Excellent fit and finish. Very impressed with the 45 mm and 90 mm lenses; both are very sharp and contrasty. Bright viewfinder, easy to focus.

Cannot see shutter speed in viewfinder. The 30 mm lens is too expensive. They need to come out with a lens in the 135 mm range.

Excellent camera, well made. A lot of fun to use!

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

My first panoramic camera. I also own Canon and Hasselblad (medium format) systems.

Multiformat, quiet and gentle shutter mechanism, fine lenses, reliable (so far), fun and easy to use.

'B' shutter speed limited to 30 seconds or so - bummer! Can't be used with IR film due to IR film positioning. Viewfinder info is pretty basic. Falloff in 45mm lens (though I actually like it and so do my clients!). 30mm lens is JUST TOO EXPENSIVE!!!

The great thing about this camera is that it is enjoyable to use and hence encourages you to make photographs more often than with a 617 or similar camera. The quality of the format is more than sufficient for most uses and the lenses are excellent. Like most users I would like some refinements, but have done some of my best work on this camera and will continue to take it everywhere I go!

Customer Service

Ok - haven't had much need for it as it's easy to use and very reliable.

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Art Panorama 6x17, Fuji 6x17, Widelux F8.

Excellent concept and idea of having a dual format camera. 35 mm and panoramic. Well built body and very solid. Excellent lens selection especially the new 30mm. Just ordered the 30mm and have not had one to analyze.
Interchangable lenses with film in the camera is big plus which makes the camera very versitile. Images are razor sharp.

30 second maximum shutter speed is a big mistake although I just had the camera serviced by hasselblad and they extended the time to 239 seconds. A big help and better than the original 30 second.
No mutiple exposures! Some how Hasselblad/Fuji missed the boat on both these issues.
Although I managed to work around some of these shortfalls, the viewfinder information sucks and is virtually impossible to read the viewfinder information in bright conditions. In addition, information such as shutter speed is located on the back of the camera which makes it necessary to take your eye away from the viewfinder to see shutter information. I thought we advanced further than this in todays technology.

Takes exceptional images but Hasselblad/Fuji missed the boat with shutter time restricted and mutliple exposures. Isn't this supposed to be a professional camera??? Viewfinder information is severly lacking especially in bright conditions(snow). Under these conditions you are unable to see any information at all in the viewfinder. I resolved this problem by covering the rangefinder with my hand to see the red exposure information or use my handheld meter and disregard the viewfinder information.
Besides these shortfalls, I am very happy with the system but feel it needs some refinements in the future.

Customer Service

Excellent. I had to return the camera due to a stuck rangefinder framing(when you change lenes in 45 or 90mm the framing adjusts). It was either a snowmachine ride or a drop that caused this. The camera was back in less than a week and had the timer changed to almost 300 seconds.Great customer service!

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Fuji GX617

Great lenses
35/panorama formats, switchable, mid-roll.
Solid build
Good viewfinder
Easy to focus
Very nice light meter system - basic but dead on accurate.

Incredibly DUMB and awkward format switch
Too little viewfinder info
No slide shows

A delightful camera. Oddly enough I have been using this camera in panorama mode to take portraits with the 90mm lens. It gives an almost cinematic effect. Don't just use it for landscapes. I wish they had 135mm. The camera feels great in hand and is easy to use except for the incredibly dumb, stupid, clumsy god-awful, poorly designed format switch on the back of the camera. Whoever designed that piece should be shot - often! Other than that disaster the camera is a gem. And the photos are brilliant. I would have liked to see more info in the viewfinder but after looking into SLR viewfinders with a billion little bits of data in them, this is quite refreshing. Eye relief is not great and you have to get used to centering your eye just right. Focusing is wonderful and fun. And even handheld, you can get crisp sharp blowups - which is the main reason for not going with a medium format panorama camera. Will you ever use the 35mm frame? I hardly do. But that doesn't bother me. Nice to know it's there - especially with the 90mm lens. I hope Hasselblad doesn't give up on this camera and decides to offer more lenses (35, 135, 75). Haven't tried the 30mm lens. Too expensive. But also, no one ever has it in stock. Even B&H. By the way, Kameraleder makes a BEAUTIFUL ever- ready case for the Xpan - all top quality leather. Makes it even nicer to hold and shoot with. Check out there website. Bottom line: a great value and brilliant lenses. If you like panorama, buy it. But don't forget those head shots.

