the dailypic 5004 yr14 256 Wide Eye Widelux

The 1989 movie The Fabulous Baker Boys led me to one of my latest cameras. The Today Show, GMA, one of those morning shows, had the stars – Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, and Michelle Pfeiffer on to talk about the release of the film. I was in eleventh grade, and the TV was on. For whatever reason, I was home that morning and watched it. It did not interest me that much until the host asked Jeff Bridges about his photography. He got excited and started talking about his camera, a Panon Widelux. He uses it on movie sets and takes behind-the-scenes photos, and gives them as gifts to the cast and crew. You can read and see more about his photography here. Or watch him talk about it with Jimmy Kimmel – it’s queued up to the spot, and you can see the camera in action.

It is a unique 126-degree film camera. Only three shutter speeds, 1/15, 1/125, and 1/250, and five f-stops, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, and 11. For those who do not know, that is very limiting in control. In reality, it is a glorified point-and-shoot camera. The viewfinder is cosmetic at best, you can look through it and see, but it is not what the camera sees. The turret in the front (smooth rounded middle in the photo above) slides open only a fraction and rotates at the speed you choose from one side to the other, exposing the film. You end up with a panoramic image, much like you can do on your iPhone pano mode. Only this is this technology was created in the 1960s. My Model is from the late ’70s, Bridges used/uses one from the 1980s. I have read there were about 20,000 made, and mine, the F7 is one of 8,000 made.

Back in 1989, I took that camera model and put it in my journal I kept back then. I have always had it written somewhere over the year on countless lists as ‘JB’s Camera,’ “Baker Bros Camera,’ even ‘Lebowski’s Camera’. It was always on my radar. I found one once at the Brimfield Fair in horrible condition, the turret did not work, and it looked like it had been run over, and I still came close to buying it for what felt like an outrageous price for a paperweight. The next year I went back, hoping it was there, and luckily, it was not, because that led me to this one. It arrived last Friday, along with another film camera that will get its own post. This one works. It is clean, with minor wear, but nothing that can be complained about for its age. I loaded it this past weekend and took my twenty photos to the thirty-six roll of film I used. Loading it is crazy compared to a typical film camera, over, under, and through. I felt like I wasted four frames by the time it was where it needed to be. Spoiler alert, the roll was shot, developed, and is ready to be scanned. For being the first roll of film I have shot in years, in a camera that is a mystery to me, I am happy to say I was pleased with the negatives. In the next day or two, I will digitize them and make new posts on the results.

I plan on getting back to film, and it is a goal this year. The Widelux will be one of the cameras I use, and I can’t wait to use it in Iceland. I also would love to use it for portraits. My degree was in film photography. I was a film photographer from the start and I miss it. Enough time has passed, and I have gotten over the frustration I had with it for a long time. I have always believed a photo should not be perfect. I like to say a great photograph looks like vinyl sounds. Film brings me back to imperfections. It slows my process down. It is like reconnecting with an old friend. There will be a lot more on film in the space going forward (I hope).

tr/trp