In the photo-mosaic technique, the junction of the images has always had problems of a perspective nature: in practice a perfect alignment of the edges is not possible.
So it was researched a way for shooting panoramic sceneswith an optical-mechanical photographic systems.
Panoramic cameras can be classified into three groups: with rotating optics, with fixed film holder back; rotating cameras, where both the lens and the back rotate; with wide angle lenses.
Already in 1843, a few years after the invention of the photograph itself, the Austrians J. Puchberger and Wenzel Prokesch patented a camera with a rotating lens (via a crank mechanism) and with a curved back, which had a shooting angle of about 150° and which is called "Ellipsen Daguerreotype".
From the same era (c.1844) is the Megaskope camera by Friedrich Von Martens, with oscillating lens and curved back.
Friedrich Von Martens, La Seine, la rive gauche et l'ile de la Cite - 1845
J. Puchberger Patent for panoramic camera (Ellipsen dagherrotype) - 1843
Charle Chevalier,View of Paris taken near the Pont Neuf, c. 1844 sent to Fox Talbot
The English M.Garella is indicated, as the inventor, in 1857, of the first rotating camera capable of covering 360°,
but the current attribution is to John R. Connon with a 1880 patent for a camera similar to that of Garella.
John R. Connons - patent
John R. Connons, 360° camera
John R. Connons, Brooklyn Bridge - 1890
In the category of cameras with wide-angle lenses, it is worth mentioning the camera patented by the English Thomas Sutton in 1859, who used, together with a curved back, a spherical lens filled with water, which produced images of about 120°.
Sutton Camera - 1859
In 1890 Paul Moëssard patented a camera with a curved back and a rotating lens.
Panorama made with the "Cylindrographe photographique" - Paris 1889.
In 1901 the Lumiere brothers took an interest in developing the technique to cover 360° with a camera called Periphote.
F.lli Lumiere, Palermo - 1901
They also build a projector suitable for images made with Periphote, used in the "Photorama Lumière", an evolution of Daguerre's diorama.
Photorama Lumière
The projector and the Periphote camera
The Rochester Panoramic Camera Company (later acquired by Kodak) patented in 1904 on behalf of Johnston, Reavill, and Brehm, the Cirkut Camera, a rotating camera in which the internal movement of the film was synchronized with the movement of the camera. It could shoot with variable field angle even beyond 360°.
Placing on the market was a great success and was produced until 1940 in different versions, with film of different sizes.
Kodak Cirkut camera N°5
W.J. Moore co. Vancouver - 1914 (Cirkut camera)
Panoramic photography is applied not only to architecture and landscapes, but also to document events, such as the San Francisco earthquake in 1906:
George Lawrence, San Francisco Earthquake - 1906
The photo was taken from above, using a chain of kites to which the rotating lens camera with curved film-plane was attached:
George Lawrence, backstage for the San Francisco Earthquake - 1906
From the early twentieth century, panoramic photography spread rapidly.
Among the producers of panoramic photos we mention Moffet Studios, and Notman Photo Co., which also operated in Italy in the 1900: the images below come from a single negative, but printed on several sheets of paper.
Moffet Studios, Canal Grande - Venice, 1909
Notman Photo Co., Il Pincio - Rome, 1909
The Cirkut Camera was used to document various events: below a beauty contest ...
Joseph M.Maurer, Bathing Girl Revue - Galveston, 1922
