Panorama shots with a 1970s Widelux

I am not a photographer. Not even a hobbyist. The last time I played with film was forty years ago. My gear consisted of one Zenith TTL camera, a bunch of plastic containers, some chemicals, and a makeshift dark room. When I was a teenager, photography was a real profession. Mum and dad would dress up nicely and take us kids to the 'studio' of the best (and only!) photographer in town. A serious family affair. And every Slavic village had its own gospodin Kern, Schmidt or Laszlo; a non-Slavic master photographer from pre-socialist Austro-Hungarian era. In the 50s and 60s you wouldn't see a hobbyist walking around town with a camera around their neck; that was not just too bourgeois, but plainly too dangerous - one could be easily perceived as either a spy or pervert - or both. Luckily for photography and photographers, the 70s brought the long awaited change. Socialism went out of fashion, replaced by Levi's, trips to Italy and glossy Nikon magazines. Cool kids played basketball and nerds joined photo and radio clubs.  There are number of reasons why vintage cameras are back in fashion: attraction to fine mechanical engineering, the coolness of capturing photons in a unique, magic way; the artistry of creative expression and investment potential of a historical artefact no longer in production, disappearing fast. To a sophisticated photographer - all of the above and much more. I got drawn into film thanks to Bobby’s enthusiasm. The idea of creating a 'special place' in our office devoted to fine vintage cameras sounded like an interesting project. After all, the similarities between vintage watches and vintage cameras are too obvious. Making those fine cameras available for sale as well as preserving them for Bobby’s' generation and beyond sounds simply irresistible.  Taking the Widelux for a stroll to Dee Why beach was my first film camera 'event' in forty years. Widelux is panorama camera - it captures the scene in wide angle. Manufactured in the 1970s, it is a heavy and gutsy camera. A kind of conversation starter that will make strangers walk to you wanting to find out 'what the hell this that?'. The trick with Widelux is to take it easy. Composition is everything. Zero randomness. A standard film roll would allow you 21 shots, but taking more than 1 photo per hour means that you are rushing. There are a couple of technical 'must get it right' points: keeping the camera absolutely horizontal so watching the spirit levelling 'bubble' is essential. Not easy! Paying attention to light requires some basic understanding of shutter speed and aperture and will make the difference between properly exposed and overexposed shots. And the third thing is to keep your fingers out of the frame - which means holding the camera body literally as far from swinging lens as possible.  Here are two bad shots: the first one ‘capturing’ the finger and second showing good horizontal alignment, but with undesirable vertical tilt.

Yet once you take your first shots, Widelux slowly becomes a friendly machine.  Setting expectations means being prepared that the first role will go to waste. A professional photographer told me once that one printable shot in one hundred is a good result; so this is really what one should aim for. Like with any panorama camera: be prepared for long beach walks and hill climbs. My first experience with Widelux was definitely 'different than anticipated' in a hard to explain way, but I simply can't wait to take it for another beach trip, hopefully this weekend. Taking a shot or two, then waiting for a few days to see the end result is relaxingly stoic. Film photography is not a cheap hobby. With a ratio of one in one hundred for a single printable photo, it could end up costing anywhere between $30-$100. However, that does not mean that you should print every single shot taken; and sharing every photo is simply senseless. Time is precious!  I'll be brave enough to share two 'good' photos from the single Widelux roll of film. Shoot away!

For a Widelux tutorial check YouTube videos. A final word of warning: inserting the film is not very intuitive, and rewinding it back is really hard work. Have fun.

1976 selfie.

Widelux: A Space Odyssey

The 60’s was the golden age of space. As man crept closer to venturing out into the unknown, people began to contemplate our place among the stars and what the future of space travel would look like; it was a question that many people, far and wide pondered. Probably one of the most influential pieces of media from the time (apart from the moon landing itself) was a film which has now been cherished and loved by many for over 50 years; not only for its visual spectacle, but its technical achievements too. Of course this movie is none other than 2001: A Space Odyssey. While being one of the most influential film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick was also a prolific photographer whose images spanned almost his entire life. He also prided himself on his knowledge of cameras, so it was an obvious choice when shooting with super wide angle lenses on Super Panavision 70mm film cameras for production the of 2001, to take set photos on the Panon Widelux.

A Widelux pictured next to a photo taken by Kubrick (featured in the book - 'Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures') of the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Why the Widelux?  Because of the Widelux’s swivelling lens design moving across the film to capture a large field of view, instead of creating a normal ‘flat’ perspective, it creates a unique ‘bowing’ effect on the vertical lines in the image - without heavy distortion. The result: it gives the same look and feel as the wide angle shots from the cinema lenses being used on the film, but in a ‘compact’ format. To do this on a regular 35mm format camera you would need an enormous fish eye lens or super expensive and impractical anamorphic lenses and even then, the image quality wouldn’t be the same. But with the Widelux, Kubrick could take photos on the same colour negative film as the Panavision cinema cameras, with almost the same frame sizing and resolution he would get from the 65mm motion picture film, and then develop and inspect the image much quicker than developing motion picture film reels - and if you know anything about filmmaking, time is the most valuable currency.

