Or
Be Careful What You Wish For. You Just May Get It.
I recently purchased a camera that I have wanted for the last 20 years. It’s a Noblex 06/150 medium format panoramic camera. I call it the “twirly camera” because the lens spins on a turret when the shutter is pressed.
I finally bought one at Blue Moon Camera and Machine in January. Luckily, the owner who had put it on consignment was at the store, and gave me a quick rundown of how to use it, and then the Commander Riker to the Owner’s Jean Luc Picard, # 1 himself, Zeb Andrews, said “up is a grin, down is a frown.” After a moment of confusion, I understood what he was saying: The lens has a curvature. The trick, I understood to be, getting the camera level. It also meant that I could get some unusual effects from the camera.
What I did not count on was the unusual way that it would treat the near from the far. Note in the first picture, the curvature of the guardrail on the right. That’s really not the curvature that exists in reality. In fact, it’s rather straight at that point. The guardrails in the picture below open dramatically, and evenly (I am proud to say, considering that I did not look through the viewfinder to compose the picture). I was in a hurry to get off of the road.
The camera takes certain liberties, shall we say, with the extremities. These can be used to one’s advantage. It can also create interesting warping of perspective. In the picture below, this warping curves a straight fence along the road.
The camera has a fixed 50mm lens in the turret. It’s a slightly wide angle for a medium format camera. It’s the equivalent to a 35mm lens in 35mm (or full frame) cameras. The rotation of that lens creates the panoramic image.
About 20 years ago, I ran into a photographer at the Portland waterfront. I forget his name, but after talking for a while, I learned that he was a successful photographer who did mostly corporate work, but made time on every job to do the kind of photography that he enjoyed: nudes and landscapes. Just before he left, he whipped out of his trunk a strange camera that he pointed at downtown Portland across the river, and pressed the shutter release. The lens spun around. I wanted one of those cameras. It would be a long time before I got one.
Hasselblad made a camera called the X-Pan, Linhof made a panoramic camera, as did Fujifilm, and a few others did as well. Their main issue was the curvature of the image circle at the edges of the pictures. Being high end cameras, it was not very noticeable. The Noblex, however, as you have seen by the above images, eats straight lines for lunch.
So, now that I have the camera that I have always wanted, what am I going to do with it? Why, take pictures, of course, and learn the ins and outs of getting the camera to do what I want it to do. And next time I really want a camera, research it first. lesson learned.
Technical Data:
All images Noblex 06/150.
