Mechanical XPAN, is it possible?

nhchen said:
Inspired by these diy cameras, a few years ago I cobbled together a broken canon P and a mamiya 65mm f6.3 together to make a panoramic camera. It uses a cut down focusing bellows I had lying around to focus the lens. And I filed the film gate to make it a lot wider. It’s a bit weird, and I still haven’t figured out how to frame properly, but it works ok.
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Regards Nathan
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I really love this solution because it is so simple! Since seeing this I've gone on a deep dive on ebay to find the perfect cheap body to gut and convert. I've settled for the moment on a sad looking Praktica that I bid $5 for. I went for an m42 body so I can use one of the Chinese m42 helicals that I had laying around. I also already have the adapters to mount a 65mm/6.8 Angulon in a #00 press shutter. I've tested it for infinity focus which will be perfect. I'll just need add a focus scale. The problem with the helicals is that they tend to wobble a bit since they are very cheaply made. I've relubed mine with some heavy grease which has improved it, but I'm still looking to make it better. I'm hoping to be able to get about 68mm-72mm width depending on the space available in the body. I'll just need remember to advance 2 frames, and as the lens has a press shutter there is no seperate cocking needed. I'll post some pictures once it comes together.
 
CNNY said:
I really love this solution because it is so simple! Since seeing this I've gone on a deep dive on ebay to find the perfect cheap body to gut and convert. I've settled for the moment on a sad looking Praktica that I bid $5 for. I went for an m42 body so I can use one of the Chinese m42 helicals that I had laying around. I also already have the adapters to mount a 65mm/6.8 Angulon in a #00 press shutter. I've tested it for infinity focus which will be perfect. I'll just need add a focus scale. The problem with the helicals is that they tend to wobble a bit since they are very cheaply made. I've relubed mine with some heavy grease which has improved it, but I'm still looking to make it better. I'm hoping to be able to get about 68mm-72mm width depending on the space available in the body. I'll just need remember to advance 2 frames, and as the lens has a press shutter there is no seperate cocking needed. I'll post some pictures once it comes together.
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Hey I'm also planning to convert a camera to panoramic. I have a press 4x5 135mm f/8 lens in #00 shutter. Can you share details regarding the adapters? I've read you can mount Bronica ETR lenses into #0 shutters and those come in wide angle.
 
OlivierAOP said:
Hey I'm also planning to convert a camera to panoramic. I have a press 4x5 135mm f/8 lens in #00 shutter. Can you share details regarding the adapters? I've read you can mount Bronica ETR lenses into #0 shutters and those come in wide angle.
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There are various sellers on ebay who have the right adapters. My helical is m42, and #00 is 25mm. I have seen a couple of adapters in those sizes, but I had some other things laying around. C-mount is 25.4 (1") but the thread is close enough to fit. I have a 39mm to C-mount and a 39mm to m42 adapter. It is always a bit of a puzzle to make it work. If you get a c-mount adapter, make sure it is not recessed, because you will end up needing a spacer to ensure that the aperture arm can move.
#0 shutters are 32.5mm and there are some adapters for this size available. With longer lenses you need to be sure that the helical or whatever tube you are mounting it on does not vignet the frame. I have verified that with my lens the m42 helical does not vignet, but I won't know for sure if it works until I see how much space there is inside the body I'm getting. The wider the lens is the less it should be a problem.
I'm not sure about the Bronica lenses. I have a Mamiya 65/3.5 salvaged from a TLR that I'm reserving for another project, that would work on this project too. The secret is that tha Mamiya TLR lenses are matched pairs. If the taking lens is hazy (and it is sold cheaply), often the viewing lens will be fine, and you can transfer the good lens to the shutter. They are #0 shutter.
 
Ah gotcha thanks. I thought you had an adapter to fit #0 lens cells into a #00 shutter.


Since you have one handy, what's the (approximate) back focus distance on the 65mm f3.5 Mamiya? Thanks.
 
OlivierAOP said:
Ah gotcha thanks. I thought you had an adapter to fit #0 lens cells into a #00 shutter.


