Seamless wide format panorama photography with a large format Better Light digital camera on turntable tripod.

Better Light produces the only large-format seamless panorama taken directly with a digital scanning camera. Developed by Michael Collette, this camera produces remarkable images. Here we see the panorama photographs printed on a HP 3500CP wide format inkjet printer on media courtesy of Rexam Graphics.

The view here shows the enlargement using a Nikon CoolPix 950 of the wide format print nailed to a beam. The uneven pegging caused the picture to sag, hence the curve in the top and bottom of the panoramas (in other words, the quality of the original print is much better than what we can pass over the Internet after JPEGing).

Photographed with a digital insert developed by Better Light provided courtesy of Dicomed using a 4x5 camera provided courtesy of Wisner outfitted with a Schneider lens. Turntable, software, and system generously provided by Michael Collette, Better Light. The original image has enough dpi to print at a monumental size but I reduced the size down to about 180 dpi since I had been told beforehand that the HP was glacially slow.

The panorama of Sinkin Creek (Shannon County, Missouri) is reduced here to 36 inches wide. The field is alongside a neighboring wild trout stream, Barren Fork. Laminated using a GBC Eagle 105 (which left many bubbles, possibly from the way the Kinko's employees fed the image into the laminator).

For other panoramas with the Better Light system see the portfolio of photographer Stephen Johnson.

Contact is Mike Collete at [email protected]

Most recently updated July 06, 2001.