Widepan Pro II 140 Panoramic Camera - TWO cameras for the price of one...medium format and 35mm!
For the photograher requiring very large views on a decent size negative then the Widepan Pro II certainly should fit the bill. This camera uses the swinging lens to achieve the very wide views. Only by moving the lens can views wider than 90 degrees be captured. The Widepan also uses 120 and 220 roll film producing 55x110mm images, 6 or 12 to a roll. Supplied in the kit are also the 35mm adapters which will then give 24x110mm format photographs.
The Widepan Pro II 140 is a purely mechanical camera using only a small battery to give some illumination to the lens controls inside the swinging section. Three shutter speeds of 1/2 sec, 1/60 and 1/20 sec are selected by the shutter speed knob on the camera top plate. The top plate also has the wind and rewind knobs and the threaded shutter release.
Aperture control and focus are selected by turning two small wheels on the swinging lens barrel. The f stop range is from f/3.8 to f/22 on the 50mm multicoated Widepan lens. Focus range is very large for a swing lens camera as supplied are three close up filters taking the minimum focus down to 0.8m (2.6 feet).
The accessory viewfinder has a spirit level built in that is visible from above the camera or through the eyepiece. The front of the camera has two rigid rubber coated rectangular frames. These are used as a guide to keep fingers out of the picture when the camera is being used handheld.
An additional part of the camera kit is a series of filters that clip onto the swinging barrel. These filters cover the range generally required by most photographers. These include UV, Yellow 2, 81B, 85B, Red 4, Fl 2, ND3, ND2, 80A, ND1, 82B and an empty one to make your own.
And that is about it. Being all mechanical there is no metering so no multi mode technology to understand. It is just a simple matter of setting the focus, aperture and shutter speed, pointing and pressing the button.
Download the Widepan Pro leaflet in PDF format from here.
