The remarkable pinhole camera that bends 120 film up to 300°, the Hyperscope offers a 150° field of view.
“Getting the film to travel past 180° for the film path complicated the design. It required a secondary mechanism that prevents buckling while loading the camera. This mechanism swings out of the way once the film is loaded, so it does not interfere with image making”
Matt Abelson, is the brains behind this high-quality one-of-a-kind pinhole camera. Over time he has managed to create some beautifully crafted pinhole cameras. Abelson designs and crafts limited runs of his one-off cameras from his workshop in Massachusetts. Previously he has crafted a range of bizarre creations like the Cuboid and the Hexomniscope (shown below) — and one of his most recent creations being the Hyperscope, which intentionally bends film for a super-wideangle effect.
For the Hyperscope he created a special mechanism to hold the film around the extreme bend of the rear of the camera. Loaded with 120 film, the Hyperscope can create four 6×17 exposures, each with around a 150° field of view. It’s a cylindrical can camera that takes medium-format roll film, and is crafted out of chunks of aluminum. Abelson said that the Hyperscope took him six months to design, and two years to successfully construct!
While in past some of Abelson’s eye catching designs had been released for sale, he said last year that the Hyperscope would only be a one-off due to its complexity. Cross fingers that over time he comes round to produce more Hyperscopes.
