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Hasselblad Xpan Body Rangefinders

4.37/5 (30 Reviews)

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  • Camera TypeRangefinder
    Film Type35mm
    Shutter Speed8 - 1/1000 sec
    ISO Range - Automatic SettingISO 25 - 3,000
    ISO Range - Manual SettingISO 25 - 3,000
    Light Metering ModesTTL
    Depth2.04 in.
    Height3.28 in.
    Width6.64 in.
    Weight25.44 oz.
    Product ID22523646

Product Description

The Hasselblad XPan incorporates a dual-format facility providing a full panorama 24x65 mm format as well as a conventional 24x36 mm format on the same film. This innovative camera offers all the convenience and advantages of the 35 mm format, but provides the option to rapidly switch to the full panorama format, without changing film. It becomes, therefore, the first and only dual-format camera on the market that expands the format instead of masking it, ensuring that every exposure utilises the full area of the film. In addition, the 65 mm width of the full panorama images is similar to the medium format, ensuring that the Hasselblad XPan will always give you superb image quality.


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Reviews 1 - 5 (30 Reviews Total) | Next 15

User Reviews

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by blowfish a Expert from Cape Town, South Africa

Date Reviewed: April 30, 2003

Strengths:    Light strong, optics, winder, IF ANYONE KNOWS WHICH CHEAPER SCANNER 35mm will do 24mm x 65mm then please email me blow-fish@bigfoot.com

Weaknesses:    slight cutoff by lenshood (but that is a rangefinder trait .... Duhhh ... also lens min focus distance could be better

Bottom Line:   
I have always loved panoramic cameras / images and took the plunge with the X-Pan. I take photographs for 2 picture libraries and like the ability to switch between pano and standard 35mm. ALTHOUGH I only ever seem to take pictures on panoramic. Fantastic camera and the only slight niggles (film left out after rewind, mulitple exposures, shutter info in viewfinder) have all been sorted out by the XPAN2. IF ANYONE KNOWS WHICH CHEAPER SCANNER 35mm will do 24mm x 65mm then please email me blow-fish@bigfoot.com

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Duration Product Used:   11-20 years

Price Paid:    $2700.00

Purchased At:   Jessops (UK £1700)

Similar Products Used:   Contax G series

Type of photography:   Other

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by luc van hoeylandt a Expert from mechelen belgium europe

Date Reviewed: January 24, 2003

Bottom Line:   
some problems accure during the use of
my xpan-camera.
as I was in Venice and wanted to make some
shots with the use of nd-filters this needed exposure times of sometimes more than 1 or 2 minutes. This is impossible with the xpan camera. If you put the exposure knob to the B-stand the camera shuts down after a period of 25 sec
or 40 sec depending of the climat or the state of the battery I guess. As I mentioned the problem to Hasselblad it seems they put in an electronic circuit that shuts the camera down if by accident the release buttom is
pressed for a long period. This is done for battery-saving purposes.
I say this a stupid thing to do ! Why put a B-option to it if you can't use it properly. For a camera of that quality and price-range they should try to fix this. I use the ND (neutral density) filters (holding back the light) so that exposure times are very long. I can make shots of streets where a lot of people circulate but in the end I get pictures of empty boulevards. The same with shots of
water and seeviews. Please Victor do something about it.

...and keep me informed
a second thing that should be perfectionized is that the exposure time has to be read in the range finder. In poor light conditions it is not practical to everytime look at the back of the camera to see of the shutterspeed is to low to handle the camera by hand or if a tripod is needed.

for all the rest it is a super great camera and I won't wanna miss it for the world.

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Duration Product Used:   6-10 years

Type of photography:   Fine Art

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by montyaj a Professional from Richmond, Surrey, England

Date Reviewed: January 2, 2003

Strengths:    User-friendliness, by Hasselblad standards. Great finder. Incredibly soft shutter - I've regularly shot at a 30th on the 90mm with no problems at all. Unfeasible edge-to-edge sharpness - I've supplied pictures for reproduction (using Fujichrome Velvia) in books and had the repro people call me up and ask how the transparencies were produced as they've never seen anything with such resolution.
Best of all - like the old Leicas - it works, every time.

Weaknesses:    I guess the lenses are slow, but with this quality, who cares? The meter indicator lights become unreadable in bright light, but I generally use a separate meter anyway. The neck strap frays on the right-hand side. The 30mm lens is too expensive.

