The Xpan is a magical machine. A product of a collaboration between Hasselblad and Fujifilm, with a rangefinder viewfinder and electric advance. The shutter is resolute and powerful, and the metering is extremely accurate. The accompanying lens is unparalleled, even the 45mm is already very good, covering two 135 format frames. Some people say that this lens has an equivalent field of view of 28mm, but in actual use, it is not like that because it has the width of a 28mm lens, but not the height. If you shoot blindly with a 28mm mindset, you will either miss the top or the bottom of the frame.
When using this 45mm lens, you need to be mentally prepared and use one of three methods for composition:
- Treat it as a 50mm lens and attach half a 135 background to each side.
- Treat it as two 50mm lenses and tell two stories in one photo.
- Use the wide frame in the viewfinder, which is the simplest way to compose the shot, both horizontally and vertically. I always feel that the Xpan is best for shooting giraffes.
If I had enough time, I would definitely use the XPAN to take more architectural and humanistic photos, which are truly one of the essences of the city. The wide format of the XPAN is particularly suitable for expressing the relationship between architecture and people, and to be honest, this is really a great subject for street photography.
Yes, Hasselblad XPAN is a highly acclaimed camera with a great reputation. Its unique wide-format shooting format and excellent lens quality make it a classic among many photographers. Moreover, due to its stability and durability, many users are very satisfied with its performance and quality, so there are few complaints about it. Whether it is the first-generation XPAN or the second-generation XPAN, it is considered an excellent camera.
XPAN has a remarkable feature, which is that after loading the film, the film automatically rolls out of the film box and runs all the way to the right. Then, take one shot and roll one shot back to the film box until all the shots are taken, and then roll them all back. This way, you don’t have to worry about damaging the exposed film if you accidentally open the camera back. This design of the XPAN body is very good and can maintain the integrity of the film when changing the film. When the roll of film is used up, XPAN can automatically slide them all out, which can avoid exposing the already shot film when opening the back. Then, every time you take a photo, XPAN will automatically slide the film back into the film box for next use. This design is indeed very convenient, especially for those who need to change film frequently, it can make the whole process more efficient and reliable.
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