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==Background==
==Background==
Eder<ref>{{Citation | author1=Josef Maria Eder | title=History of photographyPaperback | publication-date=1978 | publisher=New York Dover Publications | isbn=978-0-486-23586-8}}</ref> notes that "It was not until the invention of the flexible silver bromide films that [the panoramic camera] achieved the great success which it merits. The prototype of the Kodak Panoram camera, introduced with commercial success in 1900, is easily seen at first sight. The Kodak Panoram camera permits an instantaneous exposure over an extensive field of vision by an analogous turning of the lens and by a slit shutter passing in front of the film." It was first shown at the Exposition in Paris, 1900."<ref>Jahrbuch f. Phot., 1901, p. 159</ref>
While panoramic cameras had been developed as early as Friedrich Martens construction of one in 1845, they became broadly accessible only in the 1890s, a major obstacle being the use of flat glass plates, incompatible with the design of such cameras (though curved Daguerreotype plates were attempted. This technical impasse was resolved with the invention of roll film in the 1880s. Eder<ref>{{Citation | author1=Josef Maria Eder | title=History of photographyPaperback | publication-date=1978 | publisher=New York Dover Publications | isbn=978-0-486-23586-8}}</ref> notes that "It was not until the invention of the flexible silver bromide films that [the panoramic camera] achieved the great success which it merits. The prototype of the Kodak Panoram camera, introduced with commercial success in 1900, is easily seen at first sight. The Kodak Panoram camera permits an instantaneous exposure over an extensive field of vision by an analogous turning of the lens and by a slit shutter passing in front of the film." It was first shown at the Exposition in Paris, 1900."<ref>Jahrbuch f. Phot., 1901, p. 159</ref> In the year prior to the invention of Kodak's camera, the first mass-produced American panoramic camera, the Al-Vista, was introduced in 1898. In 1907, the German Ernemann company developed a “panorama-in-the-round camera” (Panorama-Rundkamera) with a 360-degree viewing angle.<ref>Paeslack, M. (2019). Constructing Imperial Berlin: Photography and the Metropolis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press</ref>


== Design ==
== Design ==

Revision as of 10:52, 4 May 2021

The Kodak Panoram camera was a roll-film swing-lens panoramic camera made in Rochester, New York, USA by Eastman Kodak between 1899-1928.

Background

While panoramic cameras had been developed as early as Friedrich Martens construction of one in 1845, they became broadly accessible only in the 1890s, a major obstacle being the use of flat glass plates, incompatible with the design of such cameras (though curved Daguerreotype plates were attempted. This technical impasse was resolved with the invention of roll film in the 1880s. Eder[1] notes that "It was not until the invention of the flexible silver bromide films that [the panoramic camera] achieved the great success which it merits. The prototype of the Kodak Panoram camera, introduced with commercial success in 1900, is easily seen at first sight. The Kodak Panoram camera permits an instantaneous exposure over an extensive field of vision by an analogous turning of the lens and by a slit shutter passing in front of the film." It was first shown at the Exposition in Paris, 1900."[2] In the year prior to the invention of Kodak's camera, the first mass-produced American panoramic camera, the Al-Vista, was introduced in 1898. In 1907, the German Ernemann company developed a “panorama-in-the-round camera” (Panorama-Rundkamera) with a 360-degree viewing angle.[3]

Design

The design was patented by Kodak Brownie designer Frank A. Brownell[4][5][6] and released as a series of models.[7][8] It was about the size of a shoe-box and could be hand-held for shooting landscapes.[9]

The Panoram No.1 had a swinging Goerz Dagor lens housed in a light-proof leather tube which projected the image progressively during its scan onto flexible 120 film,[10] held against a back plate curved to match the trajectory of the lens. The swinging mechanism through which the image was transmitted by a rear slit, and with the lens tube not pointing at the film at either end of its travel; these mechanisms constituted the shutter. A fold-down door covered the lens when not in use, except on Model 4. Framing was achieved using a brilliant finder mounted centrally on the top-front edge - some with a cover providing a mirror for eye-level use, supplemented by V-shaped sighting-lines across the top of the camera. A spirit level at the viewfinder aligned the shot with the horizon line. The No.1 captured 120º field of view, and produced negatives[11] 5.71 cm H x 17.78 cm W .[12] The No.4 encompassed 140º on size 103 negatives,[13] each frame being 8.89 cm H x 30.48 cm W.[14]

Users

Being portable and simple in operation, with the advantage of storing a number of panoramas on a film roll, the Panoram was quickly taken up by innovative photographers for both recording and artistic purposes. Charles J. Kleingrothe's turn-of-the-century photographs of Sumatran Dutch East Indies were made with the Panoram, and are considered key visual records of colonial Peninsular Malaya, especially of its tin-mining and rubber industries.[15] Anthony Fiala (1869-1950) depicted the 1901 Baldwin Ziegler Expedition and Ziegler Polar Expedition of 1903-5 efforts to be the first to reach the North Pole; his images are taken with large format still cameras and the new Kodak No. 1 Panoram camera.[16][17]

The Finn, Alexander Ivanovitch Iyas, the Tsar's consul in Persia 1901-1914, photographed the region and on 26 February 1904, used the Panoram to photograph the arrival of the Carnegie Institute Expedition to Eastern Persia. He was shot and beheaded in an attack by Turkish troops on 29 December 1914 and by coincidence, at the battle of Sufyan, on a fallen Turkish officer were found Iyas’s negatives, which were sent to Iyas’s mother. In 1915 Vladimir Minorsky organised a small exhibition of his photographs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St Petersburg. His work remained forgotten for a century.[18]

The panoramic camera was used in the 1921 reconnaissance of Mount Everest;[19] by adventurers like Melvin Vaniman and archaeologist Hiram Bingham III;[20] and by Pictorialist and postcard publisher Robert Vere Scott.

