Actor Jeff Bridges is bringing back the Widelux panoramic film camera in 2025

It’s no secret that actor Jeff Bridges is a big photography fan. He’s been shooting behind-the-scenes portraits of his co-stars, as well as general everyday life, for decades. He’s not the only one, either, but he uses a particularly unique camera.

He was gifted a Widelux panoramic film camera by his wife at their wedding, and he hasn’t stopped shooting with it since. The last Widelux rolled off the production line in 2000. Now, in 2025, Jeff Bridges is bringing it back as the Wideluxx.

Wideluxx – A Widelux F8 for 2025

Jeff uses his Widelux in an interesting way. Instead of the typical landscapes and wide vistas that most people use it for, he prefers to photograph people, up close and personal. He suggested that bringing back the Widelux camera could be pretty cool during a 2020 interview with SilvergrainClassics.

The topic quickly changed, but it seems the idea never left his head. In 2023, it was first teased that something might be on the way. A new company was set up called Silverbridges, by Bridges and the team at SilvergrainClassics.

Unlike the old camera, which was produced in Japan, the new Wideluxx will be made in Germany. They faced significant challenges, as Panon Camera Shoko – the company that made the original – shut down in 2005 after a fire. All of the original mechanical drawings were lost.

So, Silverbridges is essentially having to reverse-engineer and rebuild the camera from scratch. We know this isn’t easy, as Pentax has been facing the same issue with their recent film project. And they built the cameras they’re trying to understand.

When is it coming? How much is it?

Beyond 2025, there’s no information on a specific release date yet. There isn’t a price, either, although I suspect this won’t be inexpensive. The original Widelux models sell for at least a couple of grand. The new one should hopefully fall somewhere under that figure, but it will still probably be quite expensive.

Its a 35mm format camera, and it shoots very wide 2.7:1 format panoramic images. That’s 1.8x wider than a typical 35mm film shot, so you get about 20 shots on a standard 36-exposure roll. It practically doubles your film costs compared to the standard 35mm format.

We’ll let you know when we hear more. But as I said, don’t expect this one to be cheap.