My son Nick gave me a camera a while ago. It’s widely described as a toy camera, or “rubbish“. It’s called a Panorama Wide Pic, “focus free”.
This camera is simplicity itself, the epitome of point and shoot. Advance the film, point it, press the shutter. Repeat.
It’s a stark contrast to my normal procedures, where I take great care with exposure, shutter speed, composition. Point. Click. What could be simpler?
According to this review, the camera has a fixed shutter speed of about 1/125 second – not really fast enough for moving trains – and an aperture of f/11 (pretty good depth of field). The main problem with this camera is the fixed focus, which is NOT at infinity (good for landscapes) but rather “yonder” which makes you wonder if it was meant for group photos. It’s not good for selfies!
My son gave me a roll of black and white film, so that’s what I shot. Why not?
I’ve managed to date most of these images by comparing the trains against video I took at the same time. The lead photo (KCS 4191), the one above (KCS 4676) and the one below (CN 3034) are from the morning of February 16, 2025.
You can see the effect of the slow shutter speed in the photo above. It’s jittery. I think I was trying to pan and didn’t get it right.
March 1
I brought it with me two weeks later for an outing on March 1. The first train I shot was a westbound container train between Dufresne and Ste. Anne, MB, led by CN 2314.
You might have noticed how wide these images are. It’s advertised as having a “panoramic lens”, which really means that it crops the top and bottom of the image. It still uses regular 35mm film but doesn’t use the top or bottom third of the film.
Below, a slightly jittery photo of CN 3013 coming out of Lorette siding, with my thumb in the way.
I was shooting video and here’s the photo of the video of the train!
I mentioned it was terrible for selfies. Its focus distance is out “yonder” so I ended up being blurry. Maybe that’s for the best!
Later on the same morning, I photographed another container train. You’ll have to trust me that the “ONE” words on these containers were pink.
Date Unknown
I wasn’t able to nail down a date for these photos, but from the snow on the ground, February or March seems right!
The photo above shows Symington Yard in Winnipeg with a train going over the hump.
Below is the tail end of an eastbound container train approaching mile 10 of the CN Rivers subdivision.
The tail, going under the Perimeter Highway, with my car on the far right. I advanced the film quick enough to get the “coming” and “going” shot of the train’s tail.
Just One More Thing
I had a hard time unloading the film from this camera. I couldn’t figure out how to wind it back into the cartridge, so I ended up opening the back and winding it in by hand. I did it in a dark room but I think there was a little light leakage in the room, since the last five or six photos are washed out. That’s Millie the cat in the image above, yawning.
I bought two more rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus ISO 400 film (black and white) and I’ve shot five or six frames so far. The black and white film just adds a little more interest to me.
This camera is a lot of fun! My expectations are low and every shot is a surprise.
The camera isn’t rubbish and your pictures are quite interesting. I didn’t know one could still buy B&W film. I’m looking forward to your future experiments.