This is the second major Soviet design for a panorama camera. It is basically
a redesign of the FT-2. Like the FT-2 it uses a curved film plane and a sweeping
lens. But there the similarity ends as it is much more modern looking and uses a
removable optical view finder. There are three different handles for this
camera, the earliest had a round solid aluminum handle. The next had the round
aluminum handle with a compartment for the filter and the majority have a black
square tapered handle. The rarest accessory for these cameras are the filters.
There are a yellow green and a skylight filter in a square black holder with a
flat spring on one side. They are extremely rare I have seen over 100 cameras
and only one filter. Apparently, although they were provided with the camera,
they have all been lost.
The camera is finished in chrome and black with black nylon fabric. The front
of the camera bulges for the lens assembly. In the upper right corner is an
accessory shoe for the viewfinder and in the upper left is the name plate. The
name plate is always divided into two sections, with the top being chromed and
the bottom a solid color and with reverse colored lettering. The most common
nameplate has Horizont on top and the KMZ symbol on the bottom. Occasionally you
will see Horizont Revue made for German distribution. It can also be found
marked Global-H.
On each corner is a rotating shoulder strap lug. On the top right is a
recessed rewind knob that pops up. It is normally covered by the viewfinder. In
the center over the lens is a set of stacked control knobs. On the top is a film
reminder. Next is the aperture control with settings of 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and
16. The bottom dial is thee shutter speed dial with settings of 30, 60, 125 and
250. On early cameras 250 is not engraved there is just a dot but the speed is
there. On the right is a threaded shutter release and a wind knob with film
counter.
On the bottom is a quarter inch tripod bushing and film release button. The
handle screws into this bushing.
