The tribulations of buying a working Widelux

[Roel]

I just bought and received a Widelux F6 and although it looked great and the 2 fast shutter speeds seemed ok the slow speed 1/10 was really off. If you would tilt the camera while the lens was rotating it would stop..then wiggle the camera and it would start running again.

Also the pressure needed for the release knob was very high.

So it is off to the doctor to get a CLA and I hope it will run smooth again without any banding etc.
I contacted to seller who sold it as functioning properly. He apologized and said he had not tried the slow speed (different gearbox). He will pay the CLA cost so that is perfect. Now I hope the camera will run perfect and only needs a cleaning.

Can't wait to put a roll through the Widelux. My Horizon 202 also had problems and it is being cleaned as well. I'm very interested in a comparison when both are ready. (will keep you guys posted)

 

[Huss]

I just bought and received a Widelux F6 and although it looked great and the 2 fast shutter speeds seemed ok the slow speed 1/10 was really off. If you would tilt the camera while the lens was rotating it would stop..then wiggle the camera and it would start running again.

Also the pressure needed for the release knob was very high.

So it is off to the doctor to get a CLA and I hope it will run smooth again without any banding etc.
I contacted to seller who sold it as functioning properly. He apologized and said he had not tried the slow speed (different gearbox). He will pay the CLA cost so that is perfect. Now I hope the camera will run perfect and only needs a cleaning.

Can't wait to put a roll through the Widelux. My Horizon 202 also had problems and it is being cleaned as well. I'm very interested in a comparison when both are ready. (will keep you guys posted)

Who is doing your CLA on your Horizon?

 

[Roel]

The name of that specialist in the Netherlands is Co de Zoete. He is also into Rollei, Leica etc. I know he also cares for the Widelux, Horizon and Leica from Dutch PhotoJournalist Eddy van Wessel from whom I got (t)his name.

Who is doing your CLA on your Horizon?

 

[photomoof]

You can choose the iPhone as an alternative to any camera.
It's not the same experience.

😉

I just shoot panoramas for fun.

Frankly panoramas, like those from the widelux, and iPhone, are problematic, much like fish-eye round shots. The format usually just overwhelms the content.

But the actual experience is the same, except the iPhone has to be moved manually.

 

[Huss]

Frankly panoramas, like those from the widelux, and iPhone, are problematic, much like fish-eye round shots. The format usually just overwhelms the content.

You have to think of the shot as a movie still, where everything in the frame is part of the story.
It's not like regular photography where you can use selective focus to emphasize the subject and blur out the background. Everything matters within the shot.
It's challenging but rewarding to do it right, but I think it is very different from round fisheye shots as that is a gimmick. We do not see anything like that, but we do see what we see in panoramas. Think about being at a time and a place and soaking in the experience. Panoramas do that. They can soak in the experience and tell a story of one place, one event, all in just one shot.

I've just started with this format and so am still learning how to do it correctly.
🙂

 

[x-ray]

I don't see panoramas so much as a means of taking in everything as much as I see it as a very horizontal crop of a traditional composition. It really comes down to subject and placement of subject in the frame. Think about wide format motion pictures like CinemaScope. The wide format certainly can take in the total but it also allows for layers of information within the frame. As to my way of thinking and composing it's just a crop of a 2-1/4 frame where the top and bottom wouldn't have contributed to the image.

Different ways of thinking for different people.

 

[Huss]

Telling the story using a Horizon Perfekt. You could not take this shot with an iPhone as you would have to physically pan the phone and the composition would have changed, possibly blurred. My shot was done in maybe 1/30 sec using a speed of 1/250.

"Wedding Day"

 

[Wongler]

🙁 sadly the widelux I received looks to have a very slow 1/15 speed. I clocked it at about 14 seconds for 1 shot. That seems a bit much to me.

 

[Keith]

One important thing with a Widelux is to exercise the shutter as often as you remember by pulling the turret around and letting it go as many times as you can be bothered doing. This is mentioned and recommended in the tips and tricks etc attached to Jeff Bridges' site. If they sit unused for too long they do gum up ... I usually sit mine in the sun for a while before doing this.

 

[Wongler]

Great advice Keith, the other shutter speeds seem okay, just the 1/15 has the issue.
Can you "massage" the turret with film loaded?

 

[Keith]

Great advice Keith, the other shutter speeds seem okay, just the 1/15 has the issue.
Can you "massage" the turret with film loaded?

Yes ..... just make sure the shutter isn't cocked. All you are doing is exercising the gears and governors that control the swing of the turret and that's where all the banding problems lie with the Widelux. 🙂

 

[Huss]

From what I've read, the slow shutter speed demise is a sign of bigger things coming.
I would get one that is properly working and send this one back.

Great people to talk to are these guys who service them:
http://precisioncameraworks.com

Ask for Bob.

 

[Wongler]

So I did a bit of cleaning on my own. Upside down when I work the turret it seems to be the correct speed about 3.5 seconds for a picture on 1/15, however right side up its more like 7 seconds. slowly getting there.
I will say the inside of the top has some very small parts and an air blower is not recommended.

