I broadened my horizons, and went W I D E, and when I mean WIDE, I’m talking panoramic wide…using one of the more unique cameras in my collection. After popping into the Lomography store to get a lesson on how to use the Horizon Kompakt, a Russian swing lens camera I took once again to the streets of Toronto to give it a go. The camera itself is what makes the whole concept unique, as I mentioned earlier it is a swing lens, a fixed 28mm f/8 lens, that will travel across a 120 degree arc exposing a thin slit of the film as it passes to create the final image which takes up approximately two standard frames. The best part, no batteries, powered entirely by a near silent clockwork motor. I got many stares as I stopped to use the camera as I wandered along.

So yes, this camera eats film, a roll of 36 will yield about 22 images, also with no meter in it you have to be careful about the film you load into it. Using the 400 speed film (Ilford HP5+) on that bright a day made a lot of the images unrecoverable, a 200 or even 100 speed may have worked better. But with a bit of work in post I was able to pull out some pretty awesome photos.

Horizon Kompakt – Обьектив ИНДУСТАР MC 8/28 – Ilford HP5+