Today’s blog is on one of my favorite types of cameras, the panoramic camera. In this weeks post, I’m going to be discussing the Panon Wide Angle 120 camera.

The camera was made by the Showa Company which was started by Nakayama Shozo in 1952 in Tokyo Japan. The Panon camera went through several different revisions starting with the 50A in 1952, then there were the AIII, AII and in 1954 the AI. In 1964, they started making the Panophic, and in 1990 they made the Widelux 1500.

Showa’s best known camera is the Widelux cameras which they started in 1958 and in my opinion, the standard in 35mm panoramic cameras.

The Panon is kind of a beast to use. It weighs in at 4 lbs, 14oz. with the case on and measures 6.5” wide x 5.5” tall x 4.5” deep. On the top of the camera are the main controls which are the shutter speed dial, the shutter release, pop-up viewfinder, bubble level, and winding knob. There is also a diagram of the angle of view you see printed on the top. Below are some views of the camera.

The camera comes with a 50mm f2.8 Konishiruku Hexon lens that rotates from the left side to the right when the lens is cocked and ready to go. To operate the camera, you manually pull the lens to the left, set your shutter speed, pull up the pop-up viewfinder to get the approximate view. I alway check the angle on the top, and press the shutter button. You have 3 needs to choose from when shooting, 1/200, 1/50, and 1/2 sec. The aperture settings are inside the lens area and you manually set that by rotating the dial from f2.8~11. There’s no meter so you’ll need to use and external meter for exposure.

Loading the film is a bit tricky. There’s a film insert which you take out once you take the bottom of the camera off which is held on with locking knobs. On the side of the insert is a diagram with arrows showing the direction of the film. Once you load the film onto the insert, you pop it back into the camera and put back on the bottom cover. If the insert is in upside down, the plate won’t go back on the camera. I’ve done this several times.

The camera produces 6 approx. 2” x 4 3/8” images on a 120 roll of film. The back of the camera lets you know under the film viewing window which number to look for when winding the film. You go to each other number, so 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, & 11.

My wife and I went to Peru a few years ago and the Panon 120 camera was one of the cameras I shot with when we went to Manchu Picchu. It was a bit awkward toating it around and I received several stares and people asking what I was using when we were there, but the camera does produce some great images.

I’m always interested in hearing your comments or if you have questions about this or any of the other cameras in my blog.

Below is one of the images I took on Manchu Picchu. If you want to see more from this camera, you can see them here.