The WideluxX is coming! New camera from Jeff Bridges

[ellisson]

If you keep the camera level for the complete exposure, you can minimize or even avoid any curvature in the image. This photo is with the Widelux 7 in Washington DC with Kodak Porta 400.

Metro Station

 

[Ororaro]

Sorry, the xpan is such an accurate, ultra reliable, well thougt out piece of engineering.

It’s basically a Panoramic contax G2.

 

[Coldkennels]

Sorry, the xpan is such an accurate, ultra reliable, well thougt out piece of engineering.

It's a good camera; I don't think anyone's doubting that. But this is like comparing a Hasselblad to a Rolleiflex, or a Leica to a Nikon. Different tools for different uses and different results. The swing lens panoramics do something the XPan just can't. Some people use that to great effect. Others don't. But it's still a very different proposition.

 

[armadsen]

I love my XPan 2, but I've never shot a swing lens panoramic camera. I'm excited about this project, and depending on price, hoping to buy one.

 

[Godfrey]

It's a good camera; I don't think anyone's doubting that. But this is like comparing a Hasselblad to a Rolleiflex, or a Leica to a Nikon. Different tools for different uses and different results. The swing lens panoramics do something the XPan just can't. Some people use that to great effect. Others don't. But it's still a very different proposition.

I'd love to experiment and see the difference in imaging with a swing lens.

Currently, for panoramic shots in a single frame (as opposed to using a tripod and panoramic head, multiple shots, and compositing them), I take the Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c and set it to 24x65 (XPan) format with the 21mm lens. It returns excellent panoramic images that way.

Each camera and lens setup sees differently...

G

 

[trix4ever]

You are a very, very brave man. Good luck. I suspect that the film transport might be easier to work on than the lens mechanism, for which I am sure you need a watchmaker not a camera repairer, but I still think it could be quite challenging. Again, good luck.

Did Laurie Rogers leave or retire from camera repair? Did Camera Clinic/Imaging by Design stop servicing the Widelux? Maybe I’ll have to send mine to Japan when the time comes…

Hi, I believe my problem requires some adjustment under the bottom plate. I may have a quick look. I certainly wouldn't go near the turret...
Elissa at IBD said it may be possible but the only tech that can do it has months of work ahead of him. I honestly don't know if Laurie has retired or not. Every other repairer in Oz refused point blank.
Bob Atkins at Precision Cameras is still working on them but I was hoping not to have to send it abroad. Like I say, it works perfectly with no banding, I just lose a few frames every roll.
I would get one of these new ones but I think they're going to be very expensive.

 

[trix4ever]

It may have been mentioned but in case not - there's this place in France that services Widelux (I have not used them myself): Widelux troubleshooting - Philippe Raybaudi Widelux troubleshooting

The only problem is he wants to completely rebuild every Widelux and won't just repair one specific problem.

 

[trix4ever]

Widelux F7
Murwillumbah, NSW, Oz

 

[trix4ever]

Widelux F7
Coolangatta, QLD, Oz

I tried an X-pan but found the 45mm too long and the 30mm too expensive. Now all X-pans are too pricey and buggers to repair. I prefer my film cameras to be mechanical. YMMV.

 

[shawn]

The thing I don't like about the Widelux is it bends the picture in the middle. A straight street looks like it turns a 90 degree bend across the middle of the frame. So I wouldn't be able to show what I saw when I took the photo. The way an extreme wide angle lens, out to 17mm or 15mm or so stretches the image towards the edges isn't ideal, but seems more acceptable, especially when you know how to use it.

The Widelux has roughly the same horizontal FOV as around a 9 or 10mm of 35mm. Put people in the picture at the edges and the swing lens camera won't make them look ridiculous, the 10mm will. They each have their own different forms of distortion.

 

[shawn]

I imagine it must be something to do with the swing-lens system.

The Horizons did something similar - the most basic ones had just a "slow swing" setting of 1/2 and a "fast swing" setting of 1/60. The more high-end versions expanded this out to a block of slow speeds (usually 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8) and a block of high speeds (1/60, 1/125, and 1/250). There are some models out with an extra speed in each block that bridge the gap, but apparently something in the mechanism made those two speeds more trouble than they were worth.

I've owned a Widelux F7, Horizon 202 and the HorizonT.

