Hasselblad XPan Review (35mm Panoramic Camera: Hasselblad Rangefinder) +YouTube
Hasselblad Xpan Review – The year ended on a real high after buying my Hasselblad 501C. It was the camera that was giving me the most enjoyment and arguably also the best pictures I had ever taken!
I read a lot and am always getting new ideas as to what I want to try next and what direction I want to go with my photography. I am the eternal optimist so often the grand ideas lead to disappointment in reality once I try a certain camera for a particular idea. One early example was to use two Kiev 88 film cameras for wedding photography. I got the cameras but by that time my experience and knowledge had moved on and a new idea was brewing. Leica cameras were on the horizon. I flip flop from the high quality medium format negative size to the speed and portability of 35mm. Neither are the perfect solution but both have their strengths.
Hasselblad + Leica = Xpan!?
I love the Hasselblad 501C camera for built quality, lenses and its large negative size. I also love my new 35mm Leica M6 for the build quality, lenses, portability and light meter. What would happen if I could combine both cameras? Please let me introduce you to the Hasselblad XPan!
Hasselblad XPan Camera
I had never considered buying a Hasselblad XPan camera before nor had ever had any interest towards them. The XPan came to me almost by accident in my reading for my next grand idea. Within a 48hr period of comparing many other cameras I had introduced myself to the XPan, learnt the major pros and cons, got up to speed on how the XPan photos look and then purchased one.
Hasselblad or Mamiya!?
I will be open and say I very nearly bought a Mamiya 7ii instead. The three things that stopped me getting the Mamiya 7 were the higher cost (with a wide lens), the similarities to my existing Fuji GF670 and the fact that I’m not a big 6×7 film format fan (yet). I love composing with 6×6 and feel 645 film is a big enough jump up from 35mm. I’m not sure I need 6×7.
Mamiya 7 35mm Review (No 35mm adapter required!)
Hasselblad Xpan 35mm rangefinder film camera
The Hasselblad XPan is a 35mm rangefinder camera like my Leicas but comes in a titanium – aluminium body. The XPan has a built in light meter like the Leica M6 and like all Leica M cameras is a coupled rangefinder camera system with interchangeable lenses. The XPan has the solid (built like a tank) feel and build quality of a Hasselblad 500 series camera and the small form factor of a Leica. Leica M cameras are ‘limited’ by the maximum film negative size of 35mm (24x35mm). The Hasselblad XPan however has panoramic mode (24x65mm) and shoots two 35mm frames side by side to make a negative almost two times larger .
Hasselblad Xpan lenses
The 45mm lens equates to roughly a 25mm lens yet with zero distortion at the edges as it is a 45mm lens. A larger negative also gives a greater shallow depth of field so the 90mm f4 lens actually looks more like perhaps an f2 lens with beautifully graduated background and foreground separation.
Xpan 35mm camera – features
At first glance the Hasselblad XPan looks to be a very well designed camera with a PC sync port, a shutter release cable port, spirit level supplied as standard, the ability to switch between normal 35mm mode and P for panoramic mode mid roll, a basic LCD with battery life and exposures remaining all in a very neat and compact camera. The only negative I have seen is the paint flakes off the body easily.
Hasselblad or Fujifilm
The Hasselblad XPan was a joint venture and made in collaboration with Fujifilm. The Fuji TX-1 / TX-2 are the Fujifilm badged version. There was a similar collaborate to Zeiss and Fujifilm who co-made my Fuji GF670 camera.
35mm Panoramic photos
So what does the Hasselblad XPan bring? I look forward to the challenge of shooting and composing the panoramic images especially for my model photography where it is seen less often. I don’t take many landscape photos but if I did this would certainly be an amazing travel companion. I look forward to trying the XPan for street photography and also for wedding photography. It has the benefits of a Leica in that I can work fast and travel light. Any camera that lets me do this normally gets to travel more and work more than my bigger cameras. The large format 4×5 cameras for example have never been out the UK.
Hasselblad Xpan Flickr photos
I will take my new Hasselblad XPan camera on my next model photography trip and see what I can do. The resulting images will certainly be something fresh for my Flickr feed and Instagram.
Teaser – Hasselblad Xpan + 45mm f4 lens + Kentmere 100 film
Hasselblad XPan 35mm in NYC (35mm Panoramic Camera)
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Hi, I really tried to appreciate the Xpan but after reviewing as much pictures as I can I definitively did not find that they «glows» like Leica’s or Zeiss’s. They are good actually but In comparison, to me the highlights and the shadows presents less details and the overall image is less brillant. To me its main advantage is its ability to adapt the angle depending of the scene by switching the format in live. When selecting one camera for travel, aren’t you frustrated bu such loss of quality compared to your Leica gear ? Maybe I only found bad scans.
The image quality can be amazing and I would say the lenses are as sharp as Leica (without pixel peeping) but at f4 they are not fast. I still need to do video for this camera.. I like the pano option but it rarely suits my subjects. One of my favourite photos I shot in NYC when running a workshop was the XPan, see my Flickr images.. linked from blog post to see full size.
PS : I do appreciate a lot your New York picture taken with the Xpan on a balcony.
Thank yes the Xpan was absolutely perfect for NY!