 

[Wongler]

Does anyone have an image of how wide the shutter slit should be open on the Widelux F7? I'm wondering if the shutter opening on mine isn't opening as wide as it could be.

FWIW I decided to keep the Widelux I received. I did a second cleaning of the clutch cups, this time the weights as well, and a bit of light oil on different shafts it seems like the shutter speeds are great now! If you ever take the top plate off yourself make sure you have tweezers and a small needle. Getting everything lined up in the shutter speed gearbox takes a while.

 

[Rob-F]

The thing with the Xpan is that it does not have that sweeping feeling, which makes sense as it does not do that.
It only gives a 71 or 94 degree horizontal field of view depending on whether you use the 45 or 30mm lens.
The swingers give a minimum of 120 degree view. That is a huge difference.
Also, the swingers are just as sharp in the absolute farthest edges as they are in the center, as the best part of the lens is used over the entire image as it swings across the frame.
So no, the Xpan is not the answer.

I did consider the Widelux. But after viewing a number of Widelux/Horizon photos, I couldn't accept the way that the the picture bulges forward in the center. It just looks so unlike the original scene, and just plain wrong! I agree that it may not be really panoramic, depending on what one thinks panoramic is. I think "pan" means "all-inclusive" or "everywhere" as in "pandemic." And the XPAN is not all inclusive. From that point of view, neither is the Widelux. The Roundshot, I suppose, is panoramic, at least horizontally.

But my photographic vision was shaped in part by widescreen cinema (think Cinemascope, Ultra Panavision 70, etc). And I think of my XPAN photos as "widescreen" rather than panoramic. Thus a wide aspect ratio of around 2:1 (VistaVision), 2.21:1 (Panavision). 2.54:1 (early Cinemascope) is what I'm after, in addition to a fairly wide angle of view. And once in a while the whole XPAN image of around 2.75:1 works for me. For projection, I may shoot with the A16 back on the Hasselblad SWC or with the 40mm on the 500C/M and crop to 2:1. It's not Ultra-Wide, but look great on my 48 x 96 inch projection screen! And I like making black and white prints from XPAN negatives.

So: the XPAN may not be the answer; but it's my answer! 🙂

 

[Roel]

My Horizon 202 and Widelux came back from service and they run soo smooth! Even the slowest setting (1/10) from the F6 that was really problematic is running really nice. The pressure needed for the Widelux shutter release was terrible but now it is great. I loaded both with film so will do some testing asap. What a difference a good CLA makes for these cameras.

 

[Huss]

I did consider the Widelux. But after viewing a number of Widelux/Horizon photos, I couldn't accept the way that the the picture bulges forward in the center. It just looks so unlike the original scene, and just plain wrong! I agree that it may not be really panoramic, depending on what one thinks panoramic is. I think "pan" means "all-inclusive" or "everywhere" as in "pandemic." And the XPAN is not all inclusive. From that point of view, neither is the Widelux. The Roundshot, I suppose, is panoramic, at least horizontally.

But my photographic vision was shaped in part by widescreen cinema (think Cinemascope, Ultra Panavision 70, etc). And I think of my XPAN photos as "widescreen" rather than panoramic. Thus a wide aspect ratio of around 2:1 (VistaVision), 2.21:1 (Panavision). 2.54:1 (early Cinemascope) is what I'm after, in addition to a fairly wide angle of view. And once in a while the whole XPAN image of around 2.75:1 works for me. For projection, I may shoot with the A16 back on the Hasselblad SWC or with the 40mm on the 500C/M and crop to 2:1. It's not Ultra-Wide, but look great on my 48 x 96 inch projection screen! And I like making black and white prints from XPAN negatives.

So: the XPAN may not be the answer; but it's my answer! 🙂

Excellent answer. I find the bulging in the center depends on how far away you are from your subject, and whether the camera is held level.

 

[Huss]

Well, got the film back from my Widelux and Noblex. They both work beautifully and their lenses seem a bit sharper than the Horizon.

Widelux F8, Fuji Superia 200

 

[Huss]

You mean like this?

The Widelux does not do that? That would be a serious bonus. I'm wondering if the Noblex does that too.

I've never had the film tear. Ya just gotta be smooth with it and stop once you have taken 21 pics on a 36 exp roll.

FYI I shot my Widelux and Noblex into the sun, and they all do this. So it's not just the Horizon.

From the Widelux:

 

[Colin Corneau]

All the shots for a collection I did on China was done on a Widelux F7.

http://www.colincorneau.com/galleries/ - go to China Exhibition (sorry for a slow loading site, I'm working on a new format).

It's a unique camera and its look isn't for everyone. But if you can wrap your head around it and learn to work with it, it's like nothing else. I had a lot of fun with mine, and would note that it's great for candid street shots...doesn't look anything like an actual camera!

These images were all printed 20" wide in the darkroom, and it held up very well, in terms of image quality.