Widelux
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The Widelux is a throwback to when chrome was king in the 1950's. Even today, its unconventional design makes it both quite odd and very useful.

In an age of increasingly wide fields of view, this camera fills the need for super-wide images with a unique power over distortion. The Widelux is able to capture whole environments with a panning viewpoint, providing fascinating and detailed images not possible with rectalinear wide angle designs.
Environmental Mapping
 

There are two camps in the world of panoramics. The more common cameras use a stationary wide-angle lens and simply ignore the upper and lower edges of the coverage area with a mask. This type of camera is good for architecture, as the lens is rectalinear and all straight lines appear straight.

The Widelux uses a swinging lens in a turret, and a vertical slit which moves accross the film and lays down the image with a moving swipe. This camera can usually cover a wider field than fixed-lens types. Because the moving lens is only sampling a small sliver of the image at any one time, small objects appear with natural aspect ratios, but large straight spans are often not straight.

With a stationary wide-angle lens, objects near the edges will become visibly distorted. Faces in the corners are a big no-no!

On the other hand, the Widelux swinging lens treats objects with equal proportion, taking each one as it comes into view during the scan. So all human faces will appear with natural roundness from the center of the image to the sides. This is great for group portraits. Architecture is treated differently though, and a long wall becomes a blimp, with a fat center (head-on angle) and dwindling side wings (oblique angle, distant subject).

Sharing the Widelux camp, the Russian Horizon 202 & Horizont and the German Noblex all use a swing-lens turret.

This Bangkok bus driver had to be heavily processed in Photoshop, to compensate for the high contrast of shade to sunlight. Notice fog (lower left), due to the extreme contrast - or perhaps it was the Thailand humidity!

Widelux FV

 

The Widelux covers 140 degrees of horizontal field. (This includes fingers and whoever's watching you take photos.) The FV has limited and odd shutter speeds, while later models switched to conventional stops. There's an accessory shoe on the top, but it's not clear what could be used up there except maybe a Leica meter MR. The lens can not be re-focused (unless you really try. See my Overhaul Notes).

The 50-year old Panon Shoko factory brochures are interesting, especially the part about "ecstacy on the mountain".

  • Field of View
    140 degrees x 55 degrees
  • Image Size
    60 mm x 24 mm
  • Shutter speeds
    1/5, 1/50, 1/200
  • Aperture
    f 2.8 - f 11, 6 blade iris
  • Optics
    26 mm fixed-focus, coated, symmetric formula
  • Construction
    Die-cast aluminum alloy, 900 grams, lugs compatible with Leica M straps.
  • Price
    This FV was purchased new in 1959 for 140 $.

The Competition

The Russian Horizon (or Horizont) has been around as long as the Widelux. I've used both, and offer the following comparison:

Widelux Horizon

Body

 All metal, some leatherette covering. Seems heavier than Horizon. Lower profile / flatter body is easier to stow in a hip pack. Metal casting covered with plastic shells over all mechanics. Visibly "hand made" with simple parts and sometimes-crude machining.

Optics

 26 mm lens - sharp, when you consider what the lens is doing. Does yield higher-density images than 35 mm frame, as would be expected from small medium format. Finder is only partial. 28 mm lens - I've seen some very sharp images from this camera. Large bulbous finder covers more complete area.

Reliability

 If it doesn't have vertical streaking problem, seems very reliable. Parts are precisely made and mechanisms are easy to service. Broke at a very bad time and seemed funky when I opened it up to "adjust" it back into operation.

Operation

 Knob advance is a drag, but the turret gears run with a nice quiet hiss. Shutter speed selection can be limiting - if you use 100 ASA you almost can't shoot indoors, and with 400 you can't shoot in sunlight. Slit width is constant. Conventional lever advance is nice, but taking a photo is like triggering a Russian bear trap. Fluid level on top is good for shooting with finder or at waist level. Offers more shutter speeds by adjusting width of slit.
For what it's worth, I've considered having a Noblex over the years, but the Widelux is the child I can't put down. I love the simplicity, the construction, the compact size - It's just so usable. I've found I travel with both the Leica M6 and the Widelux. The Leica has the 21mm Super Angulon, sometimes the 35mm Summicron. When we hit the crowded street markets, out comes the Widelux.

This 50 year old Widelux FV tucks away under a light jacket and never needs batteries. It's come with me to Shanghai, Yunnan, Tokyo numbers of times, Thailand countless times, San Francisco, back streets of Boston, Montreal, Vancouver, Vermont, winter, summer, - I just can't begin to remember the miles, and it's never needed anything except film. The classic sandy-chrome body is in perfect, showroom condition.

For a continuation of this theme, please see Sample Images. 

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