[peteforde]

I've been patiently waiting for this to drop for ~5 years, and I was hoping that it would somehow be under $1000.

Oh my god. $4400 is... a lot of money. $175 shipping had better include a Jeff Bridges Cameo video.

Don't get me wrong: I suspect that he's spent millions of dollars getting the project to this point, and that it's a mechanically perfect instrument. Huge respect for caring this much and seeing the project through.

But damn.

[marssaxman]

I feel better now about the $700 I spent buying a 35mm panoramic film back for my medium-format Bronica SQA. It seemed like a real splurge at the time, but for the price of this new camera, you could get a whole Bronica system - including four or five lenses, an alternate viewfinder, a couple of 120 backs, and the panoramic film back - with enough left over for a year's worth of film and processing.

People must really like that swing-lens effect. It's not for me, but I imagine that this camera must seem much more compelling if it's what you're after.

> Huge respect for caring this much and seeing the project through.

Second that: product development is hard, and manufacturing is really expensive in small quantities.

[RobotToaster]

You can get an identical field of view with a 30mm lens on that setup.

[blindstitch]

Same effective fov but the image will not look the same at all. The swing lens makes all areas of the frame look as if the lens is facing the subject dead on, without the same distortion that a wide produces at frame edges.

[marssaxman]

That's good to know - though the Zenzanon-S 30mm appears to be both rare and expensive enough that I'd probably count myself content with the 40mm!

[RobotToaster]

That's a shame, the soviet Zodiak-8 for Kiev/pentacon is relatively cheap, but can't be adapted to bronica AFAIK.

[bensyverson]

It’s an esoteric enthusiast product handmade in Germany to extreme mechanical precision. It’s a miracle they got it down to $4400… I bet they’re not making much money on this, and it’s more of a labor of love.

[Sam6late]

I saw an old Soviet-era model that was working and seemed similar to this one, it was bought by my photography instructor, he showed me his weird collection. It used to be attached to the underside of spy airplanes to take panoramic pictures not just satellite imagery and earth maps. Maybe you should look for swing-lens cameras on the used/vintage market today. Look for Horizon line from KMZ, their later models continued under Russian production rather than being brand-new Soviet stock.

[spaqin]

I kind of expected that pricing - although even worse, in Europe, after VAT, it reaches $6000. Yeah it's not for me, and 350 units is probably capturing the whole target audience at this price.

The good part that could come out from it I would hope for would be new parts for old cameras. I managed to snag a Widelux F6 for about $800 last year that would need some servicing - sometimes it suffers from the infamous banding...

[_doctor_love]

Just because we're film enthusiasts doesn't make us SAPS!

[JohnnyLarue]

Nice marmot

[_doctor_love]

Yeah dude, keeping an amphibious rodent within the city, you know, for domestic?

That ain't legal either.

[kyleblarson]

That's just like, your opinion, man.

[armadsen]

Yeah, I've been waiting for it for years too. I thought it was going to be substantially more than $4400 (more like $6-7K). Under $1,000 is unfortunately simply impossible. Used Wideluxes go for a fair bit more than $1K.

That said, too much for me right now. Maybe someday.

[Finnucane]

My first thought is, that looks cool. [looks in wallet. Looks at cabinet with other cameras. Looks at wallet again.] Oh well.

[fallinditch]

You can get a new panoramic film camera for $69 - the Sprocket Rocket [1]. It makes images with grungy lomography charm - edges are soft but center is surprisingly sharp for a plastic lens. I really like the look of the images it produces. It has a hot shoe and a bulb setting.

[1] https://shop.lomography.com/us/sprocket-rocket-35-mm-film-pa...

[antiterra]

They used to sell one that was much closer, the Horizon Kompact, that is reasonably available used (https://shop.lomography.com/us/horizon-kompakt)

[m463]

Or people could start exploring panoramic mode on their phone. I do all kinds of stuff with it:

- vertical panoramas, like tall trees or buildings

- point it down while walking and do a "panorama" with your feet in it

- a "panoramic" photo by pointing it sideways in a moving car/train

- walk along a long shelf in a store taking a long "panorama"

- panoramas of moving vehicles going past stationary you

and...

- actual panoramas of some nice place you visit

[austinthetaco]

While cool, there is quite a bit of difference between this and what the widelux is. The widelux rotates the lens as the front cover moves, which creates a drastically different look.

[fnord77]

Cheaper than Leica

[etrautmann]

Only the ridiculous ones. You can get an M6 for 2500 or an M3 for 1200. Lenses are 400-2k unless you go for crazy glass.

[fnord77]

A new old stock M6 is $7000. Otherwise you're comparing used cameras to a new one. And more like $3500 for a used M6

[keyle]

That is bonkers pricing. There is no way they actually expect a sell out with this price.

[Finnucane]

A new Leica M6 goes for about $7K at B&H. When you could still buy them, Rolleiflexes were about that much. A mechanical camera hand-made in short runs in Germany? Not gonna be cheap. If you can afford and think you'll use it enough to make it worthwhile, there are worse things you could spend your money on.

[fsckboy]

don't even have to get esoteric, a Nikon Z9 body only is $5000 at Target right now

completely different camera but it's a straight up camera and not strange format. for people who are serious/professional about photography multiple thousands is stiff but that's what they cost.

[wyclif]

I don't know much about how this camera is priced, but I think you're underrating the human desire for exclusivity. I won't be surprised when that first run sells out.

[alistairSH]

For reference, a new Leica film camera body is ~$7000, and another $500-$2000 for a lens. Lecia is sort of the Rolex of cameras - obtainable by "normal" people, but it takes strong desire to do so (vs going on a really nice vacation or whatever).

So by that measure, this is in the ballpark. It's a niche product, you'd have to be really into film photography, want a panoramic that uses 35mm film (vs a 6x9 or 6x12 medium format camera).

On the flip side, if you want to get something similar on a budget, you can 3d print a body and get a used large format press lens for <$2000 all in. But, that's far more on the tinkering/project side of the market, where the Widelux is very much in the luxury end.

[khazhoux]

> the human desire for exclusivity

I sense some resentment for people with money.

Personally, I don't find it hard to imagine at all that there's 350 photographers who whom $4000 is not a big deal (many of them on this site), who are looking for something interesting and new.

[wyclif]

Agree with that. There's also the camera collector scene. FWIW, not resentful at all. Just mentioning that it's a valid desire present in many different cultures across history.

[stronglikedan]

There is a whole class of people out there that think about money in ways you and I cannot comprehend, and this product is for them, not us. It'll be successful without us little folks.

[ehnto]

I would put this in the luxury goods category, which has been doing really well. Photography has a lot of gear horders too, so I wouldn't be surprised if on that alone it sells out. Then people who actually want to use it will stay priced out.

It's my biggest peeve with artificial scarcity markets, speculators or collectors buy everything and people who actually want to use the item can't afford it.

[whstl]

Same. When hobby/professional products become luxury/category goods, prices of everything go up because they're now Veblen Goods.

The craziest thing is seeing companies closing because of saturation, and prices of discontinued products shooting up immediately.

[quickthrowman]

Rolex sells a million watches per year. They’ll move 350 of these for $4500 with no problem at all.

[ajkjk]

people definitely buy Leicas and this is a much better value prop.