Murdoc1905
Member
Hello all, I got really interested in panoramic film cameras after seeing an Xpan on a photo walk. I've also always wanted a medium format camera but was always daunted by the modular nature of most standard medium formats. So deciding to mesh the two ideas I landed on the Fujica GL690. I was a bit surprised to find that the 35mm film Panorama situation to be extremely cumbersome despite having a very 35mm film style of loading the 120 rolls. The fact that you have to either dark bag it for every 35mm change or do the odd method of using a 35mm canister on the take up side then scrap the last shot of film was irksome to me. So I've set out to design and test a standard method (with hopefully minimal complicated steps) to get the standard 35mm experience where you shoot the film as normal, then you roll it all back into the 35mm canister and pull it out and swap it. Planned modifications to the camera are planned to be very simple, minimal, and completely reversible. It will require a custom 120 to 35mm spool and the replacement of the bottom spool lock/unlock lever which is held in place by a standard flat head screw that's left hand thread. Currently I have designed the pieces and sent them off to a 3D printing company to get 2 prototypes of each piece made for testing and fitment checking. Once the pieces come in it will be easier to show photos of exactly how things should work and the theory behind it. But basically the custom take-up spool is slightly shorter than a standard spool with a locating "bumb" on the bottom to keep it centered on the lock/unlock lever.

So with the camera closed you turn the lock/unlock lever to unlock which causes the spool to drop away from the film advance lever cam which will allow it to spin freely. On the other side the lock/unlock lever will be replaced with a different assembly that doesn't have a lock but can spin freely and for now is just a simple thumb screw version for testing purposes. So once you unlock the take-up spool you can then turn the thumb screw to pull the film back onto the 35mm canister.


So with the camera closed you turn the lock/unlock lever to unlock which causes the spool to drop away from the film advance lever cam which will allow it to spin freely. On the other side the lock/unlock lever will be replaced with a different assembly that doesn't have a lock but can spin freely and for now is just a simple thumb screw version for testing purposes. So once you unlock the take-up spool you can then turn the thumb screw to pull the film back onto the 35mm canister.