Bottom Line:   
Over the past decade I have tended to buy older and older 35mm cameras, ending up using III series Leicas. Purchasing the Hasselblad was an agonising decision as I feared that I would be spending a whole lot of money on something that would turn out to be not as good as what I had already. I went out and put a roll of Fujichrome through both the XPan and a IIIf, taking the same shots, on a 90mm in both cases, in order to compare the results. Guess what? I sold the Leicas! I should have known that Hasselblad wouldn't have put their name to a dud piece of kit, but like their medium format cameras, the XPan is an acquired taste and may not appeal to a lot of people. What's particularly pleasing is that the XPan has been designed clean, without having to carry anything over from previous cameras - hence the neat film loading system that exposes back into the cassette - I really like that.
The panoramic format is immensely useful, particularly for illustrative work.

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   21+ years

Price Paid:    $1450.00

Purchased At:   Pro Shop, london

Similar Products Used:   Nikon Fs various. Leica M & III series. Lomo. Hasselblad 500 series. Rolleiflex.

Type of photography:   Outdoor

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by chenlx a Intermediate from Shanghai

Date Reviewed: December 30, 2002

Strengths:    Unique design. Normal view is as good as panorama. Great brand, great product.

Weaknesses:    Auto metering only up to 4 seconds. My film auto counting is broken.

Bottom Line:   
I've been using this camera for almost 1 year in combination with my 501cm -- what an enjoyment to have a choice of panorama and square at the same time (a bit heavy though). Generally speaking it's a very innovative machine, changing from normal view to panorama just by a switch. The lenses quality is good enough for Japanese made, body paint could be better with more solid build body (top left hand corner is very plastic). I take it onto streets for documentaries, excellent views.

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Duration Product Used:   6-10 years

Price Paid:    $1450.00

Purchased At:   Shanghai

Similar Products Used:   501CM. Nikon F90X.

Type of photography:   Other

Overall Rating:4
Value Rating:4
Submitted by visionstudios a Professional from Oxford, Ohio

Date Reviewed: November 1, 2002

Strengths:    All that previous reviewers indicated, plus the focus ring works in the same direction as Leica, Canon, and Hasselblad lenses. Quiet shutter and film transport

Weaknesses:    DX wheel (when not set on DX) and exp +/- wheel are easy to bump accidetnly. RF patch could be larger. The rear LCD display is an odd place for shutter speeds. Poor sensitivity of the exposure meter exacerbated by f4 lenses. Finish quality is so so.
45mm lens: the aperture ring is very close to the focus ring. Four stars because of all that. But don't get me wrong, this is a very good tool when used within its limits.

Bottom Line:   
I bought x-pan less than a month ago, so these are initial impressions. The concept is excellent. The camera switches back and forth between formats seamlessly. Autoload and film advance are very convenient. Do not hang me for this but to me the shutter is as quiet as Leica M6 ttl. I tried them side by side and X-pan sounds even quiteter of the two. However, the film advance makes a noise (but not as much as Motor M). A fully loaded x-pan with 45mm on it is lighter than M6 with 35mm 'cron ASPH with Motor M. X-pan is extremely comfortable to hold.I bought it used and the finish starts showing wear. Strangely, there are pin hole size wear spots on the rubberized back cover. Probalbly I should expect it to look all spotty after some use.
The viefinder is pretty good. The magnification is lower than Leica's .72. The RF patch is also smaller but it is contrasty and very useable. Overall the camera is pretty good and doubles as a standard 35mm rangefinder, a quasi Leica of sorts. Hopefully Fujiblad will continue to work out some weaknesses designed into the camera so it can be more useful for PJ situations, not only landscape shots from a tripod (is this why the shutter speed is displayed on the rear door?).

Personally, I have not figured out how to use the panorama format effectively yet. Most of my shots still look better cropped to 1:1.5 proportion. I am not into landscapes so I am trying to use this format for enviromental/social/portrait photograpy. I am still learning.

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Duration Product Used:   6-10 years

Price Paid:    $1100.00

Purchased At:   photo.net classified

Similar Products Used:   Horizon 212 (swing lens but the same 65mm format)
Leica M6ttl.

Type of photography:   People


Reviews 1 - 5 (30 Reviews Total) | Next 15

Review Options:  Sorted by Latest Review | Sort by Best Rating

Write a Review >>

  • Camera TypeRangefinder
    Film Type35mm
    Shutter Speed8 - 1/1000 sec
    ISO Range - Automatic SettingISO 25 - 3,000
    ISO Range - Manual SettingISO 25 - 3,000
    Light Metering ModesTTL
    Depth2.04 in.
    Height3.28 in.
    Width6.64 in.
    Weight25.44 oz.
    Product ID22523646


 

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