SilverBridges Unveils WideluxX™ Prototype 0001
by Charys Schuler / SilvergrainClassics
In Our Hands
Holding a one-of-a-kind camera prototype in your hand is always going to be exciting. But when some of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it are your own, it feels nothing short of extraordinary.
A Milestone
Regular visitors to the SilvergrainClassics website will know that we’ve been following the effort to revive the Widelux panoramic film camera closely. Not only is it a milestone for the analog photography community when a new film camera is born, but two of the owners of the new camera manufacturing company are SilvergrainClassics’ own Editor-in-Chief and its Developmental Editor—me. The other two are Jeff and Susan Bridges.
A Moment to Remember
Before I introduce you to our baby, though, allow me a brief moment of nostalgia.
When I was 21 years old, I saw The Fabulous Baker Boys in a movie theater in Boston and walked out wanting to be Michelle Pfeiffer in a red dress on top of a grand piano. If you had told my younger self that one day I’d hear Jeff Bridges—who headlined the film as Jack Baker—introduce me by name as his partner, I would have thought you were crazy. But that’s exactly what just happened in SilverBridges’ video.
Jeff & Susan Bridges in the video announcing the prototype
Video Launch
The video introducing our prototype 0001 was presented at the International Association for Panoramic Photography convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last Friday. In it, Jeff and Susan introduce themselves and the WideluxX™ project before handing things over to Marwan and me. Although we couldn’t all be in the same space to make the video, Ethan Boehme and Ingo Schmoll captured the footage, with Marwan shooting several 16mm sequences of our engineer at work, and Ethan brought it all together in the final cut.
“Twenty years ago, the Widelux factory burned down, so we decided that rather than letting our favorite camera die, we’d bring her back to life. We’re keeping it old school; it’s a film camera handmade in Germany, built to last generations.”
– Jeff & Susan Bridges
Charys Schuler and Marwan El Mozayen with the WideluxX™ prototype 0001 and an original Panon Widelux F8
“There will be many small improvements, but its DNA is still the [Panon Widelux] F8. We see ourselves as a bridge between the history and the future of analog photography. It’s about the art and craft of camera manufacturing, and about giving a new generation of film photographers the tools to create with.”
– Marwan El Mozayen and Charys Schuler
Stay Informed
The full video will be available soon at WideluxX.com, where visitors can also find more information about the project and sign up for the official newsletter.
We’ll also be giving our personal viewpoint here at SilvergrainClassics, online and in the print magazine, available here.
If you missed how the project started, then read about it online here.
Or, get the full story of how the project started, along with beautiful photos, in our print magazine Issue 19.
I also described my impressions of sitting down with Jeff for the first time here.
An engineer at work near Wetzlar, Germany
WideluxX™ prototype 0001 (does not represent the final appearance of the production model)
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