A question

[Lyndon Fletcher <uablyfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there,
         I don't want to reopen a can of worms here about what is or isn't
"panoramic," however I did kind of wonder about those situations where
smaller film sizes are used in larger format cameras. I was thinking of 120
in 4x5 but I suppose it could apply equally to 35mm in 120.

Ok, if you use a smaller film in a larger camera, then as far as I can see
you gain no image benefit over taking the same picture in the original
format and then cutting that negative down? Other than the smaller film
being cheaper, easier to get or to handle (none of which are image issues)
I can't see any benefit to taking this route. Isn't the point of panoramic
images that they show a wider view or a different perspective on the object
being photographed? If the same image can be made by cropping an existing
2:3 ratio image then why wouldn't my Nikon be a panoramic camera (assuming
I cropped the pics to 1:3 when I printed them?)

I have to confess that I am confused by this. I myself don't have a
panoramic camera and instead stitch a number of pictures together to get
the required shot. I thought the idea was to get more information into the
picture than would be possible otherwise not to reduce the image to a
letterbox format for the sake of it?

Puzzled.

Lyndon