Since you have one handy, what's the (approximate) back focus distance on the 65mm f3.5 Mamiya? Thanks.
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The flange focal distance for the 65/3.5 is about 73mm (from film to shutter mount). I also have the Mamiya 80/2.8, and it is about the same (~72mm in my notes). I suppose those tlr lenses are all designed to sit at the same distance because they are all mounted the same way in the bodies, with a little bit of shimming.
The 65mm 6.8 Angulon is tiny and comes standard in a #00 shutter. Mine was on a polaroid copy device, which is why it has a press shutter. The focal flane distance is 63mm. The final camera will end up being very compact like an slr with a pancake lens.
 
Just posting some progress images as I have been ripping the guts out of a Praktica Nova.
This is the proof of concept. The angulon sits on a helical that fits into the m42 mount.
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Praktipan_03.jpg


I selected this model because there is room for a wide film gate. I'll probably end up with 68mm x 24mm.
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I've removed all non-essential parts. It was tricky because I wanted to maintain the wind-on mechanism but remove the shutter, but they are linked. In the end it will need a spring to return a winding gear for it to advance and count the frames correctly. Normally the shutter curtain return spring does that, but that is out now. Thankfully a lot of the weight is in the pentaprism so this will be much lighter than the original.
Praktipan_05.jpg


I have used a dremel to open up the film gate. I'll now need to file it out by hand to get it the right size. Since I removed so many screws, I'll need to do a serious amount of hole plugging to keep out light leaks.
Praktipan_06.jpg

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I'll update when I get it to the next stage.
 
Here is my attempt. Holga 135 PAN body (native 24X72mm frame) and a 55mm Mamiya Sekor from a TLR. 3D-printed the helicoid adapter, scotch tape in lieu of ground surface to check focus. Next I have to hack the body, and the lens has some weird haze I can't seem to wipe off (plus the shutter sticks a bit).


DSCF6954 by Olivier, on Flickr


DSCF6955 by Olivier, on Flickr
 
aizan said:
I shopped far and wide for a compact panoramic camera w/o a rotating lens and settled on the Moment anamorphic lens. Phones are still annoying to use for my purposes (street-style shooting), but it could be fine for you. If you're set on film, I was also looking at the Horizon S3 and something along the lines of the Mamiya Press Super 23 with the 50/6.3 lens and 35mm panoramic adapter.

If you have the tools, you could also hack a stereo camera.

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It would be useful to know failure rates for an electronic camera's various components, and the availability of each of those parts. Everyone's case of risk aversion is different.
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This is a rad conversion.
 
I've modded the holga, lens mount works. Tried to calibrate focus with pseudo ground glass but oof the image is tiny. I *think* I got infinity right but the others...



DSCF6985 by Olivier, on Flickr


The weird haze on the Mamiya is quite persistant unfortunately. At least I fixed the sticky shutter.
 
Focus calibration was off. Redid it via 2nd camera and 1:1 lens + digital loupe focused on ground glass. Much better. See crop.



000099160007-1 by Olivier, on Flickr


000099160007-crop by Olivier, on Flickr



I had to polish the hazy lens element and got better contrast. Also I opened the inside of the Holga to get more height on the frame but there is still some vignetting...
 
Camera with long film gate for pano conversion

Camera with long film gate for pano conversion

I'm planning to build a panoramic camera by extending the film gate of a suitable camera.

Can somebody recommend any camera with a long film gate which can be chopped off to expose a longer sized negative ?

Here's the pic. of such an example but I can't remember which camera it was. Seems to have quite some space to grind.

Are rangefinders easier than SLRs to modify? FED/Zorkis have that extra space but do you have any other recommendations?

Thanks

4FdXkJR.jpg
 
Fantastic, just what I wish to do. In fact I've also got one Holga 135 Panoramic lying unused. However I wish to try my hands on widening the film gate of a standard camera. first. I don't want to destroy my Holga Pan with my limited experience, as they've became quite rare on BayE.

Can somebody suggest some cutting tool for chopping of the film gate? I'm also thinking to put some non-sticky slime gel inside the camera while cutting to trap the metal shards, which I would remove later.
 
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