Advances in technology of rollout camera systems.

Back in the 1950's, rollout cameras were hand made. Indeed still today many rollout cameras have been made in basements and attics. Some even are hand cranked! By 1977 Justin Kerr had made a more sophisticated version which was dedicated to the presentation of polychrome Maya vases. Shortly thereafter National Geographic made a variant out of a 35mm camera.

A limiting factor in most hand-made rollout cameras is that their speed is adjusted by trial and error. But if you use a computer to assure flawless quality, then you can enlarge the rollouts to awesome proportions. To check on this, just look at attempted enlargements of rollouts made with earlier systems. In fairness to them, remember that the film is moving as the object is rotating. It is a wonder that any mechanical system works as well as they have in the past. But there is no need to be limited by stretch or compression distortion. Computers solve the problem in the Seitz system (not to be confused with Leitz, which is German; Seitz is Swiss).

A few years later a highly precise rollout camera was made in Belgium, the first to be fully coordinated by direct mathematical calculation (as opposed to trial and error). Several years later a new model of the Belgian camera was made.

In the even newer digital system, the rollout is adjustable to within a tolerance of perhaps a millimeter or so. The Better Light Dicomed Field Pro rollout system is thus the most accurate which has yet been needed. It should be possible to enlarge such images to considerable lengths. We routinely enlarge them to 3-feet long. Other photographs from the same system have been enlarged to 9-feet long.

The proof is in the pudding, so here is a snapshot of the longest rollout ever achieved to date (that we know of), an estimated 14-feet long. Here it is stretched out in front of the entrance to the FLAAR offices. This mammoth photograph is ideal for museum exhibits. It rolls down into a tiny roll which can be easily transported.