Anyone tried doing panoramic half frames?

loccdor · Sep 6, 2025

What if you taped some black plastic to cover the top half of your 35mm image gate, took a roll with it, then ran that same roll again but with the bottom half taped?

Would you just end up scratching the heck out of your film? Or could you get 72 3:1 aspect ratio images?

Sirius Glass · Sep 7, 2025

Rather than possibly causing scratches or other problems, take the photographs in 35mm format and print only in the half height format.

Paul Howell · Sep 7, 2025

Why not just buy a 35mm SLR or point and shoot with panorama mode, I have a Minolta 600si with pan mode, there many 35mm point and shoot with built in pan mode, that are true panorama, just cropped 35mm.

awty · Sep 7, 2025

The problem would be making a mask that didn't effect the film plane or cause light leaks in such a small window.
a thin piece of tape wouldn't be rigid enough and something thicker would be too thick.
I think you would have to make something special to fit in the 35mm frame.

xkaes · Sep 7, 2025

There's nothing wrong with trying it, but you might face some obstacles. As mentioned, there might be some light leak along the central edge, but I don't think that would be too bad. You'd also have to mask your full-frame 35mm negative carrier, but that's do-able.

As mentioned there are full-frame 35mm cameras that have a panorama mode, but all the ones I've seen crop the top and bottom, so you don't save any film.

There is a camera called the Image Fusion Split-Cam -- maybe available under other brand names. Using 35mm film, it has TWO masks over the lens (and the viewfinder). It allows you to expose the top half of 35mm film (12x36) and then the bottom half -- by cocking the shutter without the advancing the film (and switching the lens & viewfinder masks). The limitation is that it is a fixed-focus, fixed-aperture, fixed-shutter speed camera, so it's BRIGHT settings only -- but it allows you to take multiple exposure panoramas!!!

There's also the Lomo Super Sampler with FOUR lenses that takes 8x24mm images ACROSS 35mm film.

You can read all about them, and many other 35mm cameras with CRAZY film formats -- how about a 35mm camera with NINE lenses (7.5x11mm) -- at:

https://www.subclub.org/shop/35mmmisc.htm

Jbennett68 · Sep 7, 2025

I just got a $40 Minolta Vista also sold as the P's and a Riva I think that a dedicated panoramic half frame sort of with a panoramic viewfinder too. Point and shoot but I'm excited to try it out.

xkaes · Sep 7, 2025

Those 35mm full-frame panorama cameras used various approaches to get panoramas. The Konica Wai Wai, for example, simply used a fixed-aperture 17mm lens -- no kidding -- while others had a 28mm lens combined with a cropped format. So check the specs first -- which are often hard to find.

r_a_feldman · Sep 7, 2025

The main problem with masking off part of the frame is that it does not change the angle of view of the lens and does not give you a panoramic view. For example, if you have a 28mm lens on the camera, the masked image still has a 28mm view angle, only with just half the image recorded. You would need an ultra-wide lens, such as the 17mm mentioned by xkaes in post #7.

Masking for panoramas was done (and much more easily) in large format view cameras, e.g., masking an 8”x10” to 4”x10” and using a wider angle lens.

r_a_feldman · Sep 7, 2025

This is what you need (go to image 48 of 54, third to last row, right hand side image): https://www.phsc.ca/HandMade2008/index.html.

4season · Sep 7, 2025

I imagine you could accomplish this with less fuss with Lomography's Splizer accessory or similar.

loccdor · Sep 7, 2025

Thanks for the feedback. It seems like using 35mm film inside a 120 medium format camera is probably a better idea.

@r_a_feldman Aha. That looks awesome!

@4season It gets you part way there, but the in-front-of-lens solutions don't make a hard cutoff line on the negative.

xkaes · Sep 8, 2025

4season said:
I imagine you could accomplish this with less fuss with Lomography's Splizer accessory or similar.

The Cokin 346 filters, and the Sonia Double Exposure filter (available on EBAY for 0.99¢) do the same thing.

xkaes · Sep 8, 2025

loccdor said:
Thanks for the feedback. It seems like using 35mm film inside a 120 medium format camera is probably a better idea.

Keeping the 35mm film flat in a 120 camera is the challenge.

xkaes · Sep 8, 2025

r_a_feldman said:
The main problem with masking off part of the frame is that it does not change the angle of view of the lens and does not give you a panoramic view.

While we all think of panoramic images as wide-angle, they don't have to be taken with a wide-angle lens. Long lenses can be used as well -- it just gives you a panorama with a telephoto effect, with distant objects, such as mountain ranges, brought closer together. The result is quite dramatic.

OAPOli · Sep 8, 2025

It shouldn't be too hard to mask a 35mm film gate for leaf shutter cameras. Not for a focal plane shutter SLR. Keep in mind the frame should be ~11mm high to leave some space between the two halves. But it would be a pain to scan since the second panos would likely be not synchronised with the firsts.

You can do something analogous on medium-format SLRs with a vertical travel film back. You chop up a dark slide, removing one half. Using double exposure you take two pics with the dark slide flipped on the second. Or make a mask on the film back and advance a half frame if that's possible.

djdister · Sep 8, 2025

xkaes said:
While we all think of panoramic images as wide-angle, they don't have to be taken with a wide-angle lens. Long lenses can be used as well -- it just gives you a panorama with a telephoto effect, with distant objects, such as mountain ranges, brought closer together. The result is quite dramatic.

A good point! Not all panoramas need to be shot with a wide angle lens.

xkaes · Sep 8, 2025

OAPOli said:
It shouldn't be too hard to mask a 35mm film gate for leaf shutter cameras. Not for a focal plane shutter SLR.

I can count all of the half-frame SLR cameras on one hand.

loccdor · Sep 8, 2025

djdister said:
A good point! Not all panoramas need to be shot with a wide angle lens.

Yes, this is a 34x14mm photo I edited and cropped the other day, taken with a 135mm lens. Pretty close to the half frame panorama format I was thinking of which would be about 36x12mm.

I also did a kind of silly 6x1 shot with the same lens... too extreme for most purposes.

But provided your subjects are far, wide angle may not be desired for panorama.

Anyone tried doing panoramic half frames?

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