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Go beyond the confines of standard panoramic landscapes and capture everything around you in one 360° photo with the Lomography Spinner 360° 35 mm camera! Take the Spinner 360° in one hand, pull the cord with the other and release it – in a split second this analogue adventure camera spins 360° around its own axis and records everything that’s around you on a frame more than four times longer than a conventional landscape picture.

Inspired by a futuristic concept from the 1980s and powered by a fully manually controlled rubber band drive, the Lomography Spinner 360° takes panorama photography to a whole new level. Every bit of your 35 mm film is fully exposed resulting in the sprocket-hole look unique to analogue photography.

Spin a Tale

Panoramic 360 degree imaging started in 1787 when English painter Robert Barker coined the term “panorama” for his paintings shown on a cylindrical surface. The name panorama derives from the Greek words pan (’all’) and horama (’view’) and truly stood for what Barker showed in his purpose-built panorama building on Leicester Square, London.

Upon entering the building, visitors found themselves on a central platform surrounded by a continuous painting depicting views such as the city of London in the midst of the industrial revolution. For the first time the limits of the conventional scale of pictorial representation were expanded, showing 360 degree images to a broad audience and allowing them to feel as if they were actually standing on Carlton Hill overlooking Edinburgh’s landscape.

Not long after in 1826, Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Nièpce invented photography. Although photography, just like painting before the panorama, was restricted to a certain scale in the beginning, the invention of the first panoramic photo camera didn’t take long. Joseph Puchberger from Austria invented the first hand-crank-driven swing lens panoramic camera in 1843.

But Herr Puchberger’s camera only recorded a150 degree field of view instead of a full 360-degree view. So, in 1857, M. Garrela of England patented a camera that rotated around its own axis and did the job. This was the first camera that could capture a full 360-degree view by using fan-governed clockwork mechanics. Following the invention of flexible film (instead of heavy glass plates) in 1888, many panoramic cameras in Europe and the United States were invented making panoramic photography known and loved by a broad audience. These cameras still weighed a tonne and were difficult to operate, snapshotting with panoramic cameras was neither possible nor affordable. The purpose of these heavy beasts was to photograph landscapes in high resolution, most commonly for documentary, military and scientific purposes.

So when did 360-degree panoramic photography become easier to handle? Smaller cameras were introduced when 35 mm film became the standard for amateur photography in the 1950s. The first 360-degree camera that used 35 mm film was the Japanese Panorax Zi-A from 1958. However, since the demand for high-resolution images was better met by larger format films, this camera was the only 360-degree machine working with 35 mm film until the early 1980s. Back in these days professionals in China were provided with the Sea Gull RL-360 from 1969 which used 8” black and white roll film, Americans captured their landscapes on 70 mm film with the battery-powered Cyclo-Pan 70 from California and the Hulcherama, a 360-degree camera that worked with 120 or 220 roll film and was released in 1979.

The 1980s saw even more 360-degree panoramic cameras hit the market. Panoramic cameras were developed that sported high-end optics, electrically powered drives and fully manual controls. Among these were the wonderful Globuscope 360 degree 35 mm slit camera that worked with a spring drive motor mechanism, the electronically powered Alpa Roto 70, the Panoscope from 1985 and the Roundshot from 1988. These cameras produced fantastic results but were still limited to the professional sector due to their price. You couldn’t get a true 360-degree panoramic camera for under 1000 US dollars.

Now, this is all history and a whole new era of 360-degree photography has started with the Lomography Spinner 360°. Inspired by a futuristic camera concept from the 1980s this 35 mm camera combines snapshotting and panoramic photography. Until now 360-degree panoramic photography required patience, a sturdy tripod and serious investment but now, 360-degree beauty is finally available to anyone and is more creative, exciting and experimental than ever before.