FEB 9
I've been working on panos for 13 years. It's been slow. Life and not quite right equipment kept getting in the way. The equipment was not bad but it didn't do what was in my mind so it's been a series of false starts. Not totally false. I've learned a little each time.

I went out a couple of days ago with the "new" 1960 Meopta Flexaret Va twin lens reflex loaded with Ilford XP2, the pano head I bought 13 years ago, and did this picture.

Priv te Restrooms, Langley, Feb., 2005
medium image (193x800)
large image (500x2070)

I'm so excited I could pee my pants. This is a 5 panel pano covering 150 degrees. Panavue Image Assembler seemed to stitch it just fine. (I still have to go over it with a fine tooth comb.) And the Flexaret Va has a pretty sharp lens. See that door on the left of the dark building with three doors? There is a sign on that door. Here is the sign at the scanning limit of my Epson 2450.

A better scanner would get more detail. Stitching 5 negatives together is the same as having one negative 2 1/4 inches by 11 1/4 inches.

This is a rough image. It needs some serious spotting and some more levels adjusted but does what I wanted it to do. There is certainly a bit of serendipity in a picture like this but it all came together and gives me some direction to go in. IT WORKED!

FEB 5
Still trying to get going with panoramics. This is the best result so far. I used the recently acquired Flexaret Va and Panavue Image Assembler. The Flexaret uses 12 exposure rolls. A 360 degree panaorama in 12 exposures means rotating the camera 30 degrees for each panel. The lens angle of view is around 36 degrees. Not as much overlap as I would like but I really want to be able to do a 360. This is a 7 panel image, which is about 210 degrees. I looked closely and I can only see one problem area and it's a pretty minor area. This is most encouraging. More tests coming...