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

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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

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Widelux F8
Mamiya 7 with pan kit

Build quality, motordrive, dual format ability

Lack of lenses faster than f4. Other than that - none

I was a little sceptical about this camera before I got one. I thought it was a bit of a gimmick. Having had one for a while I can honestly say that it is the only camera that I wouldn't ever leave behind. It handles like a dream, the metering is accurate, it feels bomb proof but, more importantly,it will make you think about your pictures. The focussing is easier than with a Bronica RF645 or a Leica and in pano mode the camera will give you better negs to work with. The three lenses available are really six lenses, as they effectively change focal length when switching formats. One thing they the lenses have in common is quality. They are beautiful. The only weakness for me is the lack of really fast apertures. A lot has been said about the camera in panoramic mode but in 35mm mode it is as quick to use as any non autofocus camera. The motordrive is great if a little noisy but is a real bonus on a rangefinder. I love this camera. Full marks to Hasselblad!

Customer Service

Hasselblad in the Uk is always exceptional, especially if you subscribe to the Hasselblad Forum.

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None

Very Rigid. I could not find any weakness.

Painting on coner of Body

Great Camera in outdoors but not good for portrait.
Price for 35mm lens is terrible!!!

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

None

Very Rigid. I could not find any weakness.

Painting on coner of Body

Great Camera in outdoors but not good for portrait.
Price for 35mm lens is terrible!!!

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

None

Dual format, illuminated LCD, brilliant med-format lenses, tough design, quiet operation, excellent value for money

Lack of exposure time indication, lack of real B or T setting, auto transport to first frame is inaccurate (it needs time to learn exactly where to put the film tip), lenses hard to focus on moving subjects, lack of wide-angle and long lenses

I use this camera as a Leica M substitute, and good pictures made with the XPan are always VERY good. However, as there's no real wide-angle lens in the system (30 mm? with an external framefinder and at that price, no thank you... pan in 45 is usually enough) and f=4 is not quite fast, I found the X-Pan less suitable for people/street photography. IMHO it's been designed for beautiful landcape shots neatly made with tripod on slide film (although the lack of speed makes using slow film like Velvia or Technical Pan a bit difficult), but not street photography such as Leica or the Hexar RF. Pan format for people photos is very challenging but one must pay extra attention to the vertical alignment of the frame. In truth, it's a great outdoor camera. 45 is good for general use and 90 mm is even greater for close-up portraits but the tube is a bit hard to rotate (unlike on Leica or MF SLR optics), making accurate focussing difficult, especially when the target is even slightly moving. It's also hard to focus when holding the body vertically. Bottomline is, this is a great landscape-architecture camera which can be used for people photography too, with some limitations. It's a camera you can love.

Customer Service

Not needed yet

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EOS system

Very sharp pictures. I have used Canon L lenses mostly and can honestly say that this camera with the 45 mm lens yields pictures which are perhaps sharper.
Very compact little camera with good mechanical build.

Hard to focus at times.
Poor quality of paint finish.
Lack of shutter speed information in viewfinder.

If you are a serious landscape photographer, you will overlook the quirks of this camera and not expect it behave like a professional 35mm camera. You will be rewarded with gorgeous panoramics.

Customer Service

No experience

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First panoramic camera. Have used canon EOS-1n and 3 extensively along with Pentax 645N recently.

Small size, weight, build, panoramic format

Lack of info in viewfinder, lightmeter

Just bought camera and ran 2 test rolls of slide through the camera. Velvia and RDP. Was pleased to see that drop off at the edges was quite minimal below f8. Camera seems to underexpose by about half a stop and with the slight drop off this makes the edges a bit too dark to be acceptable.
Having trouble finding slide mounts as well. Optics seem good - not quite as brilliant as the G1 but v.good none the less.

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G-series

Dual format, ability to change mid roll

No shutter speed info in the view finder. In AP mode I continually have to take the camera down from my eye and check the shutter speed on the back of the camera. No multiple exposure. Bad pait job--mine has flaked and scratched off even though I have not subjected it to heavy use. Difficult to focus, especially comared to the Mamiya rangefinder. The motor drive is noisy for street photography.

I like the idea of this camera, but it lacks in the execution of that idea. I bought this camera primarily for the panoramic feature. I do not use the pano feature on the Mamiya 7II because I rarely want to change film and shoot an entire roll of pano shots. I thought this camera would be a great compromise, allowing me to shoot mainly pano, but also use regular format in 35mm with a relatively compact camera..

I have been disapointed in the quality of the lenses and the difficulty focusing. The Mamiya lenses are much better and the 7II is much easier to focus. For fun, I put my wide angle lens on the Mamiya and compared the cropped down 6 x 7 images with the images from the X-pan. The Mamiya negs and prints were clearly superior. I am contemplating selling the x-pan and just changing lenses on the Mamiya and cropping the images to get pano shots. If you don't do your own dark room work, the X-pan is probably the way to go for pano prints. But, they are a step below what one would expect from Hasselblad and I can get from the Mamiya.

I found about a 1/2 to 3/4 stop drop from the center of the image to the edge. It is especially harsh on black and white negs. I bought the center filter and it does a nice job of evening out the exposure. I had some color prints developed by a local lab before I bought the center filter. I assume the lab evened out the prints automatically. The prints did not show the fall off.

Customer Service

Very good. I had a problem and they took care of it. I sent the body to NJ and two weeks later it was sent back fully repaired.

Similar Products Used:

Mamiya 7II, 4x5, 8x10, 501cm