the panoraman
The Panoraman was a real hidden treasure. I picked it up at a flea market for 50 yen (about US 50 cents), hoping it would give me Holga like distortion on 35mm panorama pictures, and it certainly delivered. I've always loved the panoramas of Henri Lartigue, and this little plastic wonder lets me approximate the look that Lartigue achieved using a stereo camera with one lens removed, except with more grain.
This 100% plastic fixed lens camera has a 'panorama' switch that not only blocks off the top and bottom of the negative to give the wide wide panorama format, but also closes two little flaps in the view finder to show you the framing of the panorama shot.
Every time I use my Panoraman, I think I've broken it because the weak plastic winding mechanism makes painful noises toward the end of a roll. Fingers crossed I'll get a few more rolls through it before it disintegrates.
I haven't managed to find any information in English about this camera, and only one page in Japanese. Here's the link:
(Bottom of the following page - all in Japanese)
http://www.oersted.co.jp/~light/camera/camera.html
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