XPan Adapter Kit For Pentax 67

[stu dall]

Just wondering whether anyone has had any experience using the XPan

Adapter Kit for the 67. I've been looking at it on ebay for some

time, but at $98.00 plus shipping, it really didn't seem to be good

value. In the last few days i've spotted the 'Buy Now' price down to

$59.00, and now today, at $39.00. I've got stacks of 35mm Velvia

that was going to waste in the fridge, so I thought why not. Anyway,

the kit is said to work best with the 45mm lens, which I have. Can

anyone tell me of their experiences (good or bad).

 

Stu.

[octavio_silva]

I recently bought one kit and i use it often

It works good with all the lens I have got(45, 75, 90, 135 and 200)

Problems: the camera have to be unloaded in the dark.

It is very easy to develop the films, but to get prints will be difficult if you don't have a flat scanner with film scanning capabilities.

Advantages: first class panoramic pictures with current, low cost films.

If you are a regular Pentax 67 user you know the fantastic results that can be achived with this equipment.

Go a head!!

[stu dall]

Many thanks for the reply Octavio. The instructions say that you feed the film into an empty 35mm cartridge, on loading. Do you put the end of the film in a little way, and then wind on as you would with a '120' film?

 

Stu.

[octavio_silva]

For the reception of the exposed film I use spare re-usable 35mm cartridges available in the market. The cartridges comming with new films are mechanicaly closed at the factory and once we open them (not easy to open) it is almost impossible to re-close them, giving ourselves, the warranty that the end cup doesn't pop out accidentaly, destroying the exposed film.

As you know the further end of the 35mm films are firmilly tape glued to the core of the original bobbin and for this reason it is not possible to transfer it, interelly, into the reception cartridge. This means that there will always be one last frame, and maybe a part of the previous one, that will be lost if the camera is opened in the light. I can see only one solution: either we open the camera, loosing the unprotected part of the film, we cut the film and we complete the winding manually into the reception cartridge or we open the camera in the dark and we rewind manually all the exposed film back to the original cartridge. If the elected procedure is this last one we can use for the reception of the exposed film, on the right side of the camera, only the internal bobbin of the cartridge, making the instalation and the rewinding tasks much easier.

One very important point: the tip of each new film should be well and firmilly tape glued to the reception bobbin to ensure the proper film advance after each exposure.

Maybe I am not inventive enough to see a better solutions but I accept some help.

Oct�vio

[dave_cheng1]

Don't you need a leader attached to the film to begin with? Or won't you waste more than a foot of film when you load a 35mm roll into the camera? I just feel this panoramic kit can be hand made easily out of 2 plastic 120 spools. Cut the spool into 2 and shorten each one. Reduce by sanding the core diameter until they fit both ends of the 35mm spool. That's the adpters you need.

 

There is really no need to use the two masks shown in the kit. There may be slight amount of film flatness issue to deal with. But when you shoot panoramics you will most likely shoot with small aperatures so there should be enough DOF to reduce the issue to a lesser degree. Well, only experiments will tell if it is really going to be an issue.

[fernando_mcsoto]

I have use the panoramic kit and it really good and well made. The only issue to deal with is taking the film out of the camera as has been explained here. I have done it in a change back and respooled the film into the orginal cassette. I think it is the best way to do it because it allows you send the film for processing without any issues.

[stu dall]

Thanks Fernando. If you could explain your exact method from start to finish, including which spools you use, and how you fix the film at the start of the roll etc, and also, how you re-spool at the end, I would be really grateful. Stu.