Widelux 1500 manual

Jul 17, 5. Messages: How reliable have you found them to be? Yes mine has been reliable, although I have not used mine much. I use my Widelux F8 more and have had no issues with it. I also had a Noblex that stopped working and I sent it to a Widelux technician in British Columbia - but it was not repairable.

The Noblex never worked properly and I bought it as a reclamation project. No issues with it since the CLA.

Better than not having focusing ability. There is a depth of field table somewhere online that I had printed out. Ideally I would get a hand grip that screws into the tripod socket to help with hand holding. I did not shoot much with the Noblex, but the Widelux seemed bigger and was definitely heavier not a drawback for me when shooting handheld. Jul 24, 6. Never buy W without proper testing. I had banding and unsharp zone Iower or upper image zone solved by my repairment expert in CH.

Dont expect very sharp results below 5m. Horizon S3Pro latest. Last edited: Jul 24, Jul 24, 7. Jul 25, 8. Jul 26, 9. Update: more Wproblems 1. Widepan and phenix panflex the same or similar. W has mm image. W mm if i dont err. It can focus at any of seven settings, from infinity to 1 m.

The Widelux covers a degree view. One roll of film will give you 6 exposures. I was pretty excited when I first tried this camera, but it turns out to be a slightly more difficult camera than I expected. Keeping the camera still is quite a feat.

This movement is not always a problem, though, as you can see from these pictures. The trees are in the picture twice, but who cares? And the multitude of windows in the houses enhances the image, I think. Putting the camera down on the ground, a wall, table, or on a really sturdy tripod and holding it firmly will help with this.

A second problem: for some reason, I forget to advance the film more ofthen than in other cameras. A third problem, more inherent to the camera: banding. This is an old camera, and somethimes you will see overexposed strips on your picture. The Internet tells me this can have several problems, most likely to do with the gears of the schutter not moving even. The swing lens lets you capture movement as people cycling or walking by end up multiple times in the same picture.

These three shutter speeds, together with the rather limited aperture range of f2. With the new low-light pictures have become feasible through expansion of the shutter speed range. This, combined with a wide aperture range of f2.

In daily, practical use both the Horizon and the Widelux are no miracles of speed. Loading it with film is a job that requires precision and patience. In our opinion the film loading isn't shown quite correctly on the inside of the The last part of the film loading process is made a bit easier if the beginning of the film, the film tongue, is folded back a few centimeters halfway during the process of film loading just after it has passed the film track , so it may be inserted into the film take up spool a lot easier when it arrives there.

Film transport in both directions is accomplished with round knobs on both the Widelux and the old Horizon. With the new Horizon there's a large lever for film transport and a rewind crank for film rewinding into the cassette.

The hinge of the camera back seems to be less robust than the remarkably solid, old-fashioned construction of the old Horizon, but this remark can be made about more modern-day camera designs.

The 's view finder with built-in spirit level has now been fixed centrally on the camera body. The old Horizon's view finder had to be removed before rewinding the film because it was placed on top of the rewind knob. And besides, it has happend to me twice in more than twenty years of usage, that the view finder slid off its place while holding the camera tilted for a vertical shot.

Happily without further consequences up till now, but matters could have been worse and spare parts for the old Horizon are now no longer available. In case the new Horizon should need repairs, the camera will be send through to France by the Dutch importers, Provak.

Although the Horizon is being produced by Horizon KMZ in Russia, the Russians have left world-wide distribution and sales to the Italian firm of Lino Manfrotto, because of their apparent lack of knowledge of the Western way of doing business. The Manfrotto name may be familiar to you by their line of tripods. In case of repairs, the Horizon is being send to France because the French Manfrotto branch has spare parts and repair facilities at their disposal.

Both in the case of the Widelux and of the old Horizon the excentric placement of the view finder may make it difficult to place the subject exactly in the middle of the picture frame, especially with horizontal pictures. This problem, too, has been solved by placing the view finder centrally. Changing the shutter speeds on both the Widelux and the Horizon has to be done with the shutter cocked.

The new Horizon offers a double improvement in this respect. By placing the view finder centrally above the adjustment knobs for aperture and shutter speeds, the film rewind knob was no longer covered up. So it could be provided with a rewind crank for easier rewinding. But what to be done with the adjusters for aperture and shutter speeds? The solution chosen is a double improvement. The is provided with protruding cams to facilitate adjustment of both aperture and shutter speeds.

These cams are situated below the view finder and only come up through the camera top plate after the film has been transported and hence, the shutter cocked.

When the picture is made, they sink down again! Simple to use and fool-proof. Both using a panorama camera and using a super wide angle lens have one thing in common, and that is the difficulty in keeping the camera truly horizontal, either when using it horizontally or vertically.