Horizont-205PC

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The Horizont-205PC is a panoramic camera, making six exposures, each approximately 50x110 mm, on a 120 film. It was made by KMZ from about 2000, and resembles the 35-mm Horizont cameras somewhat. The film is held in a curved path at the back of the camera, and the lens swings during exposure. The lens is a 50 mm f/3.5 Zenitar, with scale focusing down to one metre. There are six shutter speeds, from 1 to 1/60 second. There is a viewfinder at the top of the camera, and a circular bubble level on top of this, which can be seen in the viewfinder. The field of view is 120 degrees horizontally, and 70 degrees vertically.

In the name, 'PC' denotes perspective control; the camera was made with a front rise/fall control (up to 7 mm in each direction). This is a particularly useful feature with such a camera; it might allow the framing to be adjusted to include the top of a tall building or trees, or simply to exclude excessive uninteresting foreground, without tilting the camera. Tilting the camera would lead to a curved horizon in the image.

The camera weighs 3.7 kg.

The KMZ Zenit archive website suggests that very few of the cameras were made, listing only 24 in the period 2000-2005, though the number of examples reported in blogs, offered for sale, etc. makes this low number seem improbable. The camera was apparently also sold by Silvestri, rebadged as the Pan-120 . Silvestri also sold the 35-mm Horizont-202 badged as the Pan-35SL.

A prototype medium-format panoramic camera, dated by the auctioneer to about 1980, was offered for sale at Westlicht. The prototype camera was built using some parts from the contemporary 35-mm Horizont cameras.

Links

• English-language User Manual, converted to HTML, at the KMZ Zenit archive.
• Horizont-205PC at Aidas Pikiotas' SovietCams.com