Halina Panorama

 Just look at this thing. Doesn't it scream quality?

Okay, maybe not. No, we did not intentionally add this camera to our collection. Sometimes cameras just find their way to us and join the family. In this case, Natasha ordered a second hand camera bag (would you believe we are short of those?) which came with some expired film that we thought would be fun to shoot. It's happened on more than one occasion that sellers include bonus items in the parcel that weren't in the original listing. That's how we ended up with the Coronet 44 and the Cosmic 35. This little Halina was concealed in one of the pockets of the camera bag.

So what is it? Would it be cruel to call it a reusable disposable camera? It certainly looks like one. It's pretty much in the same league as the SupaSnaps Opus FF1, though then again even that plastic toy camera had a flash. Both are from the early 1990s and both are remarkably basic.

The Halina isn't completely feature free. It has a lens cap that slides into place and a wrist strap. It also comes with fixed focus plastic lens (28mm), a curved film plane to improve sharpness, and a single aperture of f/11 and single shutter speed of 1/125. In short, it is a glorified box camera with a wide angle lens.

 The name "Panorama" won't have escaped your notice. Yes, this camera takes panoramas. The standard 35mm 24x36 frame is cropped to 13x36, resulting in an aspect ratio of 1:2.7. Ultimately some film is wasted, but that is the quirk of this camera. The mask can be removed to give you a full frame camera, but this isn't really recommended a) because the viewfinder has the same panoramic aspect ratio so composing for full frame will involve some guess work, and b) the image quality in the corners is poor. Check out this blog post written by someone who tried it.  Last of all, what's the point? There are plenty of early 90s point and shoots for full frame and removing the mask of this one takes away what makes it distinct.

Halina recommend shooting at ISO 400 for best results, but if conditions are sunny ISO 200 or even 100 will work. We haven't tested it yet but will give it go as the weather improves.