neater solution, but hey, it costs $15 and you still have a spare Nikon F2.
Good luck and whatever you do, have fun.
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Why not crop in post? You could get a gridded E screen and use the marks for reference but then have a little wiggle room if you want.
Phil Forrest
Click to expand...


Agreed


Masking the film gate is only necessary when sending the film to a lab that supports printing the old (read: antique) Kodak panoramic format.


My vote for marking the screen is to use some screen other than an E-screen and scribe your own marks using a carefully placed straightedge and very sharp (e.g. Xacto) knife to scratch a single cut on the bottom surface of the screen. I've never done this for pano, but back in the day I did a decent number of screens for 8x10 crop marks. A single strong scribe mark done with a very sharp knife will be quite visible.
 
Great suggestion on using a sharp blade to scribe Dwig!

So I can send you a old A screen for my F and get some pretty 8x10 marks! 😉
 
Good call on the tape, Spavinaw. I'll see if I can round up an E screen.

The N, or rather F70 on this side of the ocean is a neater trick but then I'd have to get another camera/lens combo. I am trying to keep costs and extras down.

Remembering how to crop to the original intention of the composition ... well, I'll see if that works. I'd need to be more diligent with sketching and note taking then. 🙂
 
Meikai "Panarama" Camera

Meikai "Panarama" Camera

Not an answer to the OP question but there is a cheap (very cheap!) chinese plastic camera who has the possibility of covering the upper and lower parts of the frame (and the correspondig area of the viewfinder) . Or can be used in Standard mode..
Details and photos here
https://public.fotki.com/BlueWind/meikai-panarama-camera/

Regards

Joao
 
I've been doing this for years with my Nikons. I use a millimeter rule to mark off the location of the safe area lines I draw on the finder screen with a soft lead pencil. I favor a 2:1 aspect ratio for projected slides, so I mark an 18 x 36mm area. Then I use Wess-mount slide mounts to mask to that dimension. Another way to mask is to use the silver tape I get from B&H, if I don't have a mount with the aspect ratio I want.

For Black and white darkroom printing, it's easy to crop with the enlarging easel.

I usually want a less extreme ratio than what you get with an XPAN or Widelux. When it is too extreme, I feel there isn't enough foreground to satisfy. So I like to crop from the Nikon or Hasselblad format.

Edit: There is also a Gepe slide mask for the 2:1 ratio.
 
Mnolta made drop in masks for some of their cameras. I have two of them, one for a 7000i and one for a 9xi. You could probably find one for peanuts. I doubt anyone actually ever used them. They would probably fit since 24x36 is 24x36...
 
Dwig said:
My vote for marking the screen is to use some screen other than an E-screen and scribe your own marks using a carefully placed straightedge and very sharp (e.g. Xacto) knife to scratch a single cut on the bottom surface of the screen. I've never done this for pano, but back in the day I did a decent number of screens for 8x10 crop marks. A single strong scribe mark done with a very sharp knife will be quite visible.
Click to expand...

^ This.

I prefer the 645 format, so to help me compose I added lines to my Nikon's focusing screen. I tried a few methods: tape ("invisible" Sellotape, black electrical), fine indelible marker pen, fine pencil and a scalpel.

The two score lines made by a scalpel with a new blade were perfect. They didn't need to be deep. The other methods worked but were ugly and imperfect: the tape had an uneven edge (even when freshly cut with a scalpel), and tended to move slightly by shrinkage after applying; the pencil and pen lines where too thick and uneven.

The problem you're dealing with is magnification: looking through the viewfinder, the thinnest pen or pencil line appears to be several centimetres thick when overlain on the scenery!

This magnification also means the lines need to be placed extremely accurately: to the nearest 0.1 mm. The slightest error misplaces the line on the scene by several centimetres.


The method I decided on after trial and error and trashing a few screens:
Work out where your crop marks need to be, and do a trial run using low-tack masking tape, and test the screen in the camera. Repeat until the tape is placed accurately and both edges are parallel and identical (yes, it is a bit of a pain having to remove and refit the screen several times...!). Now tape your focusing screen to cardboard, itself taped firmly to a table or desk. Accurately make four cuts with a scalpel on the cardboard that align with the edges of your masking tape on the screen. Next, carefully and gently lift off these two pieces of tape with the scalpel, ensuring you don't move the screen even slightly. Then, using a very straight edge (I used a 6 in. steel rule) and the scalpel, lightly score two lines on the screen.

Tips:

  • Do use a fresh scalpel blade
  • 6 in. metal rule cheaply available from eBay
  • Buy a couple of screens, one for practice that you'll be sacrificing
  • The whole process is a million times easier if you use a desk magnifier to view your screen to do the above - again, easy to find cheap on eBay.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions coming in!

Rob-F, the Gepe slide mask - do you know what they are called? I found some that are 14x35 (and a bunch of others, never knew there were so many variations!). I prefer the 2:1 ratio, it's easy to get too wide.

The Minolta drop-in mask, I have to look for that too.

The procedures for scribing a custom screen - thanks for the very thorough tutorial, RichC!
 
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