I am trying to come up with a way to do "panoramic" images with my 5X7 and 8X10 camera's. I am sure this has probably been addressed elsewhere so if someone could direct me to an appropriate thread, I would be grateful...or, please offer feedback on my attempts before I waste a lot of time and effort.

To save money (that I really don't have) I ruled out those $500+ 6X17 backs for the 5X7 camera so I figured the least expensive way was to modify a 5X7 holder, cut 5X7 film in half, and shoot that way:



I cut a dark-slide to make the film guides and glued them in place. The dark-slides don't cut well. They are kind of brittle. They are perfect for their thickness though.

I have only done one side. Before I spend more time on doing a few more 5X7 holders (and the same thing on a couple old 8X10 holders for doing 4X10's), can anyone offer an idea on a better, easier-to-cut material than dark-slides?

I do realize that I really don't have to go through all this, that I can just crop the center from an exposed 5X7 or 8X10 neg when printing. A big motivation is film cost.

Thoughts please...