Customer Service

None needed - but Hasselblad has one of the best customer interface systems around. Very nice, helpfull people.

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Leica M6 "Classic"
Contax G1
Konica Hexar

The Hasselblad name was the greatest strength, along with (possibly) the 45 mm lens quality.

Other reviewers have noted the 30 sec. longest shutter speed, which could be a problem. But for me the main problems came when I realised how bad the handling was - stupid dials and buttons - too small and fidly.
Not enough information in the viewfinder - the focusing was tricky in most light conditions.
The quality of the shots really weren't that great - too much fall off towards the edge of the frame.

Good Bye and Good Ridence.
My advice would be a Pentax 67II and crop the image later on - better metering, easier to use, better lenses, better value for money, need I go on?
Got rid of it and the s/h prices reflect how poorly the camera is rated - and rightly so.
However, some people I am sure will love it, but PLEASE consider very carefuly and run some films through one before purchasing.

Customer Service

No experience but being a 'Blad I am sure it would have been good.

Similar Products Used:

Linhof 6 xc 17

The physical size of this camera was one of the main selling points to me. I wanted a panoramic camera which I could take on trips overseas. Weight and size count when traveling by air today, the Xpan fits the bill in this respect.

As with others the lack of double exposure capabilities, and the limited bulb time. After calling the service dept I was told that the newer Xpans have been programed to give more time. Having just purchased mine a week ago I checked, and at this point seem to be getting about 4.5 minutes. Wish there was more.

Having the camera only a week I am still running some test rolls through it. What I see so far is great. I have the 45 & 90mm lenses and both seem very sharp. The real test will be an upcoming trip to Egypt.

Customer Service

Have only spoken to them, but they were very helpful about the bulb feature.

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Fuji GX617 w/105 & 300mm lenses

Great color saturation, sharpness of all 3 lenses. Size. Manual focus.

Lack of shutter speed readout in viewfinder.
Panoramic/standard format switch. Meter is decent, but not great. Lack of 135mm lens or higher for telephoto work.

I have shot more than 100 rolls with my XPan, mostly in the Southwest, Crater Lake NP, and the summit of Mt. St. Helens. In terms of ease of use and portability, and lens quality (I have all 3 and they are extraordinarily sharp), it's ideal. I have sold my M6TTL, my F5 (great but a boat anchor), and would never go back to a G1 or G2 (spastic autofocus, even the G2).

Customer Service

Exceptionally good. My body had very soft, easily scratchable paint. Hasselblad readily offered to replace the bottom plate and film chamber door, no hesitation. Had camera back in 48 hrs. They were very nice and responsive.

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Contax G2
Contax G1
Leica M6TTL

very rugged deserves the hasselblad name...though easy to use

the 24X65 to normal 35 mm switch is totally nonsense..you need a special extra finger for it...I belive the designer was an alian....:))

Nice specialized camera...Great panaroma images with very very little distortion at the ends....thanks to wide format miniaturized lenses...You get great panaroma images.

Gets 5 points from panaromas...and has to be rated with this capacity only..

Customer Service

Never needed yet.

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My first panaroma camera..

used Nikon F-5 ,FM2T,

Incredibly well built, if you know real panorama photography (not fake panorama like in APS or point and shoot cameras!), then you know that light fall-off is the nature of beast and you also know how to correct it, this is the same with the Xpan. Great lenses, compare equally to Leica in sharpness and contrast and "color." Less contrasty than Zeiss lenses, this is a personal preference area, one is not better than the other merely different.

Paint finish is a little too easy to scratch

A great camera that frees creativity for those willing to explore it, quality images that need only half the enlarging as standard 35mm resulting in medium format quality without the weight and bulk of a medium format system. Camera can be easily hand held, but tripod does help in lower light or stopped down situations. CHEERS to Hasselblad and Fuji for daring to explore the unconventional !!!

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

Horseman wide angle, Contax G-2 system, Canon EOS 1n, EOS Elan 7e

The only strength that this camera has is its concept.

Pro camera with IR film counter? Paint comes of VERY easly,Built in meter is so-so lens quality leaves a lot to be desired, can't believe Hasellblad put their name on the Optics, mamiya optics blows the xpan out of the water!

Great concept,I f you don't do big enlargments
& are not to critical about sharpness. it 's a great TOY!

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Widelux F8
Mamiya 7 with pan kit