A Decade of RhinoCam

The RhinoCam large-format lens adapter system has been on the market for the last 12 years and has become a practical method of achieving high-megapixel images through a photographic process called “stitching”. This technique was developed in the darkroom and quite literally required stitching images together to create a large print, but was not a common practice. Fast forward to the digital age and this is where the modern image stitching technique was invented. This technique was first used in the late 90’s and early 2000’s by academia to improve the broad field of computer vision and photogrammetry. By the mid 2000’s, digital image stitching was in the hands of consumers but came with a premium. Outside of buying expensive software and technical gear, this new genre of photography was a niche reserved for commercial and fine art work. This created a barrier of entry for professionals getting started and hobbyist who just wanted to experiment with the technique. The RhinoCam system was invented out of this need.

By 2012, Fotodiox was well known for being the “lens adapter company” and like all good lens adapter companies, you need to offer everything that comes with lens adapting. Does your lens needs a filter, hood, caps, cleaning accessories, step-up rings? Is your adapted lens for studio work? Perhaps you need lighting and light modifiers? Fotodiox has it all and at an affordable price. This couldn’t have been done without taking our customer’s feedback serious. One growing concern during this time were megapixels. Medium format sensors had cost as much as a car and film was considered obsolete. Many who needed and wanted the most megapixels as possible were looking for solutions that didn’t cost them a mortgage.

Many professional photographers opted for our medium format to full frame adapters because of the resolving power in the glass. It wasn’t enough to have a high megapixel camera like the D800 or A7R, you needed the best glass to achieve the best effective resolution. Vintage glass like Hasselblad or Bronica increased this coefficient and we understood this concept well. This is the reason we offered Graflok adapters.

Before the RhinoCam, we had been selling Graflok adapters for DSLR and digital medium format backs. This adapter allowed you to shift the camera in a predetermined array of positions marked on the board and the base concept of the RhinoCam. While our Graflok adapters allowed you to replicate the 4x5 aspect ratio using large format lenses, the RhinoCam scaled it down to revolve around the medium format aspect ratio using medium format lenses.

Our first RhinoCam board was made for the popular Sony NEX mirrorless camera system, which was taking the world of photography by storm. The bright viewfinder, big LCD display, and 16 megapixel sensor were the perfect features to use on a technical adapter like ours. Our RhinoCam of the time featured three interchangeable lens mounts: Pentax 645, Mamiya 645, and Hasselblad V. We made sure to include a focusing screen to allow users to compose and focus their lens. Using the live view on the camera helped refine things, hence, why we focused on mirrorless first. Our RhinoCam had two arrays, one for a 645 aspect ratio that required 8 photos and another for panoramic aspect ratio that required 6 photos.

Our RhinoCam adapter was well received. We made it a big point that this was a tool designed for professionals and individuals who wanted precision. This included commercial photographers doing product, still life, architectural, industrial, and fine art photography just to name a few. What users of the time raved about was the fact that the sensor revolved around the lens. This meant that the stitch array was on a linear path versus a curved path like that on a panoramic tripod head. The advantage of a linear stitch path is less distortion and less resolution loss when stitching the image together in post.

This was a chaotic time in the camera industry, with many accessories manufactures like us shifting our R&D to MILC systems while innovating, what we could, for DSLR tech. Our RhinoCam filled a niche so deep we had requests for other camera mounts. Shortly after the release of the NEX RhinoCam system we introduced a special version for Canon and Nikon users. This version featured a fixed Hasselblad V lens mount, a focus screen, and a 6x6 style array configuration that worked with APS-C (H) and Full Frame options.

As the MILC grew in popularity, we introduced RhinoCam boards for the Canon EF-M and Fujifilm X-mount systems before the Sony A7 users began requesting a version for their Full Frame Sony cameras. Three years later we released a version, known as the RhinoCam+ with the right array for Sony Full Frame cameras, but unfortunately, Sony extended the grip on their A7 series which severely limited compatibility to only the first and second generation alpha bodies. The RhinoCam+ featured the same design as its DSLR counterparts but offered more megapixels per array if used with the A7R II, up to a 250+ megapixel stitch.

The RhinoCam system made stitching photography accessible by being an affordable solution that allows user to generate pro level work. The entire system was designed to be utilitarian. Now in the 2020’s at the peak of MILC system innovation, we have scaled down the RhinoCam system through our RhinoCam Vertex series. Through this line, we now offer more lens to camera combination in a package half the size of the RhinoCam Classic.

A lot has changed in the industry since we released the NEX RhinoCam. Today, there is less of a need for such systems as modern day cameras have high megapixel sensors. However, our RhinoCam system is still an affordable tool, especially after our 2025 markdown, for those looking for a high megapixel solution.