Panoromic Cameras

Panoramic cameras use various sizes of film and expose an area with an aspect ration of 2.5:1 or more rather than the familiar 1.5:1. There are two main types, those simply using a wide-angle lens, such as the Hasselblad X-Pan, and those in which the lens rotates to project an image on a cylindrically curved film, such as the Noblex, widelux and Horizon. These have a wider-angle lens than most film cameras but project the image back onto a film through a thin vertical slit, which rotates across the film plane as the shutter rotates across the scene. With slow shutter speeds you can capture yourself in the frame at the beginning of the exposure and run around the back of the camera to get in the frame on the other side of the frame before the camera has finished making the exposure.

Some 35mm compact cameras can shoot in panoramic format simply by masking off the top and bottom of the normal frame; you can achieve the same effect (with more flexibility) by cropping a normal image. In these cameras the length of the frame is the same as a normal 35mm format but to the width is reduced, giving an elongated frame and the perception of a panoramic image. Some compact film cameras have this as a facility that can be switched on or off: here the frame format is altered when the pan switch is in place. But like any camera, the larger the physical size of the recording medium, the more information that can be recorded, so a 35mm format pan camera cannot compete with a camera like the Noblex.
There are no true panoramic digital cameras available (except for some very expensive and rather bulky equipment.) but some compact cameras have a panoramic mode which makes it easier to take images to be stitched together later. This approach is not useful for panoramas involving moving subjects.
There are other types of panoramic camera, including those in which the film moves past a slit shutter as the camera rotates. Some complex and expensive digital cameras similar to this have been built.
Some digital cameras have the facility where they allow many images to be taken and then they automatically stitch the images together in a special software package. If you are using a camera that does not have this facility and want to stitch the images together in photoshop, be careful there are no aspects of the subject too close to the camera or you can end up with a perspective distortion which will be impossible to join.

A good site to look at is http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/ - go to cameras.