Last time I wrote about my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, which I documented on medium format with my Hasselblad 500 CM. What I didn’t mention was how that trip made me cross paths with the hefty Roundshot 65/70-220.
The Fujifilm Professional TX-2 (its sister Hasselblad XPan I/II or the older Fuji TX) is one of those cameras which you lust after, and when you get it, open the packaging and have it in your hands at last, you marvel at the build quality, the heft and solidity, the beauty of the workmanship and the lens as you handle the jewel like thing and attach it to the body. You then oooh and aaaah as you lift it and put it to your eye and are blown away by the clear bright finder which is very wide and large indeed! You then want to go out and shoot with it so you insert the batteries and then the film – which is as easy to load as a point and shoot
Dedicated panoramic cameras tend to be a bit pricey. This Lomography Spinner 360° is refreshingly affordable. It retails new for £89 on the Lomography website. I bought a shop-soiled copy from a popular auction site for a bit less than that (because I’m a cheapskate). At some point, someone seems to have decided on a dolphin logo for this camera. I’m not sure what relevance the Dolphin has to panoramic photography, but it doesn’t detract from form or function.
As a relatively new amateur photographer, I settled quite quickly into a default process. I have a favourite film in a preferred format that I develop with my process of choice. However, when someone sent me three rolls of expired Kodak Tri-X 400, I figured that I might as well experiment with them.
I have a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 518/2 folding camera which takes great big 6×9 negatives. I had already acquired some 35mm adapters for it in the past, but I only ever used them once or twice with mixed results. This seemed like a good opportunity to really get this sprocket panorama thing down. I might mess up the first roll, do a little better with the second, and hopefully really nail it with the third.
Being the very visual person I am, I’m generally drawn to cameras more by the visual appearance and quality of the camera than the technical aspects. The Brook-Plaubel Veriwide 100 was one of these cameras as I find it visually appealing and have always wanted to own one from the very beginnings of collecting cameras. Still, after shooting with it, it’s one of the best cameras I’ve shot.
