A stroll with a Horizont

The Horizont is a bit on the “chunky” side.

It’s definitely not a lightweight camera. But in a way I kind of like that about it, you feel that you’re holding a camera when you’re using it. It’s only a boomer when you need/want to travel with it. But still I did bring it on my trip to Mongolia in 2014, so it’s not impossible.

A bigger problem is the placement of the viewfinder.

The whole thing is just loosely put on top of the camera, it’s loose because you need to remove it when you need to rewind the film.
But I think it could have been done in a better way.
I actually lost the viewfinder on my trip to Mongolia, because I ran out to make a photo of some camels. And wasn’t paying attention. Luckily my driver found it, but it could as well had been lost forever.

I added the camel photo in the gallery below because even without the viewfinder I managed to get a straight horizon.

Looking through the viewfinder is super cool, and really gives you an idea of want you get in your picture. It also has a bubble level on top, so you are able to see when your photo is straight.
Cause remember that if you don’t have the horizon in the middle of the frame, it’s going to be curved, that might work in some photo, but mostly it doesn’t.

The camera feels solid, but I’m not so sure about the mechanics inside.

My camera already has a bit of light banding at the start and finish of the photos – banding is visual because the pan head is not running at the same speed from start to finish – they are not so big that I mind they are there, I kind of appreciate it, that way you can tell it’s made on film and not digital. But I’m a bit afraid that is just gonna get worse over time. But I guess time will tell.

It’s a bit frustrating to handle.

Because you have to remember to set the shutter speed and aperture, before you wind the film, and shoot.
The shutter and aperture dials, don’t have a “start” and “stop” point but are able to turn all the way around, and that can get them out of places according to the indicator on the camera. That was all a bit challenging the first few times I used it, now I mostly remember you set the settings before I wind up.

I got mine for 1280 Dkr. on eBay

That’s about $190. So it’s not a cheap camera, but it’s cheaper than a lot of the other panorama camera’s out there, like the Widelux, which sells for more than twice as much.

On the awesomeness scale.

It goes to 9 because it makes panorama’s on 35mm film, and when you turn it vertical to make a vectorama with it, it’s just even more awesome. But the weight keeps it from a 10.

Camerapedia – Camera-wiki.org

Photo Gallery

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