Taiyokoki Viscawide-16 ST-D

The Viscawide is an unusual, brick-shaped 16mm panoramic camera from the early 1960's with a 120 degree angle of view. The lens rotates during the exposure in order to expose a long strip of film.. The camera is just under 5"wide, just over 2" deep and just under 2 " tall -- excluding motion picture cameras, it's one of the largest 16mm submini cameras. And it's pretty heavy, too! With fine-grained film, and careful use, very large panoramas can be produced.

There were at least two, nearly identical, models made. The first model had speeds of H (High), S (Slow), and OFF, while the second model had speeds of H, and S only -- no OFF setting. The "H "on both models is 1/300, while "S" is 1/60. McKeown reports that the image size is 10x46mm, while Spy Camera lists the image size as 10x52mm. The image size on the model that I used is definitely 10x49mm. Where these other authors got their measurements from is unknown. Perhaps they took somebody's word for it, or perhaps the model II had a different format size, and perhaps there is a model III, as well. In any event, the negative will fit in any 120 (or larger) GLASS negative carrier.

Two special, 16mm cassettes are required, but the camera can use 16mm film with any type of perforations. The camera unfortunately does not have a tripod socket or cable release which would make BIG enlargements from these small panoramic negatives better, but the bottom of the camera is flat so that the camera can be easily used on any flat surface for stability. All models have a 25mm f3.5 (-16) rotating, but non-focusing, lens. Presumably, the lens on all models is set to allow infinity focusing, even when opened up all the way to f3.5, but you want to stop down anyway for better resolution and depth-of-field. Filters were available, and are of the slip-on type. They are about 15mm in diameter. Ten exposure are produced on each roll of film. The camera had a pop-up, wire-frame, sports-type finder on the top -- adequate for composition. For information about reloading these cassettes, proceed to the DARKROOM section of the SUBCLUB.

Here's a shot taken with a Viscawide: