In the last few days I surprisingly came across an old Cirkut camera that was hidden in the wardrobe where I keep my old photographic equipment at the studio.
The Cirkut is a rotating panoramic camera, of the type known as “full rotation”. Although I have only used it a couple of times and without satisfactory results, it was undoubtedly an innovative tool for landscape photographers of the last century. So, I’d like to share here some research that we have done at the studio on its functioning and potential.
The Cirkut Camera was patented in 1904 and manufactured by Rochester Panoramic Camera Company starting in 1905. The company was then acquired by the Century Camera Co – owned by Eastman Kodak at the time.
This panoramic camera had some innovative features for that period, as the description given in The Century Camera Company’s catalog highlights:
“The construction of the Cirkut reverses the old principles of Panoramic Camera construction. Instead of swinging lens and stationary plate or film, the Cirkut employs a mechanism whereby the film unwinds past a slot, while the entire camera, by the same mechanism, revolves on the tripod”.1
