Noblex 135S
Round and round they go, where they stop, nobody knows.
The ever-spinning drum of the Noblex 135 cameras is one of their more unusual features, but we get ahead of ourselves. The Noblex 135S is part of a series of swing lens panoramic cameras produced by Kamera Werk Dresden. They differ from other swing lens cameras, such as the Horizont or Widelux, in that their rotating drum is electronically controlled and spins in a full 360 degree movement. The first half of the rotation allows the drum to come up to speed so that, by the time exposure has begun, the drum is moving at a consistent speed and creating an even exposure. A big upside to this design is that the Noblex 135S is capable of multiple exposures, allowing the drum to complete rotation after rotation. Savvy Noblex photographers put this feature to use in two ways. The first is to make standard multiple exposure images, combining different scenes into one mishmash of a frame. However, since the Noblex 135S has a slowest shutter speed of 1/30th of a second, the multiple exposure feature can be combined with a tripod to allow the camera to build up an exposure equivalent to a much slower shutter speed by re-exposing again and again. For example, if the 1/30th is fired 15 consecutive times with the camera firmly anchored on a tripod, the resulting exposure is equivalent to 15/30th of a second or 1/2 of a second. Nifty, eh?
In other news, the Noblex 135S produces a 24x66mm frame on 35mm film. This is one of the longer frames made in a panoramic 35mm camera. The aforementioned shutter speeds are set by knob atop the camera and the adjustable aperture is chosen via a wheel mounted in the lens barrel, offering apertures from f/4.5 to f/16. The same wheel in the barrel can also introduce a 3mm rise to the lens, allowing a more upward angle of view without tilting the camera backward. This is import as any tilting of the camera rapidly introduces bowing of horizontal lines due to the rotating lens and curve of the film plane.
All in all, working with a Noblex 135S is one of the more unique experiences a film photographer can encounter. Panoramic alone is fun enough, but doing panoramic via a swing lens is a whole other experience.
za/sd
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