Any Widelux shooters at RFF?

Keith said:
They are great pics and an inspiration Helen ... get that Widelux! 😀

It's true what he says about the camera ... having three shutter speeds and apertures from f2.8 to f11 along with fixed focus at eleven feet is actually quite liberating. You stop worrying about the photos you can't take and concentrate on the ones you can.
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Keith.

It is very tempting but I don't think I would be able to use that one around the family without them noticing yet another new toy. I am sticking with black rangefinder bodies because they look sort of similar and I am getting away with more than one.
Just have to make sure that no one finds my stash!

Cheers

h.
 
Keith said:
Woo hoo ... took the Widelux out for it's first outing today!

The camera only got here yesterday ... a month from the US to here! 😱 What is wrong with the mail system ... it seems to happen to me constantly?

As luck would have it the skies were blazingly bright today and at minimum aperture and maximum shutter speed 100 film was right on the limit of correct exposure.

I have the negs hanging to dry and they look interesting ... possibly a few are over exposed ... it's hard to tell until I scan them.

Keeping your hands and fingers away from the front of the camera is tricky I have to say ... and it took a conscious effort to remember to do so while shooting. The viewfinder seems reasonably accurate combined with the arrows that indicate the field of view on top of the camera. I was impressed how easy it was to load! 🙂
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Congratulations on the Widelux Keith. For sunny Oz, you may need the filter set (which includes a 2 stop ND filter). I find that attaching a small handle to the tripod thread and holdingthe camera with the left hand whilst tripping the shutter with the right prevents accidental inclusion of fingers in the frame.
 
Monz said:
Congratulations on the Widelux Keith. For sunny Oz, you may need the filter set (which includes a 2 stop ND filter). I find that attaching a small handle to the tripod thread and holdingthe camera with the left hand whilst tripping the shutter with the right prevents accidental inclusion of fingers in the frame.
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It's a bit like learning to use a Kiev or Contax without covering the rangefinder window with a stray finger! 😀

The Widelux certainly wasn't that comfortable in the conditions I used it in yesterday. The sun was mind numbingly bright and I was shooting mid afternoon. The swing lens design with the travelling slit is not happy with a direct intense light source I've discovered. With the sun at my back it was OK but to the side or forward of me it created some strange results! 😛

If I was serious about 135 panoramic landscapes I think I'd pony up for the X-Pan. I haven't discounted that possibility because after looking at the scans from the Widelux I see the potential of the panoramic format for my style of photography in the back of beyond! 🙂
 
I am actually working in Europe and instead of dropping a ton of cash in the Leica Shop in Vienna, just purchased a Widelux 1500 (the medium format version) from a great shop across the street from them 🙂

Cheers,
 
Riccis said:
I am actually working in Europe and instead of dropping a ton of cash in the Leica Shop in Vienna, just purchased a Widelux 1500 (the medium format version) from a great shop across the street from them 🙂

Cheers,
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When you get a chance I would love to see some images from that at some stage Riccis! 😀

I knew they existed but not common I gather?
 
Beautiful

Beautiful

Colin Corneau said:
I had an exhibition of my images from an F7 - wonderfully sharp lens, I made enlargements to 20 inches wide with no problem.

http://www.colincorneau.com/?gallery=exhibition

(skip past the first frame, it's an introduction that isn't working)

Maybe it's my sense of humour, but I like having only 3 shutter speeds to work with - less is more.
It's a great camera for street photography, since you can shoot very unobtrusively and it doesn't really look like what most people think a camera is.
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Thanks. The images look great.
 
Here's one of the pics from the first roll. I think the format really conveys just how hot and bright it was yesterday and it also captures the way I see this land. And it's still effectively winter for god's sake! It was around 30 degrees in this vast rural valley I spend so much time in.


widelux290812011pr.jpg
 
In the image I posted there is a little banding in the sky on the right predominantly. That's a very high exposure area with nothing to distract in the way of clouds etc. I see this as a little endemic of the design ... having a gear driven sweep through a slit across a scene like this will show the slightest shortcomings IMO. That and the camera hasn't been used for some time I suspect so the mechanism probably needs some massaging to give it's best! Other shots with less sky don't show this at all.
 
Keith said:
In the image I posted there is a little banding in the sky on the right predominantly. That's a very high exposure area with nothing to distract in the way of clouds etc. I see this as a little endemic of the design ... having a gear driven sweep through a slit across a scene like this will show the slightest shortcomings IMO. That and the camera hasn't been used for some time I suspect so the mechanism probably needs some massaging to give it's best! Other shots with less sky don't show this at all.
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They all develop banding at some stage. You can minimise banding by manually "exercising" the turret from time to time. It's difficult to find technicians who are good at CLA'ing this camera. In USA, there is Precision; in UK we have Newton Ellis.
 
raid said:
How doesv Widelux differ from an Xpan or a Brooks Veriwide or a Hasselblad SW or a Horizont.
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The way I see it is:

*Swing lens camera (Widelux, Horizon): curved film plane + rotating turret + wide angle lens -> curvilinear "distortion"; small foreground (and background) objects such as people are correctly proportioned and not stretched even if on edge of frame but large objects such as walls, roads and straight lines such as horizons are severely distorted especially if camera is not perfectly level.

*"Normal" camera (Hasselblad SW, XPan etc) : flat film/sensor + fixed wide angle lens -> rectilinear "distortion" : straight lines will tend to remain straight but objects on the edge of the frame will be stretched giving egg-head deformity with people.
 
I had a Widelux F8 for about a year. It's a wonderful, fun camera, but I just found it too limiting in the end: the fixed focus (at about 4 meters) annoyed me, and while it was fine for photos in forests or nature, I found shooting in cities just too limiting due to the curving of streets and buildings, etc.

I know that other photographers (obviously more skilled than I) have managed to take good cityscapes with the Widelux - THIS THREAD IS TESTIMONY - but I gave up and bought a Hasselblad Xpan instead for my Pano "needs".

I will try to dig up a few photos...
 
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