The first rollout photograph of a Mayan-related fruit: pataxte in Mayan ethnobotany
Rollout cameras have been made since actually the 1890's. Yes, over 120 years ago the first circumferential rollout cameras were made.
National Geographic made the first rollout in the Mayan area and then Justin Kerr spend several decades doing rollouts of vases in private collections. These have been used by every iconographer and epigrapher since then. These are made with a modified medium format camera, and done by tabulations based on trial-and-error in the early years. They are very pretty at 1:1 size, but don't appear to enlarge very well.
The stretch, or compression, causes some rollouts to be iffy to use for studying Maya style, because you don't know whether the proportions of the subjects in the scene is because of the regional or personal style of the painter, or a defect of the rollout technology.
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We have extended rollout technology to fruits and vegetables. Here is the first circumferential photograph of a pataxte fruit (a relative of cacao) (using Better Light Pano/WideView). Pataxte is mentioned more often in the Popol Vuh than is cacao. We have two pataxte trees in the FLAAR ethnobotanical garden, though 1500 meters above sea level is a bit rough on them. Cacao grows much better in our garden.
This is Sofia, Nicholas, Juan Luis, and Jennifer, all part of the digital imaging team of FLAAR Reports.
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