Bingham, having first seen Macchu Picchu in 1911, for his 1912 expedition wrote to George Eastman, who was to supply his photographic equipment;

"...it would be extremely advisable to have one Panoram Kodak in the outfit ... Can you give me some advice on this? ... In many of the deep canyons where we are expecting to work, it needs a Panoram Kodak to show the opposite side of the mountain up to the top .... If you can give us three new 3A Specials, and one No. 4 Panoram we shall have nine Kodaks in the outfit and ought to be well equipped for the scientific work that lies ahead of us."[21]

In World War I, Ernest Brooks and Canadian official war photographer William Rider-Rider both used the Panoram No.4.[22]

Pricing

At the turn of the century Fred E. Munsey & Co in Los Angeles was advertising Panoram models at US$8 $26 for No.1 and N0.4 respectively, little more expensive than the Folding Pocket Kodaks, and In 1913 "Universal Providers" William Whitely Ltd., of Queens Rd in London priced the No.1 model at ₤2 10 0, and the No.4 ₤3 10 0 (£297.40 in 2020) and described the camera;

"Takes marvellously realistic pictures of broad stretches of landscape and seascape, open spaces in cities, squares. etc. Large groups of people, reviews, regattas, etc.. are all most vividly recorded by the Panoram Kodak. When held vertically, most artistic panel pictures are obtainable, such as waterfalls, mountains. etc. Simplicity itself. Loaded and Unloaded in Daylight."[23]

References

  1. ^ Josef Maria Eder (1978), History of photographyPaperback, New York Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-23586-8
  2. ^ Jahrbuch f. Phot., 1901, p. 159
  3. ^ Paeslack, M. (2019). Constructing Imperial Berlin: Photography and the Metropolis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
  4. ^ Brayer, Elizabeth (2006), George Eastman : a biography, University of Rochester Press, p. 84, ISBN 978-1-58046-247-1
  5. ^ [1], "Panoramic camera.", issued 1899-11-07 
  6. ^ [2], "Shutter for photographic cameras.", issued 1900-10-24 
  7. ^ Price guide to antique and classic cameras, eleventh edition, 2001-2002. James M. McKeown, Joan C. McKeown (11th ed.). Grantsburg, Wis.: Centennial Photo Service. 2001. ISBN 0-931838-33-9. OCLC 46691269.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ^ Coe, Brian (1978). Cameras : from Daguerreotypes to instant pictures. New York: Crown Publishers. pp. 171, 175. ISBN 0-517-53381-2. OCLC 3730724.
  9. ^ Emily J. Minor, "Then & Now", The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida) Sunday 24 Mar 1996, p.61
  10. ^ "37 Photographic or cinematographic goods: United Kingdom". dx.doi.org. 2021-02-17. p. 153. Retrieved 2021-05-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Warren, Lyn (2006). Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography. Lynne Warren. New York: Routledge. p. 1194. ISBN 978-0-203-94338-0. OCLC 190846013.
  12. ^ Scott, R. Vere (1901), Camels and men gather at the start of the expedition to survey the Trans-Australian Railway, retrieved 2021-05-01
  13. ^ Schnei, J. (1992). Does your classic camera suffer from defunct-film-size syndrome? Not anymore. Popular Photography (00324582), 99(7), 30.
  14. ^ The photographic collector, Bishopsgate Press, 1982, pp. 150–151, ISSN 0260-5155
  15. ^ Tan, B. (2010). Early Tourist Guidebooks: The Illustrated Guide to the Federated Malay States. BiblioAsia.
  16. ^ Siebel, H.V. (2020). Anthony Fiala: The First Films of the Polar Regions, 1901–1905. Film History: An International Journal 32(4), 91-118. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/780979
  17. ^ Fiala, A. (2012). Myhre's Tomb on Cape Saulen. Harvard Review, (43), 141. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A323146190/AONE?u=wikipedia&sid=AONE&xid=45aede9c
  18. ^ Rhodes, Fred. "Images from the Endgame: Persia Through a Russian Lens 1901-1914." The Middle East, no. 371, Oct. 2006, p. 65. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A152761612/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=ITOF&xid=9127cf34. Accessed 4 May 2021.
  19. ^ Mallory, George Leigh (February 1922). "Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance". The Geographical Journal. 59 (2): 100. doi:10.2307/1781387. ISSN 0016-7398.
  20. ^ Thomson, H. (2011, July). Finding the Lost City: this month marks the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham's 'discovery' of Machu Picchu. Hugh Thomson tells the tale of how a US explorer and academic came to uncover one of the greatest architectural achievements of pre-Columbian civilisation. Geographical, 83(7), 46+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A262883326/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=ITOF&xid=30b63dcc
  21. ^ Hall, Amy Cox (2017). Framing a Lost City. University of Texas Press. pp. 73–76. ISBN 978-1-4773-1369-5.
  22. ^ Carmichael, Jane (1989). First World War photographers. Oxfordshire. ISBN 978-1-136-09276-3. OCLC 1059513883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. ^ William Whitely Ltd., Queens Rd London General Price List, Foreign Edition, Section II October, 1913. (1913). United Kingdom, p. 1121
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