Panon pan o phic swinging lens panoramic camera

[george_verbryck]

I have got one of these in excellent condition and have played with

it and some transparency film. I am looking for information on this

camera it is a 120 film 140 degrees of view . As well if any one

knows of someone who might be interested I am looking unburden myself

of this camera as well. It is a very interesting camera but a google

search tuned up very little so maybe the new classic camera forum has

members who remeber this gem. Cheers George

[leslie_cheung]

i could be wrong but it's probably an 120 version of the widelux f

series japanese made camera. it's pretty rare i believe but many

people would go for the xpan or noblex for reliability and

practicality. how much are you looking for? ebay would be a hit or

miss i think. share a few jpegs if you can.

[ed_balko3]

You will find a fair amount on Panon cameras using the search engine on this website:

 

http://www.pauck.de/archive/mailinglist/panorama/panorama.html

 

Some general information on cameras of this type can be found in "Panoramic Photography" by Joseph Meehan, Amphoto 1966. Also worth checking is the Medium format megasite at:

 

http://medfmt.8k.com/

 

The Panon/Widelux cameras are considered to be the high quality cameras of this type. Somewhat paradoxically, these have a reputation for mechanical unreliability due to failure of the gear train which rotates the swing lens. It is claimed that the problem was corrected in the most recent models.

 

Panon, as a corporation, seems to go in and out of bankruptcy and may/may not be manufacturing cameras at any given moment.

[george_verbryck]

Thanks for the responses,yes panon is the company that makes the widelux as well however I have had problems tracking down much information on the net about the pan o phic 120 camera. Thanks for the links . I have placed an ad in the classic camera photo net classified. The only reference I could find as far as value was an ad in shutterbug for $1750. I used this camera out side for daylight exposures on 50 velvia and had good results. The problem with this design is as it becomes darker the lens swing leaves streaks of light from what ever the source. A light pole becomes a flash in the sky as opposed to a point. Of course this is not unique to the panon but to any swing lens camera. So i built a 47mm super angulon camera which accepts 6x12 backs not quite as much coverage but every thing is stationary.Any way it is a very interesting camera,it may be true that the newer designs are more reliable but this thing is built like a tank,like leica beware , and it is beatiful to look at but I am not a collector but a photographer thus it should be put into the hands of a collector or some one who would use it. I am not sure but I beleive that this camera also has features that the newer cameras lack. It has adjustable focus down to 1 meter an aperature range from 2.8 to 22 and 50 mm lens which accepts gel filters. Three speeds of drum rotation an everyready case and a realitvely small size,especially compared to the noblex I saw at a camera store recently. Well that is about all I know about the camera

[ed_balko3]

I believe that the streaks which you describe is a form of flare due to an internal refllection within the camera (probably the edge of the lens mount)rather than any intrinisic property of a swing lens camera. Some cameras, such as the Russian Horizon 202 can do this in bright daylight if the sun is included in the image; with the Horizon there is an unfinished metal edge in the swing mount.

 

The solution is to darken the relecting camera component. The simplest way might be with a black felt tip marker.