Entertainment · Celebrity · 1 day ago
Jeff Bridges and Hessen team revive the Widelux camera
Jeff Bridges and two Bad Nauheim photography experts helped revive the Widelux, a panoramic film camera the actor has used since the late 1970s.
The original camera stopped being made after its Japanese factory burned down, destroying its plans, machinery and technical knowledge.
Bridges and his wife, photographer Susan, asked Charys Schuler and Marwan El-Mozayen to help bring it back.
The team spent six years developing a new version, working with technicians including retired machine-builder Wolfgang Walberer from the Wetterau region.
The camera uses a rotating lens to make wide, sometimes distorted pictures, and Bridges says it lets photographers tell several stories in one image.
A new documentary follows the camera's revival and the people behind it, including their first in-person meeting with Bridges in Santa Barbara.
The film is available on the ARD Mediathek and is scheduled to air on hr television on November 3.
Jeff Bridges and a team including two photography experts from Bad Nauheim have revived the Widelux panoramic camera.
The new model, called WideluxX, was developed after the original camera stopped being made.
Bridges and his wife, Susan, worked with Charys Schuler, Marwan El-Mozayen and a team of technicians on the project.
A documentary about the camera’s revival premiered in Frankfurt and is available in the ARD Mediathek.
The team’s company, SilverBridges GmbH, had made 350 WideluxX cameras by the time of the premiere.
- Who
- Jeff Bridges, his wife Susan, Charys Schuler and Marwan El-Mozayen, with a team of technicians.
- What
- They revived the Widelux panoramic camera and developed a new model called WideluxX.
- When
- The documentary premiered on Saturday, October 24, 2026.
- Where
- The project involved the Bad Nauheim team in Hesse and Jeff and Susan Bridges in California.
- Why
- Bridges wanted to bring back his favourite camera, which was no longer being made.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Susan Bridges gave Jeff Bridges a Widelux camera as a wedding gift.
Contact between Bridges and the Bad Nauheim photography experts began through their magazine, Silvergrain Classics.
The Japanese factory that made the original Widelux burned down, along with its plans, machinery and technical knowledge.
Schuler, El-Mozayen, Bridges, his wife and a team of technicians worked on the new Widelux.
The documentary premiered in Frankfurt and became available in the ARD Mediathek.
- New camera
- WideluxX
- Bad Nauheim team
- Charys Schuler and Marwan El-Mozayen
- Original camera
- Widelux
- Original manufacturer’s factory
- Japan
- Cameras made by premiere
- 350 WideluxX cameras
3 sources
What people are saying
Man kann damit malen.
Vielleicht könntet ihr mir helfen, diese Kamera zu retten. Das wäre wunderbar.
Man muss dieses Projekt wollen.