What's a vintage upgrade to Holga/pinhole panorama cameras?

I've lately become enamored with Jacques-Henri Lartigue's panoramic photographs -- taken likely with a Nettel 6 x 13cm plate.

I'm particularly interested in how Lartigue's images are reasonably sharp in the middle, but have a gorgeous falling off of brightness and resolution towards the sides, and even distortion at the edges.

When I search "panoramic camera" on eBay, I can't find any price/quality point between the Zero Camera pinholes at around $300 and 2,000+ dollar professional cameras, which I assume are razor sharp beyond my aesthetic needs.

Do you suppose there is any used camera with a glass lens out there that could fulfill my requirements? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Holga makes a 120 pano camera with a glass lens, and a pinhole wide film camera, each under $100.

The handmade Kraken without lens is $310.

Maybe search ebay and etsy for "panoramic camera" and see what antiques are out there.

Whether a panorama or not, you're basically asking about how to control clarity -- and there are lots of ways to do that from DIY or store-bought:



There's a detailed description here:

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/softfocus.htm

And if you are interested in pinholes -- just one way of getting there -- check out:

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/pinhole.htm

Bearman said:

Holga makes a 120 pano camera with a glass lens, and a pinhole wide film camera, each under $100.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1609088-REG/holga_200120_120_pan_panoramic_6x12.html

The handmade Kraken without lens is $310.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/990090819/kraken-617-panoramic-camera-for-your

Maybe search ebay and etsy for "panoramic camera" and see what antiques are out there.

Click to expand...

Thank you, the Kraken is perfect for simplicity and price point! I just wonder if a compatible lens exists that will give me falloff and distortion at the edges. If any modern large format lens can produce a large enough image circle for 4x5" negatives, I can't imagine it would fail to cover 6x17 cm pretty well, right? 5" is 12.5 cm, but large format lenses must have a pretty wide image circle to allow the view camera user some room for back adjustments, I imagine. . .

The Holga Pan 120 would give you the results you're looking for, but it's a plastic meniscus lens, not glass.

ame01999 said:

I've lately become enamored with Jacques-Henri Lartigue's panoramic photographs -- taken likely with a Nettel 6 x 13cm plate.

I'm particularly interested in how Lartigue's images are reasonably sharp in the middle, but have a gorgeous falling off of brightness and resolution towards the sides, and even distortion at the edges.

Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, this image is taken with a stereo camera that allowed the use of only one of the two lenses to utilize the combined negative area that would normally accommodate two images.
This explains the poor coverage and edge sharpness as well as the asymmetrical vignetting.

Wonderful photo.

You could get a 4x5-inch Graflex (or similar - something that leaves you in charge of the bellows extension so you can adjust it for a shorter-than-normal lens), and put a 6x12 roll-film holder on it, and a lens that doesn't quite cover 4x5 - something like 5 or 6 inches, intended for a 3x4 Graflex - to give you the darkening edges. You probably won't find this lot already assembled as a kit. I suspect the film holder would be the most expensive bit.
If you make the camera a Speed Graphic (with a working shutter), then you can try lenses without their own shutter, which will be cheaper. You could try enlarging lenses, projector lenses, anything you can mount up, and find the level of 'badness' that satisfies you!