HERRON RAIL VIDEO Since 1985. The Leader in Vintage Rail Video Railfanning In Panoramic Mode 2 NEW N&W Steam DVD’s!*
PILLARS of
SMOKE in the SKY
BNSF coal loads head southbound on the Joint Line at Palmer Lake, Colo. (above). This panoramic composition was cropped from a full frame of a 10 MP Nikon D200. UP 8444 and 3985 are at Hermosa siding in Wyoming (below), doubleheading in April 1981 to the 10th anniversary celebration of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. (The high wind has completely obscured the 3985.) This panoramic format image is cropped from a full frame of a medium format Pentax 6x7 negative.
PANORAMIC CAMERAS have traditionally been best suited mainly for scenic landscape photography. But since trains tend to be rather long subjects, the panoramic format is a good way to add interesting variety to a digital slide show, or for framing to display on your den or office wall. A typical panoramic image is two to three times wider than traditional print sizes, such as 8×20 or 8×30 instead of 8×10; you could also have 11×28 or 11×42 instead of 11×14. Being creative and going even longer also is effec- tive at times.
There are several ways to take a panoramic photo, and several types of dedi- cated panoramic cameras. Cameras like the Widelux, Noblex and Horizon use a revolv- ing lens swiveling around past a slit opening to expose a wide section of film, a function that works best on stationary subjects, not moving trains. The 35mm Hasselblad X- Pan, and the Linhof Technorama and Horse- man 612 and 617 medium format cameras, take a panoramic image on a double length (two normal frames) of film, allowing high quality, very large panoramic prints. Anoth- er advantage of these cameras is they func- tion like a regular camera with a single ex- posure using a full range of shutter speeds and apertures, as well as interchangeable
lenses, from medium wide angle to short telephoto. However, these “wide format” cameras and lenses are quite pricey. The X- Pan is no longer made but will cost $1500 and up for a used camera with 45mm lens, and the Linhof and Horseman cameras start at around $8000 and up. Additional lenses are similarly very high priced. Given these high prices, plus the probabil- ity the average photographer will never need the ability to produce super large panoramic prints (measuring many feet, not in inches), probably the best way to achieve a railfan panoramic image is to use a camera you already own.
Composing For the Panoramic Image Using your existing camera, you’ll want to compose the scene so the subject occupies about a third or a half of the vertical section of the horizontal frame, leaving the rest of the frame as dead space; ideally your subject will be in the center section of the frame to take advantage of the central portion of the lens, which is always sharpest. A DSLR (dig- ital single lens reflex) camera, even with a small “DX” APS film sized sensor, will have more than sufficient quality to create a panoramic print of about 13″×36″ or 16″×40″ by cropping out the middle horizon-
PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG MONROE
Coal trains over Blue Ridge Grade in 1957. Filmed with cooperation of N&W manage- ment! Go aboard A & Y class engines as they struggle to move long coal drags over N&W’s most famous grade! Filmed in 16mm. Real sound! 45 mins. Chapters! Original film by E.C. Eddy. Item 049-D $34.95
Pocahontas Glory 7
J, K2, A, Y, Z & S1 a Class locomotives on passenger, freight & coal trains at Cincinnati, Portsmouth, Roanoke area and the Pigeon Creek Mine Run! Turbine Jawn Henry in pusher service with Live Sound! 78 mins. Chapters! Watch with or without narration. $39.95
Also available:
Pocahontas Glory Volumes 1 - 6 Vol. 1: Kenova, Abingdon Branch; Vol. 2: Roanoke & Blue Ridge; Vol. 3: Shenandoah Valley Line; Vol. 4: Coal Trains WV to Norfolk; Vol. 5: Passenger Service; Vol. 6: A’s west from Norfolk, Electrics on N&W & VGN
Quality the difference is on the screen.
Add $6.00 p&h for 1 item, $1.00 for each additional. FL residents add 7.00% tax.
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