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Hasselblad XPAN


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If someone has any, can they please post X-Pan fotos - ideally of people/candids instead

of landscapes ?

"People/candid" pictures would give me a more realistic idea of the actual coverage of the

lens. And please specify wether 45 or 30mm, full frame or cropped.

Thanks

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The Hasselblad lenses (made by Fuji) that come with this camera are excelent. They have very sharp optics and great saturation. The 30mm is a great lens to have for the real old fashioned panoramics similar to Linhoff that many people are used to. The only downside to this camera is that it is SLOW to use and should be used with a tripod. If your into this kind of photography (like landscape) this is a dream camera. I love mine, but find that I use it less because it is so slow compared to Digital. It's not the camera's fault though. In reality, I am too busy nowadays to have the time that this camera requires.
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i would argue alex's thoughts on the xpan and say that it is an excellent hand held camera. look at the neg space you get in that tiny package. the lenses are f4, so it may not be the greatest 'low light' shooter, but i'd say for street, it's a fine camera to have on one's shoulder all day long. not sure why alex thinks the camera should be used on a tripod either. maybe you can ellaborate on that?

 

enjoy your xpan. look for the 'fuji' model as they are often cheaper than the 'hasselblad' model

 

cheers

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I have a few non-landscape images on this site, you will have to find them:

 

http://www.Kodachromeproject.com

 

The shot of the guy in the truck is with the 45/4, the other two are the 30/5.6.

 

There are also some here in this folder, landscapes though:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=535523

 

Great camera, I have all three lenses.

I wish it were a mechanical shutter though, I want to be using it 20-30 years from now

with a stash of Techpan, Adox CMS20, Ilford PanF, etc and have no idea how long the

batteries will be available. I got my whole kit with the leather Hassy bag and about $500 in

filters in 04 mint for $3,200.

 

It paid for it self in a month.

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Why do I think it should be used on a tripod? I agree you can use it hand held no problem but it is slow. The 45mm lens is f/4 and with such great optics one is tempted to use only high grain slow film to get those really beautiful slides. Therefore it is not the best for fast street shooting. I also use the 30mm lens which is 5.6 and MUST be used with the central spot filter so I am down to f/8 minimum. Also I then must use the external finder which you must really concentrate to not get mixed up. Also there is the problem with the level. Hand held it is easy to take an out of tilt shot. When it is not on the level you muist shave off part of the print to get it back on track and in a pano format sometimes means you taking out huge swaths of film. THEREFORE I find that using a light tripod makes me go slower and get the camera on level, etc. I had some major slip-ups because of switching formats and lenses. Problems like looking into the camera finder when I was supposed to be looking into the external finder and worse - composing the frame in the external finder thinking I was in Pano format when I was in reality in normal format. This last problem because the external finder does not tell you which format you are in. These are the reasons I like to use a tripod with this camera. I use a little Manfrotti adapted with a Really Right Stuff quick change platform which is a really perfect set-up and I love it. With a tripod you can stop down and take advantage of slow film with the absolutely FANTASTIC optical quality of this camera system. Cheers, Alex.
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Let me add that for Travel and Nature photographs this camera can add a different dimension to your portfolio. The clients just go ga-ga over the Panoramic photos and this makes your portfolio sell much more. The color saturation is to die for. Be careful of vignetting but most clients are so awed by the photos that they don't notice a little vignetting.
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Before buying the XPAN II I had the opportunity to use an XPAN. I had problems reading the shooting information. For this the XPAN II is much better.<br>I have many XPan photos in my portfolio, all of them shot with the 45 mm lens and most of them not cropped. <br>I love the format. Now most of the time I shoot the panorama photos with the Canon 5D and crop them in the XPan format (1/2.7). Karl
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I scan the selected slides (Provia and Velvia) one by one with the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo scanner at 2400 dpi, (sometimes 3200 dpi) in professional mode, sometimes with slight manual contrast reduction. Before scanning I check the quality of the slides on a light table with a good 50 mm camera lense. Karl
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