I consider myself somewhat a movie buff and will take any opportunity I can to watch a film in the cinema rather than at home, even going to the lengths of waiting years for a cinematic release of an old film. Possibly one of my most anticipated was Kubrick’s 2001, regarded as a ‘masterpiece’ by many. So when Hayden Orpheum theatre announced they were doing a 70mm film screening of the film last Saturday, I jumped at the chance.  In anticipation I had spent the day shooting on the Panon Widelux F6B, because what better camera to use before seeing 2001 than the same one Kubrick used while directing the movie - here are some of the images that came out of the camera.

-a shot of Sydney's two greatest monuments usually extremely difficult to get, made easy with the Widelux F6B listed below.

By the time I had wrapped up for the day, nearing the start of the screening of 2001; I decided to go, camera in hand.  While sitting in the theatre waiting for the film to start, one moviegoer had curiosity get the better of him and asked me about the Widelux - still perched around my neck. “I collect vintage cameras but I’ve never seen anything like that, what is that?”. I told him the brief history about NASA modifying one for the Gemini missions, Kubrick using it to shoot set photos on 2001, how the PANON factory burnt down which led to their demise and that it shoots in a wide angle ‘scope’ similar to that shown in 2001. I could see the excitement in his eyes as he was processing all of this, the same excitement I felt when learning about the rich history of this camera. “Wow, I think you’ve just started my new obsession”. He chuckled.  And I think that perfectly sums up a camera like this; not only is it eye-catching, an absolute joy to shoot on and a unique and rare camera (with an awesome story); but you won’t know you need one until you learn its story and pick one up for the first time. After that - there’s not turning back.  - Michael On todays offer:

K7735 - Widelux F6B  Widelux F6B - Manufactured circa 1970 35 mm - wide format Fixed 26mm Lux Lens f2.8 - f11 Mechanical shutter - up to 1/250 1 of 2000 made Comes with original box, papers and leather case.  Overall condition: 9.5/10

What do NASA, Stanley Kubrick and Jeff Bridges have in common?

No - it's not faking the moon landing, you conspiracy nutters. Started in 1952 by Nakayama Shozo, Panon was an independent camera brand dedicated to a very niche market, panoramic film cameras. Many brands have attempted to make panoramic cameras with most of them just adjusting the film exposure frame so that it doesn't expose the top and bottom, but Panon made a camera with a mechanical ‘sweeping’ lens which covers the entire 35mm film strip. The result is a peculiar but fascinating piece of technology which over its lifetime made quite a mark on the camera world. It was known as the 'WIDELUX'. During the 1960’s, NASA was preparing itself for the soon to be history making Apollo missions; these were known as the Gemini missions, the precursor to landing on the moon. NASA was looking into a variety of cameras and equipment to take on these missions to capture some of the first sets of high quality images from space and one of the cameras they chose was the WIDELUX panoramic camera. The camera would be mounted pointing out the cockpit window. Here is an exert from the press release mission report for Gemini 10: Gemini 10 crew - Michael Collins and John Young, inspecting the camera payload before their mission. Photo: NASA

Stanley Kubrick's films have been watched and loved, far and wide, with his unique stories and cinematography being extremely characteristic in his films. Although being world famous as a director, he also prided himself on his photographic skills and knowledge, with a large camera collection and photographic portfolio that spanned all the way back to his childhood, he was a photographer before anything else. Shortly after he passed away in the late nineties, his wife released the book 'Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures' containing a lot of his photographic work which had never been shared before, some of the photos included in this book were shots taken on the Panon WIDELUX. These photos included behind the scenes shots of pre-production and set pieces on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Interestingly, Kubrick wouldn’t be the only celebrity to take their WIDELUX behind the scenes of film productions. The most notable WIDELUX shooter and a long-time fan of the camera, Jeff Bridges, has been using his camera on almost all of the 80+ film sets he has been a part of since 1984. Including such films as The Big Lebowski, True grit, Tron: Legacy, Crazy Heart, Seabiscuit, and RIPD. These photos included pictures of unique set pieces, intimate candid shots of actors behind the scenes, portrait photography of celebrities, and many ‘selfies’. Bridges decided to release countless shots in two photography books, part one being released in 2004 and part two in 2019. He has an extremely passionate connection with this camera and describes it as being able to ‘see like the human eye’ with peripheral vision. I recommend watching the interview Jeff Bridges did with Jimmy Kimmel about the camera and his photography linked below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-yVCv5Uj_8 While this camera made its mark on history, being chosen by scientists, filmmakers, and celebrities alike, to capture incredibly unique images, the camera company Panon was only a small independent manufacturer. Over the nearly 50 years they were in business, they made just over 20,000 cameras in total. A decline in film camera sales and a tragic factory fire is to blame for Panon’s demise, but the cameras they built are like tanks and their reputation and historic achievements will live on with them. Check out this small forum of ‘WIDELUX shooters’ on Flickr who have uploaded thousands of unique images that will absolutely amaze you: https://www.flickr.com/groups/widelux/pool/ At the moment, this WideLux and its story is too much for us to part with, so the camera will remain on display in our shop. Good news, we are working hard to find another one. If you are interested in a WIDELUX for your collection or for shooting, do let us know.