60 Years in the Making

1967. While the “Summer of Love” movement was happenin’ in San Francisco, and Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell topped the USA sales charts with “Aint No Mountain High Enough”, something very crucial to the analogue world was taking place in the town of Krasnogorsk, Russia, the first Horizont swing-lens panoramic camera was born.

From its initial introduction, this amazing and stylish instrument captured the imagination of both domestic and international customers – and sold an astonishing 50,000 pieces within its first 6 years of production due to the Horizon's camera technology, which was quite radical for its time.

Following the war in 1948, the Soviet Union commissioned Zenit for the development of the FT-1 camera – an optical wonder designed to trace the accuracy of artillery fire. Using a 50mm lens and a huge 110mm film cartridge, it could trace a full 120 degrees of vision – thereby verifying both the launch and impact of a projectile. This technology was refined by the later FT-2 and FT-3 cameras – and ultimately adapted into the civilian-use Horizont.

Moving on to 1989 – Zenit introduced the Horizon 202, featuring the same basic Horizon mechanics and principles, with its tooling and optics updated with the latest technology. Designed by P.A Tikhomirov and supported by Italian technical firms Manfrotto and Silverstri, this item was favoured by Lomographers approximately 10 years ago, and became the tool upon which we initially built our panoramic archive and business.

Today, Lomography brings you the Horizon Kompakt and Perfekt cameras! After reviewing the best features of the 202, we created the Kompakt for effortless snapshots and the Perfekt for precise professional work.

A Panoramic Photography Timeline

1843

One of the first recorded patents for a panoramic camera was submitted by Joseph Puchberger in Austria in 1843 for a hand-cranked, 150° field of view, 8-inch focal length camera

1888

Following the invention of flexible film, panoramic photography was revolutionised.

1948

The Widelux, a fully mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera is developed in Japan in 1948

1967

The first Horizont panoramic camera is introduced by Zenit!

1989

Zenit launches the Horizon 202 panoramic camera.

2005

Entering into a historic partnership with the Lomographic Society International, Zenit introduces the new Horizon Kompakt and Perfekt panoramic cameras.