Stoating with a Widelux

No, I haven’t blown the housekeeping on a new 35mm swing-lens panoramic camera. Perish the thought; in any case I like to eat and have been known to buy the odd beer along with the potatoes and washing powder. No, I was lucky enough to be able to borrow one during a meet-up with good friend Jon in Leeds.

I caught my train without any drama at Halifax, despite it being my first time using my phone as my ticket. My grandson was unimpressed, as he told me “it’s called progress Grandad”. It was also my first time on a train since 2019 but train travel hasn’t changed much in those four-plus years. Jon joined the train part way through so we arrived in Leeds together. Given that it was raining and decidedly grey outside our logical first stop was an excellent little cafe where we enjoyed some first class coffee and loaded up the cameras for the day.

Coffee time!

Coffee & cameras – perfect!

I had taken a couple of rolls of Ilford HP5+ with me to use in Jon’s Widelux and a quick meter reading as we left the cafe indicated that I’d need to rate it at ISO 800. The Widelux has very few shutter speeds so I set 1/125th second and an aperture of f8 and basically used the camera in that configuration as if it were a point and shoot model. In this mode I rely on experience to alert me to the need to recheck the light levels and/or tweak the settings. As the conditions didn’t improve though I stuck to these settings for all but a handful of exposures when the presence of deep shadows caused me to use the 1/15th of a second shutter speed. Yes, like magic this camera can be handheld successfully at 1/15th second – which, given that it’s a swing lens camera actually takes a couple of seconds to complete!

My first couple of Widelux images

My first couple of images were vertoramas and show the conditions quite nicely. Whilst the mist quickly disappeared the greyness persisted and the dull, featureless sky remains stubbornly off-white. Incidentally, I made two exposures as I was concerned I might have accidentally got my fingers in the first (I hadn’t and in fact by some miracle I managed to avoid this common error for the entire walk).

I have had a fair bit of experience with swing-lens panoramic photography over the last couple of years and found that this transferred seamlessly to the new piece of kit. The main issue I had was the light which was not exactly conducive to creativity but again experience helped and I was quickly “in the zone” to use the vernacular.

Frame three – I wasn’t going to let the conditions defeat me

It had been a while since Jon and I had met last so any disappointment with the light was quickly forgotten as we chatted and caught up on the various goings-on in our lives. I generally like to be on my own for my stoating about with a camera but occasionally it’s nice to share the walk with another and this day was no exception. We started by walking out of the city centre before retracing our steps to head back in towards Leeds Docks and our second coffee stop. It ended up as a brunch stop truth be told! It was also the ideal time to load up the second roll of Ilford HP5+.

I have mentioned the benefits of experience before in this post particularly with regard to the technical aspects. However, it not only helps to determine exposure but can also help with creative decisions such as composition and where to stand to capture a point of view which produces an eye-catching image. Knowing how the camera “sees” a scene is very useful and nowhere is this more useful than with these panoramic cameras where viewfinders tend to be very basic. Thus in the image above I was fairly confident that the edge of the canal and the expanse of bridge would wrap themselves around the scene very nicely. It’s always good when a hunch comes off and here I need to acknowledge John Farnham whose Widelux images I’ve studied over the last few months and through whom I started to get a feel for what the camera can do before I’d even seen one in the flesh.

The conditions suited a toned image I thought

So, what do I think about the Widelux and would I part-exchange my Horizon S3 Pro to acquire one?

Firstly, handling. All of the 35mm swing-lens panoramic film cameras I’ve used have been finicky in this respect and the Widelux is no exception. A newcomer to the format might initially struggle but after putting three rolls through Jon’s camera I had none spoilt by the encroachment of my digits. The S3 Pro is a little easier to use because it has a pistol grip screwed into the base of the camera which makes it very easy to handle.

Loading film is an interesting experience with both these cameras for sure. Now, whilst Jon kindly loaded all three of my films on the day I paid very close attention and would say that there is little to choose between the two in this regard.

Whilst the S3 has a good range of shutter speeds the Widelux I was using had just three. 1/15th, 1/125th and 1/250th. As already mentioned I went with a point-and-shoot configuration but would have preferred more flexibility. That said, I didn’t miss any opportunities on the day due to the limited shutter speeds.

The Widelux feels very sturdy, it’s certainly not a lightweight piece of kit, but I carried it in my hand or my pocket for several hours without really noticing it. Its boxy shape makes it easier to slip into a large coat pocket than the more curvaceous S3 Pro. Without the pistol grip of the S3 it did take a few seconds more to get the correct grip on the Widelux but that’s a minor niggle in the wider scheme of things.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the Widelux. The format is one I’m very familiar with and the Widelux was fun to use. Will I be shelling out the £800+ they currently sell for? In short no. Not because it’s not a great camera but simply because I’ve already got the format covered and at that price it’s a bit rich for my wallet. It was huge fun to use though and I’m definitely going to be asking Jon to bring it along on a future meet-up too! And if I win the lottery …

Thank Jon!