Incamerapseudopanoramicwideanglephotomode – more Samsung Digimax L85 fun!

Dedicated readers will know that I have already written about this remarkable 2006 digicam on 35mmc. On the recent August Bank Holiday weekend I found myself in Dawlish Warren, a popular seaside resort on the south Devon Coast. The L85 was in the back pocket of my cycling shirt so I thought I would make some images of this interesting area. The cycle ride was part of a scoping exercise for a more extended photographic visit in a couple of weeks. I often use the Digimax as a sketch book. It is light and easy to carry when cycling.

The Warren, as it is known, is a sand spit at the mouth of the Exe Estuary. It is on the western side of the river mouth; Exmouth, it’s more developed neighbour, is on the eastern side. The sand spit is part fun fair, part seaside resort, part shopping mall, part food hall, part golf course and part nature reserve. The relative importance of these opportunities depends on one’s interests and priorities at the time of visiting. This diversity is more than can be possibly photographed in one brief excursion, but I hope that the following images give a flavour of the Warren.

The Camera

The Samsung Digimax L85 is an 8mp CCD digital compact camera. It was available in the mid-2000s and has largely disappeared into the dustbin of electronic history. At the time the camera received mixed reviews: some reviewers felt that it was a very good small camera with plenty of functionality; others felt it was a load of rubbish. Most felt that its best feature was the slightly oddball aesthetic. It seems that Samsung’s design department attempted to recreate a vintage rangefinder camera look in plastic. In this piece I would like to offer some insight into the wide picture function. I had not used this mode before so the expanses and chaos of the sand spit seemed well suited to exploring the wider image setting.

When I got home from the ride I discovered that Gale Lee’s extremely thorough review of panoramic cameras, and the theory and practice of wideview photography, was the day’s featured article on 35mmc. (Readers can find the link at the foot of this article.) I hope that my humble attempt at panoramic image making will be of interest to readers as well. I know that 35mmc contributors and readers enjoy all topics panoramic! The existence of my piece and Gale’s detailed contribution is purely coincidental!

The Wide Angle Mode

Samsung’s user manual describes the ‘panoramic’ option as the wide angle mode. It is chosen by rotating the mode dial to the ‘W’ setting. At this point the camera enters auto mode and it is not possible to select aperture or shutter speed. The camera retains basic user choices such as ISO and white balance settings. The camera reduces the image size to 5mp by effectively chopping the top and bottom off the normal image. In the normal image mode the 8mp setting provides a picture with 3264 x 2448 pixels; in the wide angle mode this is reduced to 3264 x 1632. The width of the image is retained, but the height is reduced by 816 pixels. I am fairly sure that 408 pixels are removed from the top and bottom edges of the image.

Interestingly, in the wide angle mode, the image ratio becomes 2:1. In Gale Lee’s recent piece this ratio is given as the minimum for an image to be counted as panoramic. I don’t really know whether this feature of the L85 generates genuinely panoramic images. I prefer to think of the function as a pseudo-panoramic mode created in camera using image cropping. The screen shows the cropped image and some of the basic settings. Usefully, the histogram display is retained so that the photographer has a rough guide to the exposure.

In the image above, the W option can be seen on the mode dial of the L85. In this mode, the panoramic function of the camera is used for image making.

The Images

The following images have been lightly edited in Shotwell. This is a Linux photo manager application with basic editing functionality. I prefer to do the best I can with the camera, but a light touch in post-processing is helpful. I converted the images to monochrome to try and recreate that authentic ‘real photography’ look.

Conclusions

The wide angle mode, aka the incamerapseudopanoramicwideanglephotomode, is another interesting feature of the Samsung Digimax L85. The images have a lovely look; the CCD sensor really does justice to the ‘panoramic’ feel of the pictures. With the gentle post-processing and conversion to monochrome, the images capture some of the glorious chaos and natural wildness of the Warren. Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into the charm of this place.

Links

Gale Lee’s wide-ranging look at panoramic cameras and panoramic image-making

My look at the Samsung Digimax L85 Compact Camera

The extraordinary range of articles on 35mmc about panoramic photography can be found by entering ‘panorama’ and ‘panoramic’ as search terms into the blog’s search box.

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