Panoramic Enlarging

PhotoPete · Oct 17, 2005

I am starting to make panoramic images using the techniques described Dead Link Removed, which gives me negatives that are 6x20cm or more...does anyone have a genius method for enlarging these puppies without going digital or am I limited to contact printing them? I have available to me a Beseler 67c and a Federal Junior Store-Away that dates back to the Atomic age. I also have a good 4-blade 11x17 easel. I would love to be able to enlarge these to 12x40cm and print across a piece of 28x43cm paper (aka 11x17) Any brilliant solutions or am I just going to have to break down and scan them?

claytume · Oct 17, 2005

That's interesting stuff you've found there!

I shoot 6x30+ and stretched an enlarger to cover the negs, so yes it can be done ok if you're prepared to do the work. I usually print mine a metre long, at that size they're less than 4 times enlargement and extremely sharp.

If you want I can print a few negs for you to give you an idea how they look.

attached is a pic of the enlarger.

Clayton

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 17, 2005

That is interesting stuff. Has anyone chopped up a few Holgas and glued them back together to make a pano camera? I've seen this done with Nikons, pre-Xpan.

claytume · Oct 17, 2005

David A. Goldfarb said:
That is interesting stuff. Has anyone chopped up a few Holgas and glued them back together to make a pano camera? I've seen this done with Nikons, pre-Xpan.

That's an interesting idea too!..........although you'd have to use some other glass in it to cover.......but then again the falloff may be interesting.

Clayton

PhotoPete · Oct 17, 2005

claytume said:
That's interesting stuff you've found there!

I shoot 6x30+ and stretched an enlarger to cover the negs, so yes it can be done ok if you're prepared to do the work. I usually print mine a metre long, at that size they're less than 4 times enlargement and extremely sharp.

If you want I can print a few negs for you to give you an idea how they look.

attached is a pic of the enlarger.

Clayton

Holy smoke! I'm not sure I could even fit that in my darkroom! Did you make that entire enlarger from scratch? Are there plans for it or did you just improvise?

claytume · Oct 18, 2005

PhotoPete said:
Holy smoke! I'm not sure I could even fit that in my darkroom! Did you make that entire enlarger from scratch? Are there plans for it or did you just improvise?

I stretched a 4x5 out to 4x14........no plans, just improvise.

Clayton

claytume · Oct 18, 2005

Here's a neg carrier with a single 120 frame in it.

Kevin Caulfield · Oct 18, 2005

I am deeply impressed.

claytume · Oct 18, 2005

Kevin Caulfield said:
I am deeply impressed.

Kevin........my next project......when I get time, is an 8x20 enlarger. I have 2 identical 8x10 colour heads that I plan to merge into one head, will have 2400 watts of light.

A problem I have with some of the panoramic formats, 717 abd 820 specifically is the prints are a little on the small side............a 2 times enlargement should make them spectacular.

Clayton

claytume · Oct 18, 2005

By the way........10 years ago when all the good gear was expensive these type of projects weren't possible. Today with enlargers practically being given away anything is possible!

Clayton

Woolliscroft · Oct 18, 2005

It's probably not directly relevant, but I seem to remember that long ago Nikon made a special panoramic camera/enlarger lens pair. The idea was that the camera lens compressed the picture laterally, then the special enlarger lens re-expanded it, so that a normal 35mm 1:1.5 format frame would hold a picture that was really 1:2+. I don't remember much more, though. Does anyone remember this? I wasn't interested at the time, but might be now.

David.

wildbill · Oct 18, 2005

You are talking about anamorphic lenses. They are used for the 35mm motion picture format as taking lenses and projection lenses. 2.35 Cinema Research and Panavision are the 2 biggest companys.
I've always wondered why someone didn't make a stills version. I hadn't heard of the nikon system.

PhotoPete · Oct 18, 2005

claytume said:
Kevin........my next project......when I get time, is an 8x20 enlarger. I have 2 identical 8x10 colour heads that I plan to merge into one head, will have 2400 watts of light.

A problem I have with some of the panoramic formats, 717 abd 820 specifically is the prints are a little on the small side............a 2 times enlargement should make them spectacular.

Clayton

You, sir, are the Dr. Frankenstein of enlargers, and I, for one, salute you. Kudos!

mikeg · Oct 19, 2005

PhotoPete said:
You, sir, are the Dr. Frankenstein of enlargers, and I, for one, salute you. Kudos!

And the prints are fantastic too -- had an amazing one from Clayton from the last print exchange taken at the premiere of the final Lord of the Rings film.

Mike

Mike-D · Oct 20, 2005

wildbill said:
You are talking about anamorphic lenses. They are used for the 35mm motion picture format as taking lenses and projection lenses. 2.35 Cinema Research and Panavision are the 2 biggest companys.
I've always wondered why someone didn't make a stills version. I hadn't heard of the nikon system.

Interestingly Elcan, who makes some of the anamorphic lenses for Panavision, is in the former Leitz factory in Midland, Ontario. High quality lenses and quite expensive.

You can sometimes find anamorphic accessory lenses for movie projectors. You might be able to adapt them to still lenses, but quality might be questionable. Century Precision Optics and others make anamorphic lenses for DV camcorders. Some of these may be the right thread size for still camera lenses. B&H and others carry these or you can check with Century directly. I think you can rotate the accessory lens 90 degrees to "decode" the image.

Mike D

ChrisC · Oct 21, 2005

mikeg said:
And the prints are fantastic too -- had an amazing one from Clayton from the last print exchange taken at the premiere of the final Lord of the Rings film.

Mike

I'll second that. I bought one for my father a couple of years ago, and have seen alot more of his work for sale locally. It's outstanding stuff.

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