Horizont: Where in the US to CLA?

cayenne · Apr 21, 2021

Hi all,

I just bought, what appears to be Horizont, old school swing lens camera in very good shape.

But I do read that the turret light seals on these things just deteriorate over time.

In case mine comes with some problems, does anyone know of someone in the US that can and will service these cameras?

If so, any ideas on pricing roughly?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

Sirius Glass · Apr 21, 2021

Uh, buy another one. You know a Hasselblad will last longer. <<wink>> <<wink>> <<nudge>> <<nudge>> <<hint>> <<hint>>

cayenne · Apr 21, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
Uh, buy another one. You know a Hasselblad will last longer. <<wink>> <<wink>> <<nudge>> <<nudge>> <<hint>> <<hint>>

LOL...well, I suppose I can. They're relatively cheap.

As far as Hassy's go, I have one....a 501 C/M.

If talking about the Xpan well, those things are just so overpriced, and with them being so electronic, from what I'm hearing, those can be really risky to buy...as that when the electronics go out on those, they're pretty much bricks and only good for parts at that point.

I wish some company would see how those things are selling and come out with a fully mechanical 35mm film new Xpan variant.

Heck, Leica still makes film cameras and they're niche enough to do things like 100% monochrome cameras (digital)....maybe they'd be crazy enough to do it.

But would cost so much...ouch.

Anyway, seems like someone could make a modern one, and people would pay good money for them.

At least...I would.

C

Donald Qualls · Apr 22, 2021

cayenne said:
If talking about the Xpan well, those things are just so overpriced, and with them being so electronic, from what I'm hearing, those can be really risky to buy...

You can buy an RB67, 220 back, 90mm, 65mm, and 50mm lenses, and a set of 35mm adapters for less than the price of an Xpan with a single lens. All mechanical, can shoot other formats as well, and you get your exercise using it.

AgX · Apr 22, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
Uh, buy another one. You know a Hasselblad will last longer. <<wink>> <<wink>> <<nudge>> <<nudge>> <<hint>> <<hint>>

Which Hasselblad camera is of the swing lens type?

cayenne · Apr 22, 2021

Donald Qualls said:
You can buy an RB67, 220 back, 90mm, 65mm, and 50mm lenses, and a set of 35mm adapters for less than the price of an Xpan with a single lens. All mechanical, can shoot other formats as well, and you get your exercise using it.

All VERY good points.
The thing is, with this thread....I'm just asking if anyone knows specifically someone in the US can can service the HorizonT. camera I just this week bought off eBay, in case it needs some service. I read the light seals can crumble over time, and I have NO tools, or tool skills to really do this on my own.
I"ve seen a YouTube video showing how to do this and well...I"m just not confident I'd have any sort of functioning camera if I were to try this (after researching and actually buying the tools to do this....I mean, I barely have a hammer in the house, much less anything for fine detailed work).

I'm looking also, into someone cutting up an old Nikon 35mm body I bought off eBay (don't worry it wasn't functioning) and mating it with a Mamiya Press lens and opening up the film gate area to shoot actually a bit wider than an Xpan....

So, I'm looking into other 35mm pano possibilities, but on this thread just was seeing if anyone knew anyone that served this particular old Russian swing lens pano 35mm camera.

Thanks in advance!!

cayenne

Donald Qualls · Apr 22, 2021

cayenne said:
I'm looking also, into someone cutting up an old Nikon 35mm body I bought off eBay (don't worry it wasn't functioning) and mating it with a Mamiya Press lens and opening up the film gate area to shoot actually a bit wider than an Xpan....

Can't help you on the Horizont work, but this seems like an interesting project...

Sirius Glass · Apr 22, 2021

AgX said:
Which Hasselblad camera is of the swing lens type?

WideLux is what I have for that.

reddesert · Apr 22, 2021

The idea and execution of widening a 35mm camera body film gate and mounting a Mamiya Press lens seems to have come from Freeman Lin, whose website is http://trastic.com/ so he seems like the logical place to go for that. You can see the "Mamiya Press Pan" thread or a couple of articles on the web for more discussion.

I'm not sure about CLA'ing a Horizont. There might be someone in Russia or Ukraine who does it if there isn't anyone in the States. Maybe whoever works on Wideluxes would do it. I would just shoot the thing before trying to do any preemptive CLA on it. I have had a Horizon (which so far as I know is basically the same thing in a plastic body cladding) for about 25 years; it works great apart from occasional slight banding at slow speeds. I didn't use it for a while, and then I used it some last summer and it worked the same as always.

AgX · Apr 22, 2021

AgX said:
Which Hasselblad camera is of the swing lens type?

Sirius Glass said:
WideLux is what I have for that.

You, and other, seem not to realize that the image-forming of a static lens and a swinging lens lens is different, resulting in different images even at same horizontal angle.

gorbas · Apr 22, 2021

There was a guy, maybe 10 or so years ago from Tsawwassen, British Columbia, Canada (Matt King neighbourhood) who did specialize in fixing Horizonts. I was very interested in his services because Horizon's are basically my main cameras. At that moment I did not have any of them for service. Then a few years later I could no find him any more. Maybe Matt is aware of him?
My regular, amazing, local camera technician was able to fix them a few times without any problems.

MattKing · Apr 22, 2021

I don't know of anyone - out my way or otherwise.
I wonder if any of the Cirkut camera folks might have an idea.

gorbas · Apr 22, 2021

For Cirkut's you need more locomotive engineers! ) Ducking down!
No worry Matt!
That guy was by my judgment more like guy who figured out how to fix Horizont (before YouTube) than serious camera tech.
What model of Horizont is giving you grief?
From my experience, good ones will work for very long time or it will be dud from beginning.
The best ones are 202s. S3s are weird

Huss · Apr 22, 2021

cayenne said:
Hi all,

I just bought, what appears to be Horizont, old school swing lens camera in very good shape.

But I do read that the turret light seals on these things just deteriorate over time.

In case mine comes with some problems, does anyone know of someone in the US that can and will service these cameras?

If so, any ideas on pricing roughly?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

Put a roll of film through it first. You may get lucky and your camera is fine.
If not, dump it in the trash and buy a Horizon 202.

I've owned Horizon Perfekt/U500, WideLux F6 and F7, Noblex 35 Sport.

The best is the Noblex - and the only one of that bunch that I kept.
I since bought a Horizon 202 only because the price was too good to pass up and it was a US seller. That camera is surprisingly good - better than the Perfekt/U500 and the Wideluxes. Almost as good as the Noblex.
Totally worth getting one even if your Horizont works.

Huss · Apr 22, 2021

The beautiful thing about swing lens cameras is they only use the center of the lens, and thus the sharpest piece of the lens, to create the image. What you see in the extreme edge of the image was taken by the center of the lens, as the lens swings. Genius. With a regular camera, the edges are always lower resolution/sharpness/mojo than the center.

Taken with my cheapo Horizon 202:

And 100% crop from the right side edge (from a scan that is about 8200 pixels wide)

Sirius Glass · Apr 22, 2021

AgX said:
You, and other, seem not to realize that the image-forming of a static lens and a swinging lens lens is different, resulting in different images even at same horizontal angle.

I am very aware of the difference between a stationary lens and a swing lens. That I why I have the WideLux F7, the 30mm Fisheye, and the Hasseblad 903 SWC.

Horizont: Where in the US to CLA?

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