mentor panorama

[Sam Vinegar]

Have any of you ever heard of or seen a Mentor Panorama monorail camera? It has a front mounted focal plane shutter and appears to built like a tank. It has a grey hammertone finish. Any information you can point me to would be greatly appreciated.

[Dan Fromm]

East German camera, Sam. Look at the back. Odds are that yours uses a proprietary film holder, not the standard type we know and love.

[Arne Croell]

As Dan said, they were made in the GDR; most common is the 13x18cm size, but 18x24cm also exists. There were also a technical camera and a LF SLR under the Mentor name. They usually came with Zeiss Jena Tessars. And yes, the film holders and back are NOT compatible with regular ones, so make sure you get enough Mentor holders (in metric sizes 9x12cm, 13x18cm, 18x24cm, inch sizes were not made) when you buy one. An adaptation of the back is not impossible, but probably not worth the effort.

[Joerg Krusche]

hi,

I made a simple rectangular holder from a 2-3 mm aluminum plate to hold a 8x10 Plaubel Peco Profia international back in place which allows to use standard film holders such as Fidelity et al.
I am not too talented for such work, takes 30 minutes or so.

The nice thing about the Mentor Panorama is the focal plane shutter which allows to use barrel lenses. The Mentor is not comparable to a Sinar or a Plaubel Peco Profia, the shutter makes it attractive though, would not pay a lot for it.

Best

Joerg