You might know funny man Seth Rogen from his hit comedy movies from the 2000s or from Apple TV’s new series The Studio. But the Canadian actor recently revealed that he is also an enthusiastic photographer — specifically panoramic film photography.
Appearing on GQ’s 10 Essentials series on YouTube last week, Rogen explains that he “got really into panoramic cameras” and he owns a Widelux and a Hasselblad XPan. The Widelux is “purely mechanical,” and it therefore requires a separate light meter for the correct exposure settings.
“It’s hard to load the film,” says Rogen as he gives a demonstration of the Widelux’s unique design that scans the film using a swing-lens mechanism. “There’s a little tiny slit that lets the light in.”
Rogen says he’s taken some “really cool pictures” backstage at SNL. He’s also taken other behind-the-scenes photos o his Widelux, such as him and Snoop Dogg in the studio recording ‘Take Yo Panties Off’ for the This is the End soundtrack.
Credit: Seth Rogen
His second panoramic film camera is a Hasselblad XPan, which he accurately points out is “much harder to find” than the Widelux. “Fuji manufactured the camera, and then some of them were rebranded as Hasselblads.” The unit Rogen has is a Fujifilm TX-2.
“There’s probably no greater cliche in all of the world than an actor thinking they’re a photographer,” jokes Rogen. “You’re around good lighting, you’re around cinematic things all day, you work with cameras, you get it in your head to get some cameras and to try to learn about cameras, as you should!”
Rogen notes that fellow Hollywood star Jeff Bridges is associated with the Widelux camera. As PetaPixel has reported, Bridges is not just famous for using the Widelux but is actively reviving it in the form of his new WideluxX. Bridges and his wife, Susan Geston, have joined forces with Silvergrain Classics to reverse engineer a Panon Widelux F8, making some notable improvements while preserving the original camera’s DNA.
Bridges describes the Widelux’s distinct look and character as the “sort of missing link between still photography and motion picture photography because of that lens that actually moves.” Perhaps that’s why movie stars are attracted to the unusual wide-angle camera.