HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera

HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera

A 35 mm camera and liquid-filled lens that crafts extraordinary perforated panoramics. Go loopy with liquids, wild for the wetlook and crazy with colors! This item is part of our Sample Sale!
  • My box may be damaged on the outside but my insides are fine. Pick me up and start experimenting!
  • Calling all creative spirits!
  • Experimental liquid-filled lens
  • Fixed-focus with extra aperture plates
  • Lomo vignetting and perforated panoramic shots
Multiple Exposure: No
Tripod Mount: No
Cable Release: No
SKU: hcs135pb_dp

Out of stock

Highlights

The HydroChrome is a truly captivating creative tool – we encourage you to experiment with analogue abandon and revel in the results!

The HydroChrome is a truly captivating creative tool – we encourage you to experiment with analogue abandon and revel in the results!

A liquid-filled lens?! Inspired by Thomas Sutton’s unconventional original, our contemporary version lets you manipulate the liquid through which the lens focuses – so fill ’er up for some truly luscious liquified effects.

A liquid-filled lens?! Inspired by Thomas Sutton’s unconventional original, our contemporary version lets you manipulate the liquid through which the lens focuses – so fill ’er up for some truly luscious liquified effects.

Humble H20. Just adding plain, wholesome water to the Sutton liquid lens will give rise to enchanting, dreamy effects. Pop a drop of dissolvable food coloring into the mix and you’ll invite color chaos!

Humble H20. Just adding plain, wholesome water to the Sutton liquid lens will give rise to enchanting, dreamy effects. Pop a drop of dissolvable food coloring into the mix and you’ll invite color chaos!

LomoChrome concoctions – why not add another color variable and pop a LomoChrome film into your camera! Mix and match liquid solutions with color-shifting emulsions and watch the rainbow flow.

LomoChrome concoctions – why not add another color variable and pop a LomoChrome film into your camera! Mix and match liquid solutions with color-shifting emulsions and watch the rainbow flow.

Splash and flash. Add a flash, like our Fritz the Blitz, via the PC socket and watch what happens when you combine bright light and liquid effects.

Loads of modes. With Bulb, Multiple and Pinhole exposure modes you can let the light pour in, layer up your lomo-looks, shoot long and even leave your exposure for days to ripen in the sun.

Loads of modes. With Bulb, Multiple and Pinhole exposure modes you can let the light pour in, layer up your lomo-looks, shoot long and even leave your exposure for days to ripen in the sun.

Keep it steady Eddy. We are all about embracing the weird and wonderful effects but it’s worth taking advantage of the tripod mount and cable release if you want to decrease some of that beautiful blur.

Uses 35 mm film and there’s loads of that around. Check out our full, unique film range.

Uses 35 mm film and there’s loads of that around. Check out our full, unique film range.

Fixed-focus with extra aperture plates so you can spend less time on settings and more time on rendering versatile results.

Exposed sprocket holes – master the most authentic of analogue aesthetics with no digital trickery required.

Exposed sprocket holes – master the most authentic of analogue aesthetics with no digital trickery required.

Perfect panoramics. Sweeping skylines, sprawling cityscapes, never-ending landscapes and all manner of expansive exposures are easy with the HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera.

I find that, unlike DSLRs, cameras with few adjustment possibilities require more thought and it is challenging. The result is all the tastier when the shot is successful or really unexpected.
La Fille Renne
Lomography is once again expanding the options available to fans of quirky film photography by announcing the HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera: the world’s first 35 mm format panoramic camera with a liquid-filled lens.
— PetaPixel
Lomo’s liquid-filled pano-cam takes pics that look good enough to drink.
— Stuff

Story

Please note: this item is sold either without the original box or in shopworn packaging. Contents are new and unused with all parts and product manual included.

With the invention of HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera, we invite you to willfully throw caution to the wind, wildly go where no one has gone before and get wet, wet, wet!

Soak up the scenery and drench your sprawling shots with special liquid looks – from coffee to cola, tea to Tango, sparkling water to summer berry syrup – every concoction creates unprecedented, unpredictable effects. Set your imagination free and dive into an ocean of colorful chaos – craft panoptic shots complete with classic lomo vignetting, dreamy aesthetics, authentically analogue perforated edges, and sensational liquid solution effects – all on easy-to-use 35 mm film.

Sutton’s Liquid Lens

Thomas Sutton, born 1819, was an English inventor from a small town on the Island of Jersey. A wild and passionate photographer, he had ideas ahead of his time. Throughout his inspiring lifetime, Sutton conceived, designed and built many new photographic tools, among them was the first panoramic camera.

But what gave him the inspiration for this unique liquid-compatible lens? The answer: a humble snowglobe. He observed how an image could be cast onto the surface of the spherical glass casing as a result of light traveling through the water-filled orb. In a eureka moment, Sutton realized he could harness this science to create panoramic photographs. Instead of stitching multiple photos together, the Sutton Camera used a spherical water-filled lens to create panoramic images. This unique invention made him a pioneer in the development of wide-angle photography.

A Lens You Can Fill With (Almost) Any Liquid!

Inspired by Thomas Sutton’s original liquid-filled lens, we have crafted a contemporary version of the unconventional original unlike any other on earth and what’s more, you have ultimate creative control. You can manipulate the liquid through which the lens focuses, leading to a whole host of effects and deviations with which to intensify your shots. Check out the Liquid Guide for our top tips.

Exposed Sprocket Holes

Have you noticed Instagram’s film border filters that mimic authentic analogue sprocket holes? Us too, and who can blame them, it’s a great look! But instead of faking the effect, you can do it for real with the HydroChrome. Master this authentic analogue aesthetic with no digital trickery required.

35 mm Panoramics

Panoramas are almost as old as photography itself, with the first attempts appearing as early as 1839. Early panoramas were made by placing two or more daguerreotype plates (silver-coated copper plates) side-by-side. Jump forward 180 years to today, skipping a few pioneering iterations on the way, and you have in your hands a fully-functioning 35 mm panoramic camera.