The GX-P1 Is a Panoramic Digital Camera Designed By the Man Behind the Batmobile

GXAce, the brainchild of photographer and videographer Casey Cavanaugh, is developing a new panoramic digital camera, the GX-P1, and it’s very close to its full reveal.

In an email to subscribers, GXAce offered a little teaser of the GX-P1, shedding light on the inspiration, process, and what photographers can expect.

“There is little better than having an idea in your head and then being able to physically put it into the world; taking a solid block of metal and finding our idea at the center of it,” GXAce explains in its email.

“Cameras have souls too, at least the good ones, the interesting ones. You can feel the passion behind them, the care that goes into making a tool that itself is a work of art,” the company continues.

“We’ve always felt that a camera that fits with you perfectly will inspire you to use it, and in turn, make you a better photographer.”

As a filmmaker, Cavanaugh knows the power of a wide frame, describing an anamorphic frame as “particularly special.”

The GX-P1 aims to combine all of these ideas into a single photographic camera: soul, artistry, and cinematic scale.

“For years we’ve wanted that feeling in a camera built specifically for photography, and not a single camera company seems to want to do it,” GXAce says. “So we did.”

The GXAce GX-P1, which is thus far only visible in partially obscured photos, is a dedicated anamorphic fixed-lens digital camera. It is built around the experience of shooting 65:24 frames, while being small enough to fit into a photographer’s pocket.

GXAce is quick to note that the GX-P1 is very much a real product. The photos here are not renders; it’s a real prototype that the team has used to capture nearly 3,000 photos so far.

Joining Cavanaugh on this ambitious journey are illustrator, designer, and creative director Ash Thorp, and systems engineer Matt Bernath, who is handling the software side of things. Thorp designed the camera itself and is perhaps best known for being the artistic vision behind the batmobile and batcycle in 2022’s film, The Batman. Thorp has also done extensive graphic design and user interface work over the years.

Make no mistake, though, the GX-P1 is not quite just around the corner yet, but it’s close.

“We’ve been working through software, electronics, controls, machining, optics and manufacturing, and there are currently parts of the camera sitting all over our lab in various states of functionality,” GXAce says. The team will document the journey through a series of videos, showing the GX-P1 from ideation through its eventual launch.

“It’s an incredibly ambitious project,” Cavanaugh says. “But we fully believe in it.”

GXAce says the goal is to launch the camera through crowdfunding by the end of the year.

Image creditsGXAce, GX-P1 Team