For those of us fantasizing about ultra-large format, I thought I'd throw this out:

How about making a huge camera out of a van or truck, and mounting a giant sheet of film or paper on one of the walls? The rear window could have a lens mounted in it.

What do you think?

-- Jonathan Smith (jonathan@musicstudents.com), May 15, 2002

Answers

Already been there, it's been done. I remember reading an article some 20 years ago about a photographer who did something similiar with his van. Though if you are familiar with the term, camera obscura was essentially a tent with pinholes on each wall that could be opened to project a scene onto a canvas. The painter would be inside the tent and then trace and paint the scene. No wonder they had such uncanny, perfect perspective.

-- Rob Pietri (lgith@narrationsinlight.com), May 15, 2002.

not too long ago there was a movie with Matthew Broderick and Meg Ryan where they were spying on someone with a real camera obscura. They rented an apartment across the alley and viewed the goings-on upside-down.

-- Jonathan Smith (jonathan@musicstudents.com), May 15, 2002.

I used to work in a building that had a dark, closed off service entrance. The door had a hole in it, and when you closed it, it projected an image on the stainless steel elevator doors on the other side. Camera obscura on the way back from lunch! I'd love to watch people come in upside down.

I remember someone making a camera out of a one room shack. They put poster sized photo paper on one wall, and drilled a hole in the opposite wall. Try THAT with digital.....

-- Kevin Bourque (skygzr@aol.com), May 15, 2002.

Yeah but you'd get tired of the subject matter eventually.

-- Jonathan Smith (jonathan@musicstudents.com), May 15, 2002.

Long ago...I knew a guy with small camping-trailer transformed into a huge camera obscura... there nothing in there except huge rolls of photo paper....He pulled it behind his pickup truck and going from site to site...

-- dan n. (dan@egmail.com), May 16, 2002.