Before the digital era, you could still shoot panoramic photographs, but you generally had to resort to using a special kind of camera to do so, especially if you wanted the best possible image quality. This neat video follows a landscape photographer as he uses an absolute behemoth of a camera to create a special panoramic print.
Coming to you from Thomas Heaton, this interesting video follows him as he creates a panoramic print using the Fujifilm Panorama GX617. So named for its 6x17cm format that made for an aspect ratio of almost 1:3, this particular camera produced massive negatives created with one of four lenses that came with corresponding specialized viewfinders: 90mm f/5.6, 105mm f/8, 180mm f/6.7, or 300mm f/8. Each of these four lenses came with its own controls for the shutter, focus, aperture, and shutter speed, offering exposure times between 1 second and 1/500 of a second, though a cable release could extend these. The camera used 120 or 220 film, producing four or eight exposures per roll, respectively. And the camera has not lost value over time; in fact, used copies still go for around $5,000 today. It is quite the unique piece of history; check out the video above to see it in action.
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