The Best Look Yet at Jeff Bridges’ WideluxX Camera Revival Project
We recently reported that the new WideluxX camera revival project has reached its prototype stage. Now, just a few weeks later, a video that the WideluxX’s creators promised is available online, shedding more light on the upcoming camera.
The WideluxX aims to revive and modernize the classic Widelux panoramic film camera. The minds behind the project include Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges, his wife, photographer Susan “Sue” Bridges (née Geston), and Charys Schuler and Marwan El Mozayen from SilvergrainClassics. Together, the quartet of passionate photographers has formed SilverBridges.
SilverBridges has gone to great lengths to revive the Widelux panoramic film camera in a way that honors its heritage. While its creators say there will be “many small improvements” in the new version, it preserves the original Panon Widelux F8’s DNA.
“20 years ago, the Widelux factory burned down, so we decided rathe than let our favorite camera die, we’d bring her back to life,” Jeff Bridges says in the newly published video, which cannot be externally embedded, standing alongside his wife, Sue.
“We’re keeping it old-school. It’s a film camera handmade in Germany,” Sue says.
Schuler and El Mozayen explain that, after reverse-engineering the Widelux F8 — the final camera Panon made before its factory burned down — the SilverBridges team has made some notable improvements. For example, the knobs are better built than before.
“There’s going to be a lot of small improvements,” Schuler says. “But its DNA is still an F8.”
“I think we see ourselves as the missing link between the history of analog photography and the future of analog photography. It’s not only about the Widelux, which is an amazing camera and a wonderful tool for artists, but it’s about the future of analog photography. Giving a new generation of photographers the tools to work on. It’s about the art and the craft of camera manufacturing and analog photography.”
“We hope you join us on our panoramic adventure,” Jeff Bridges says, later joking in the video that it “feels like we’re on Shark Tank.”
The Widelux is extremely important to Jeff Bridges, as he explains in a separate WideluxX video below.
“I didn’t really start getting into photography until I got a hold of a Widelux camera,” Jeff Bridges says. “There’s a certain kind of blurred motion in it. And it was sharp and blurry all at the same time. And this wonderful frame sort of reminded me of the frame of movies that I was making.”
Bridges describes the Widelux’s distinct look and character as the “sort of missing link between still photography and motion picture photography because of that lens that actually moves.”
As Bridges remarks, “you never know what you’re going to get” when shooting film. “It’s often a surprise. You get a little bit more than you expect.”
The award-winning actor and exceptional photographer says the Widelux is just about the only camera he uses.
While the team has only shown off the very first prototype and notes that the final production version will look different, it remains extremely exciting for photographers, both those who loved the original Widelux and those who have yet to try one. It’s a great time to be an analog photographer.
Image credits: Silvergrain Classics
