A much more practical camera, with one of the quickest returns on investment I ever bought. It seemed I had the only one in Dallas, Texas, and I was the go-to shooter whenever a two page panorama spread was sought by an editor.
Fact is that it was very expensive and compared to today, very crude. Non-interchangeable but excellent 28mm lens. Three shutter speeds only. One was able to live within these parameters, and loads of photographs saw publication. It was the best there was back then and brought in a great deal of business.
Compared to my X100 and X-Pro1, it is a stone axe. The early years of digital photography spawned a variety of intensely user-hostile photography allowing one to stitch overlapping exposures into whatever resolution you desired. It was so user-hostile that any image displayed was praised to the rooftops. Even if it was terminally boring, the fact that you did it was enough to generate worshipful praise. There are panoramic digital cameras but at astonishing prices—check out the Panoscan and RoundShot.
The X100 with its 35mm equivalent lens shoots gorgeous panoramics, and stitches them in-camera. All shutter speeds and apertures are available, along with fully contemporary range of sensitivities. The X-Pro1 lets me use all my lenses. With the 18mm I have the exact equivalent of the WideLuxe in a vastly more flexible camera. One can shoot 120° and 180° sweeps with the camera in either horizontal or vertical position, providing a total of four final formats. Its 28mm equivalent emphasizes vastness, while the 60mm compresses perspective allowing one to pick an actual subject rather than making the whole panoramic a subject. I would have killed for this capability with the WideLuxe.
If you are just a collector, buy whatever turns you on. There are some very crude USSR panoramics and some very expensive but limited German cameras. Fine, if they never leave the shelf, or you are happy to put up with second-rate cameras because they are relatively cheap and you can rationalize horrible quality on the basis of price. My WideLuxe was very expensive, very limited and delivered an excellent image under ideal conditions. It has been many long years since it has made an exposure.
The Panoscan and RoundShot are the specialty digital panoramic cameras. Don't check them out if you have a cardiac problem. BetterLight also had a camera rotater that worked with their scanning back. Still large numbers of coins. With my Fuji X cameras, I have what I want in most cases. If not, software has become a lot more friendly and stitching is no longer just for the rare technical expert.
60mm—120°
Zoom.it
X100—180°
Zoom.it
18mm—180°
Zoom.it
I would have killed for this level of quality and versatility, and paid almost any price, because the assignments it would generate would have made me rich. Stone axes vs smart bombs.
I think my Sputnik shoots 6 pairs of images so its almost as bad lol
