Playing with Weird ULTRA WIDE ANGLE Lenses

**interested_observer** · 10-01-2019, 11:31 AM - **1 Like**

You Tube

**Kevin B123** · 10-01-2019, 11:49 AM

Wow, they have some exotic lenses and cameras, another channel subscribed!.

**sergysergy** · 10-01-2019, 02:01 PM

Some of those are crazy wide!

Marcus Rowland · 10-02-2019, 03:38 PM

The first one is actually intended for digital cameras - the manufacturer offered software for converting the round image into a panorama. Unfortunately the software was expensive and not very good, and the concept quickly died. I think there was an earlier version for 35mm cameras but I have no idea how they got the panoramic image from the negative.

I'm just waiting for a Lomography Spinner 360, which appears to be what it sounds like - you pull a cord and the camera body rotates through 360 degrees to take a panoramic picture. Got it for £16 on a pawn shop web site, they're normally £89!
Spinner 360° · Lomography Shop

Also waiting for someone to supply me with the gear I need to adapt a huge cinemascope projection lens converter to a camera - the thing is big and weighs a couple of kilos so you need to support it separately from the camera and align everything perfectly - the converter, the camera lens (I'm hoping a 50mm will be about right), and the camera body, and separately set distance on the lens and the adapter. The converter cost me £20 in a car boot sale and isn't wonderful, I think all the support stuff will end up costing more than the converter!

Marcus Rowland · 10-26-2019, 02:23 PM

I've now tested both of the weird wide format gizmos I got in the last couple of months, the Cinemascope adapter and the weird Lomography Spinner 360 35mm camera. Apologies if you see this twice, I've also posted to the My Latest Acquisition thread.

The Cinemascope adapter works, except that you need a slightly long lens to start with - I ended up using a 58mm Russian lens, anything shorter had cropped corners in the final image, and something even longer might have been better. Unfortunately it's a bit of a pig to work with - you really need a tripod, the converter weighs more than a kilo, and with the camera, the lens, etc. you end up carrying about 5kg of kit. It's also very slow because for each shot you need to adjust the camera lens and the converter, bracket speed (because the lens has no connection to the camera's metering system), you have to keep everything dead level or there's distortion, etc. etc. I took 9 photos in the time it usually takes me for 50 or more when I'm testing something more conventional. Here's one of them:

The rest of this batch are here:
Cinemascope Converter | Flickr

The Lomography Spinner 360º 35mm camera takes incredibly wide negatives on 35mm film - the whole camera whizzes round with the film pulled past the lens as it goes. You get 8-9 photos on a 36-exposure roll, and if you aren't doing your own processing it soon gets seriously expensive. And Snappy Snaps etc. really don't want to have anything to do with scanning or printing them! Ideally you're supposed to include the sprockets in pictures since they're exposed, but in practice (after messing around with my flatbed scanner and getting nowhere, it's just way too low resolution) I ended up having to convert the images in my crappy slide scanner, which really didn't want to know about anything larger than a 35mm frame, then assemble the images using stitching software. It's a bit of a pain, especially if you haven't worked with film in umpteen years and are a bit cack-handed... Some interesting results, but there was a reason I switched to digital and this really hasn't changed my mind! This picture was taken in the same location as the one above.

The rest of the spinner photos are here:
Lomography Spinner 360º | Flickr

I'm not going to be keeping this kit but it was fun to play with.

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10-01-2019, 11:49 AM	#2
Kevin B123 Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,176	Wow, they have some exotic lenses and cameras, another channel subscribed!.

10-01-2019, 02:01 PM	#3
sergysergy Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2011 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,170	Some of those are crazy wide!

10-02-2019, 03:38 PM	#4
Marcus Rowland Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: London Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,079	The first one is actually intended for digital cameras - the manufacturer offered software for converting the round image into a panorama. Unfortunately the software was expensive and not very good, and the concept quickly died. I think there was an earlier version for 35mm cameras but I have no idea how they got the panoramic image from the negative. I'm just waiting for a Lomography Spinner 360, which appears to be what it sounds like - you pull a cord and the camera body rotates through 360 degrees to take a panoramic picture. Got it for £16 on a pawn shop web site, they're normally £89! Spinner 360° · Lomography Shop Also waiting for someone to supply me with the gear I need to adapt a huge cinemascope projection lens converter to a camera - the thing is big and weighs a couple of kilos so you need to support it separately from the camera and align everything perfectly - the converter, the camera lens (I'm hoping a 50mm will be about right), and the camera body, and separately set distance on the lens and the adapter. The converter cost me £20 in a car boot sale and isn't wonderful, I think all the support stuff will end up costing more than the converter!

10-26-2019, 02:23 PM	#5
Marcus Rowland Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: London Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,079	I've now tested both of the weird wide format gizmos I got in the last couple of months, the Cinemascope adapter and the weird Lomography Spinner 360 35mm camera. Apologies if you see this twice, I've also posted to the My Latest Acquisition thread. The Cinemascope adapter works, except that you need a slightly long lens to start with - I ended up using a 58mm Russian lens, anything shorter had cropped corners in the final image, and something even longer might have been better. Unfortunately it's a bit of a pig to work with - you really need a tripod, the converter weighs more than a kilo, and with the camera, the lens, etc. you end up carrying about 5kg of kit. It's also very slow because for each shot you need to adjust the camera lens and the converter, bracket speed (because the lens has no connection to the camera's metering system), you have to keep everything dead level or there's distortion, etc. etc. I took 9 photos in the time it usually takes me for 50 or more when I'm testing something more conventional. Here's one of them: The rest of this batch are here: Cinemascope Converter \| Flickr The Lomography Spinner 360º 35mm camera takes incredibly wide negatives on 35mm film - the whole camera whizzes round with the film pulled past the lens as it goes. You get 8-9 photos on a 36-exposure roll, and if you aren't doing your own processing it soon gets seriously expensive. And Snappy Snaps etc. really don't want to have anything to do with scanning or printing them! Ideally you're supposed to include the sprockets in pictures since they're exposed, but in practice (after messing around with my flatbed scanner and getting nowhere, it's just way too low resolution) I ended up having to convert the images in my crappy slide scanner, which really didn't want to know about anything larger than a 35mm frame, then assemble the images using stitching software. It's a bit of a pain, especially if you haven't worked with film in umpteen years and are a bit cack-handed... Some interesting results, but there was a reason I switched to digital and this really hasn't changed my mind! This picture was taken in the same location as the one above. The rest of the spinner photos are here: Lomography Spinner 360º \| Flickr I'm not going to be keeping this kit but it was fun to play with.