It depends on the Horizon too. The Widelux controls shutter speed only by rotation speed. It literally has 3 different gears which may or may not engage properly when you change them. It is also why it may be fine at one speed and band at another if the rotation isn't smooth due to lack of use at that speed. The slowest speed takes a reasonable amount of time to spin so holding the camera steady is very important to not add a sort of pitch distortion to the image too and the slower rotation speed also means you could have other sorts of strange subject movement distortions during rotation too.

The HorizonT only rotates at one speed. However, it varies the width of the shutter slit for different shutter speeds. 1/30 rotates at the same speed as 1/250 and the exposure is over much quicker on the HorizonT. Because it is only one rotation speed the entire gear train is exercised every time you shoot it.

Later Horizon cameras had two different speeds and also varied the shutter width in them to give a wide range of speeds.

 

[shawn]

If you keep the camera level for the complete exposure, you can minimize or even avoid any curvature in the image. This photo is with the Widelux 7 in Washington DC with Kodak Porta 400.

Less so for shots with things closer to the camera.

Widelux:

Same shot at a later date with my digital 'Widelux'

 

[shawn]

Sorry, the xpan is such an accurate, ultra reliable, well thougt out piece of engineering.

It’s basically a Panoramic contax G2.

Sure, but it doesn't have 120 degree horizontal field of view.

It is also easy to get the exact same FOV as an Xpan on digital at this point. A 24mm on my S1R in 65:24 mode does it. A 21mm on a GFX in 65:24 will do it.

It takes more work to get a swing lens FOV on digital.

 

[osullic]

Less so for shots with things closer to the camera.

Widelux:

Yes - what Rob-F was complaining about, and what shawn has shown, is the typical "cigar distortion" of swing-lens cameras. ellisson said that if you keep the camera level for the complete exposure, you can minimize or even avoid any curvature in the image - that's only really true for the horizon across the centre of the picture - but other straight horizontal lines from the real world are recorded bent like a cartoon cigar by swing-lens cameras. I can understand that this wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but it depends also on your subject matter. I wouldn't generally take photos head-on of straight walls.


Parma, Italy
Noblex 135S

 

[trix4ever]

Sometimes I like the cigar shape distortion...

 

[trix4ever]

Sure, but it doesn't have 120 degree horizontal field of view.

It is also easy to get the exact same FOV as an Xpan on digital at this point. A 24mm on my S1R in 65:24 mode does it. A 21mm on a GFX in 65:24 will do it.

It takes more work to get a swing lens FOV on digital.

That was my problem, it felt like letterbox crop of a 24mm lens, the 30mm would suit me better, but pricey and a silly finder arrangement.

 

[osullic]

I'd love to experiment and see the difference in imaging with a swing lens.

Currently, for panoramic shots in a single frame (as opposed to using a tripod and panoramic head, multiple shots, and compositing them), I take the Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c and set it to 24x65 (XPan) format with the 21mm lens. It returns excellent panoramic images that way.

Each camera and lens setup sees differently...

G

The biggest difference is the angle of view that's captured. I have a Mamiya 6MF and the panoramic adapter kit - and when I use this combo, with the 50mm lens, it's basically producing very similar pictures to an XPan with the 45mm lens - wide skinny frames measuring 24x56mm. But there's just no comparison to the angle of view captured compared to when I was using my Noblex.

There are downsides to swing-lens / rotating-lens cameras for sure (just as every camera is lacking in some way), but it is super fun to capture such a wide vista - not only landscapes, but cities, streets, people, friends & family, sports, concerts, travel, anything. It's just different.

 

[osullic]

Hội An and Hanoi, 2005
Noblex 135S

(I really need to go back and re-scan my old negatives right to the frame edges and at higher resolution)

 

[trix4ever]

Widelux F7

This has reminded me how much I like my Widelux, I'm slipping it into my inside jacket and taking my Royal Enfield Interceptor out for a spin right now.

 

[trix4ever]

This post reminded me how different perception and reality can be.
I was sure I'd love the X-pan and hate the Widelux. In reality I find the Widelux huge fun and the X-pan just felt like I was cutting a slice out a picture. Boring.
If I want a photo like that I use my Cambo Wide 65mm with a 6x12 Horseman back.