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New toy - Xpan II


cheec

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OK, so I left the Leica in the car and played with the Hass Xpan II

instead. These are the 1st few snapshots that I got back from

C41-XP2.

 

For those of you who are still itching to spend some money after

buying Leica, I think the Xpan II is a good cure. The panoramic

format takes a bit to get used to.

 

Chee<div>008KSQ-18095184.jpg.27714d543582320b053961febd88e77e.jpg</div>

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whew. tough crowd tonight. what is this, the hinckley jury?

 

Chee - keep the photos coming -- we've probably all thought about the xpan at one point or another, so we'd be interested to see a Leica guy "do the xpan," particularly if you shoot a lot of B&W. I'd personally be interested in any developing-scenes type photography -- i.e., things that you couldn't take pictures of with a digital SLR and then just stitch together to make a pano. Keep the street stuff coming -- that kind of spontaneous panoramic is something the xpan seems to have a good lock on...

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Chee:

 

Keep the shots coming. The xpan is a great camera especially if you think in the letterbox format that most wide-screen films come in. The 45mm lens is as sharp as any leica lens I own, whisper-smooth. As Peter indicated, the depth of detail is amazing, it really should be considered a medium-format camera when shot in the P mode. As he also said, any jpeg online will not do it justice. Great complement to a Leica for travel.<div>008Kff-18099384.jpg.82226b29cc308a7c7d555bd53cb895c2.jpg</div>

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The XPan is an incredible amount of fun, but it presents new challenges that you never considered. Strong composition is especially needed, and weak composition becomes even weaker with the XPan.

 

Certainly not useful for every shot, but you can do a lot with it.

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The negative size is 24x65mm. I just got mine a few weeks ago, waiting for my Nikon Coolscan 9000 to come, so I can finally post some of my shots on Photo.net. Being a long time Leica user, I think the Xpan is a real nice complement to it. I have noticed lately the posts have a lot of typo which make them difficult to read. Maybe a spell check before we post will be a good courtesy. Thanks for sharing, Chee.
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Sydney photographer John F Williams has been using nothing but an XPAN II for the last

six months. He thinks it's fantastic, but I have to agree with another poster's remark that

the images lose a lot of their impact when scaled down for online viewing:<p>

 

<a href="http://williamsfoto.net/wideframe/">http://williamsfoto.net/wideframe/</a>

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It's a cool camera. But the novelty wears off after a bit. Had one for about 2 years. Sat in

the closet for half of that. When I shot in the regular 35mm mode, the images

disappointed me compared to the M stuff. Plus f/4 is pretty limiting.

 

I found a cropped M 24mm works just about as well. And a cropped Contax 645 even

better. So, I sold the camera.

 

But for a vacation camera, it's great.

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Yes, composition with Xpan is a bit of a problem for most of us. I think that diagonal lines in the Xpan format is a bit weaker compared to normal 35mm/645/67 formats.

 

For other formats, we use the S-shape line sometimes but I find that V-line(be it V-standing up or the inverted V) works well in XPan.

 

Admitedly, the 45/4 lens is a tad slow compared to the speed-demon-leicas for street photos. For B&W, I use XP2/Tri-X/Neopan 400 & 1600.

 

I have not tried colour slides yet as I'm still waiting on my center filter - Can't wait to do some seascapes with the Xpan.

 

Thanks for all your comments. I will post more pics from Xpan from time to time.

 

Chee

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I scan my slides/negs on a flatbed Epson 2450, works perfectly.

 

For those interested, this photographer does a lot of his work with an Xpan ... documentary street photography, mostly in color I believe ... www.singlish.org

 

Enjoy.

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"would an aps camera in panoramic mode do the same thing?"

 

Absolutely not. When in panorama mode the APS camera instructs the printer to apply a mask over the standard negative size. So in fact you are doing the worst thing possible, make a bigger print from a smaller negative area.

 

The XPAN uses more film area and therefore maintains detail.

 

Personally, I like my mamiya 7ii, which can do panoramas on 35mm if you fit the little dohicky. But for the rest of the time shoots 6x7 negs. For me the value for money of the Mamiya was greater than the XPan.

 

I also have a problem with the price difference between the Fuji TX-1 and the XPan - same camera, different name on the front ...

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