Between The Sprockets A photography blog

Panoramic Toy Camera Shoot Out

The “Panoramic” 35mm Shootout

Welcome to my “Panoramic” 35mm toy-cam shootout. I recently purchased these three cameras at a 2nd hand shop for $2 each, and I thought it would be interesting to compare them.

First of all, an explanation of why I've got “panoramic” in quotes (and why I'll stop doing it from now on). All of these cameras claim to be panoramic, but when you open the back of them you are greeted with a masked off 35mm frame.  So, essentially what these panoramic cameras are doing is just chopping off the top and bottom of a regular 35mm frame. One of the cameras even has a switch to move the mask in place and out of place (hence the name “2 way”). While they do produce panoramic shots, they're really cheating. A real panoramic camera would be as high as a normal 35mm frame, but wider. These aren't, but that's ok for $2.

With that out of they way, lets get into it. Here's the three cameras I picked up:

Panorama with a Wide Pic Panoramic Lens

2 Way 535FP

Vivitar IC 101 Panorama

For comparison, I took the three cameras out to the beach and took photos with all three cameras from the same position. I also took photos with my Panasonic Lumix TZ3 point and shoot digital and my Superheadz Black Slim Devil (with 22mm lens). The digital photos are in there mostly because this camera takes proper wide angle shots at a 16:9 ratio, and I was curious as to it's real wide angle performance.

Looks

Lets get this out there straight up, they all look like crap. They are all plastic, and they are all styled to make you think there's more to them than there is. The Vivitar and the 2 Way have a strange gold / bronze colour to them, I guess it was popular once. The Panorama is plain black, and by far the cheapest looking of all. For me, the winner here is the Vivtar. It's comfortable enough to hold, and no unnecessary switches or dials.

Features

Vivitar: 2/5

The only feature on the Vivitar (apart from the usual shutter and winder and wrist strap) is a slide away lens cover. I guess that's all it needs though.

Panorama: 2/5

Same as the Vivitar with a slide away lens cover.

2 Way: 3 / 5

Woah! We have a winner! While it doesn't feature the slide away lens cover, it does have a flash! Not only that, but the panoramic mode is completely optional. There's a small switch on top of the camera marked “P” or “N”. When set to “P”, the mask swings into place inside the camera, and also on the viewfinder. This camera can take both panoramic and normal shots.

In Use

All cameras operate basically the same. There's no settings (except the 2 Way camera with it's N and P modes and flash), they're literally point and shoot. All cameras feature fixed lenses with fixed apertures and shutter speeds. I can't tell you what they are, because there's no markings to tell me (except on the Vivitar which claims “35mm Focus Free”, but that could be referring to the film type). This is where my reference camera comes in handy (The Superheadz Wide and Slim with a 22mm lens).

All cameras where easy enough to load film into, although the 2 Way camera's frame counter only resets back to “8” when you open the back. I don't believe it's a design flaw, just a consequence of years of abuse. After film is loaded, all you need to do is wind the film on, and press the shutter. Repeat until you can't wind on anymore.

Update: On Film
For these tests I loaded up some kodak ultramax 400 film (it was cheap, and in a 3 pack).  Because there is no adjustments for exposure on these cameras, your film choice will be the deciding factor with what you can shoot with them.  400 speed film is a good general purpose daylight and shade film, I wouldn't suggest going any lower.  If you really wanted to go higher (800 or 1600 speed) , you will be very limited in the lighting conditions you will be able to use these cameras.  If all you want is hassle free point and shoot, go for iso 400 film.

Shot 1

The first  shot was of a monument indicating the location of the HMAS Brisbane that was sunk off the coast for divers to enjoy.  Here's what it looks like with the Lumix TZ3:

Pretty much what you'd expect from a point and shoot digital camera.  Although you can't see the top of the monument, I wanted to concentrate on how wide the lens goes.  Here's the shot from the Superheadz Wide + Slim (Black Devil):

Apart from the vignetting (edge darkness) and the colours (partially the lens, partially the cheap film), you'll notice there is a lot more in this shot.  The Superheadz has a 22mm lens, allowing it to see a lot more of the surrounding area than any of the other cameras here.  Here's this shot from the first panoramic camera, the 2Way 535FP:

This camera caught all of the base, almost none of the tower or surrounding areas.  Not as wide as either the Lumix or the Superheadz.  Next up is the Vivitar IC-101:

This camera takes a slightly wider picture.  As with all of these cameras, the left and right edges are soft and dark.  Lets see how the Panorama handled this shot:

The word "poorly" comes to mind.  Out of all the panoramic cameras, this one had the widest lens.  It also had the most pronounced vignetting and worst quality issues.  If you were looking to create quality images, you wouldn't have bought a $2 camera, I suppose.  Here is the Superheadz shot again, this time cropped like these panoramic cameras:

Shot 2

In these shots we'll see how the lenses handle small details.  The two girls walking on the rocks in the distance will provide us with a reference point (they were walking as I was taking the photos, so they won't be in the same position in each shot).  First, the reference shot from the Lumix:

Once again, no surprises here.  Exposure is good, focus is good, colours are good.  Now lets see how the Superheadz Wide + Slim sees the same scene:

This shot features all of the traits this camera is famous for, especially the super wide look.  So, how do our cheap panoramic cameras compare?  Here's how the 2Way 535FP saw this scene:

Strange colours, edge blur, general softness, lack of details.  You know what, that's ok though.  That's why I bought a cheap camera.  Next up, the Vivitar IC-101:

There's some rather sever falloff on the left of the photo, but overall it looks ok.  All the usual traits are present and accounted for.  Next up, the Panorama:

Apart from the dust and the saturation, there's no real standout features of these photos caused by the camera.  They all have the same problems and quirks.

Shot 3

because this one is vertical, I'll try and cram all the photos together:

All of the images so far have been cropped from their original frames.  Here's a sample of how well the masks work in these cameras:

Because the 2Way 535FP has a mask that swings into place, the top and bottom edges of the frame aren't straight.  Also, the far left of the image has shadows from poorly cut plastic inside the camera.

In this shot from the Vivitar IC-101 you can see the corners have a slight flare to them.  This is simply due to a poorly made mask that leaks light at the corners.

All of these little quirks in the frame make it hard to get a good crop from your images, often making them even thinner than you would like.

If you're after a small, semi-wide angled camera that can take interesting but flawed photos, then these cameras have exactly what you need.  If you're looking to take good, technically accurate photos, I would think you should be spending more than $2 at a 2nd hand shop anyway.  After all this, I can't help but feel I probably won't use these cameras much, if at all.  I can get the same, or even better results by simply cropping my Superheadz Black devil shots after I have scanned them on my computer.

If I had to pick one, I would go for the Vivitar IC-101.  It's smaller than the Panorama, and it doesn't have a useless flash or gimmicky 2way switch.  It's a very simple, single purpose camera.  I don't want a flash on a panoramic camera, just like I don't want a panoramic mask on night shots that require a flash (party camera).

All in all, these cameras provided a lot of fun for and afternoon, and I suspect I'll be taking at least one along with me from now on.