Summary

Panoramic camera designed by Thomas Sutton (1819-75) of St. Brelade, Island of Jersey, in 1859 and manufactured by Thomas Ross, London, circa 1861.
The curved-back camera is made of wood and designed to take curved glass wet-plates which, coupled with the wide angled lens, produced panoramic photographs. The camera was fitted with a Sutton achromatic panoramic lens, the earliest panoramic wide-angle lens ever produced and patented by Sutton on the 28th September, 1859 (patent no. 2193). It consists of a globular sheet of flint glass filled with filtered distilled water when in use, and divided into two equal compartments by a brass diaphragm. The angle of field is 140 degrees. Includes curved vessel for sensitising the plate, curved printing frame and a curved wooden plate holder.

Another similar camera [ST 029632] also in the Museums Victoria Collection. Possibly used in Victorian Land Survey of 1864.

Physical Description

Curved wooden camera with achromatic wide-angle lens.

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