I'm really surprised most digital cameras don't support custom crops, it'd be trivial to add from a programming standpoint. I sent a feature request to Leica about the Q2 for this, maybe more people just need to request-they said it's usually prioritized by customer requests.
@@bluecollar8525 That's not the point, the point is having a real time preview of the cropped image. Heck, just give me an overlay in the viewfinder and don't crop the raw files instead, that might be even better as it is trivial to apply a crop when importing your photos in lightroom for instance.
I suppose with how easy it is to crop in post now that becomes quite a minor feature but yeah it would be nice to be able to preview it in the viewfinder
Andrew, you seriously have the best content! I was just falling down the X-Pan rabbit hole myself just a couple of weeks ago and was psyched to see you upload this video.
This was so crazy cool. Love it. One thing : I used to shoot the Mamiya RZ67, and I remember seeing a 135 panorama back, in addition to the 6x6, 6x7 and 6x8 backs.
As a fan of the format but a broke photographer Ive used the Horizon a good bit, over the years I’ve owned 3 different ones. I really appreciate your search for the x-pan alternatives. I’m really intrigued by the Oxygen 3D printed one. Keep up the great work.
Other panoramic options, sorta...
1. Panasonic's LX camera's have adjustable aspect ratios that physically crop the sensor (as opposed to throwing pixels away), but I think they cap out at 16x9.
2. Using an anamorphic lens-not something I've tried, but I'm tempted by the Sirui version that's coming out for X mount... Downside is that unless the camera can de-squeeze it, you can't exactly see the composition as it would be.
3. Using a tilt-shift lens or lens shift. Far more accurate and without the distortion of typical panning-based panoramic stitching, but you still can't see it in-camera, let alone before you take the shot.
I'd totally buy a digital panoramic camera, especially if it were X mount and had fuji film simulations... *COUGH* FUJI!
The Fuji GFX, Hasselblad X1D, and Panasonic S1/S1R all feature 65:24 “xPan” modes.
Finally, a gear review which is offbeat, funny, and informative. Thank you.
I've been looking forward to this video. I really enjoy shooting 35mm film with the Fuji GSW690, I roll the 35mm film in to 120 spools and just shoot as normal (as Sinan mentions below). It gives me a 3:1 aspect ratio (wider than the xpan) and a 35mm equivalent field of view. Two thumbs up for Panomicron Oxygen.
Didnt knew but i actually waited for such a video. Thanks a ton. I just found you put each section to close together. A little pause between cams + a headline which camera is up now would help to declutter it.
However i would really like to see more pano stuff! Cheers mate
Like how you keep the ideas original man - never thought about street panoramas before
Thanks for this video! I'm a huge fan of the panoramic aspect ratio, and I believe the following cameras worth the mentioning.
The Canon EOS 55 which is the Japanese version of the EOS ELAN IIE QD / EOS 50E QD has a 3:1 ratio masking option, and two engraved lines in the viewfinder to make the composition easier. The Bronica SQ-Ai system also has a panoramic film back, the SQ-i 135W (for 35mm film). Definitely not a street photography alternative, but there is a 6x12 Roll film holder made by Horseman for large format (4x5") cameras.
Oh man! I bought my Xpan new in college (2006) and when I lost access to a medium format film scanner I decided to sell it. I got almost $1,800 for it with the 45/4 lens, but it looks like it's worth way more today. Who would've known?
Most convincing example shots. Looking at the frame you'll get is essential for street-style photography! And inspires you to explore the creative potential of anything not so usual.
i used the HORIZON PANORAMIC camera professionally soon as they made an appearance in Ireland. my initial problem was showing proofs to clients. Very soon the guy in the Fujifilm lab invented a trick in overlapping prints on the print machine so I could quickly get clearance from clients. The lens quality was exceptional but the bodily was absolute Russian made crap. I ended up having to buy another camera as a backup. My work entailed interiors of pubs and restaurants. The conversion to digital was painful and even now still have accepting pains, but retired and happy to use Fujifilm x100F as a street snapper.
For digital and the same price as the XPan, you can stay with Hasselblad and get the X1D II, which by itself is a beautiful camera to have with fantastic glass. It also has an XPan mode, which displays the ratio in the viewfinder and records this as a jpeg, but it also takes a RAW image using the full sensor. The downside is, the RAW version doesn’t record the XPan outline which will be an extra step in post editing. So I stick with jpeg. As you said ‘limitations can increase your artistic view on a subject’. I haven’t used this enough, but thanks to you, this video has encouraged me to do more. New Year’s resolution.
A new alternative: I've just watched a review on the 'PressPan' by Jess Hobbs. The PressPan is a creation of Canadian Freeman, it's part Nikon FE with 3D printed lens mount for a Mamiya lens. It looked super neat and the negatives looked awesome!! Freeman also has lots of other 35mm Pano conversions that look great!
Very cool. Love seeing solutions like these. Pitty it's zone focus. Thanks for letting me know!
//A
X-Pan was my favorit for all my genres beside of wildlife.
It changed my photography to the better doing all manual. The experience was top performance with relatively acceptable price tag.
Before I went to DSLR not just for the long lenses (doing so streamlining the post workflow with Lightroom instead of the slide archive).
Waiting up today for a digital follow up of this concept providing high quality, versatility and fun in photographic craftsmanship.
Come on Fuji: There is a unique niche for the enthusiasts and professionals, provide not just me too products.
I do not expect Hasselblad jumping on this train.
As someone mentioned already, I cut a 120 spool to hold 35mm film roll in the A24 back for my Hassie. It's producing a shorter frame than Xpan, and the camera is hard to operate as I've got to bend to compose horizontally. However, as I already had my 2000fcm with a portrait lens, I decided to try this and I really like the results. Still dreaming about an Xpan, for the ease of use. It will come!
I bought a Bronica SQ and made my own viewfinder cover to show the crop and cut an old 120 spool to hold a 35mm roll in a 220 film back which is a TON cheaper than the 135. There are a few videos about how to use the 120 spool to hold the 35mm film and positioning the film is sometimes inaccurate but all together I got the Bronica and the 120 and 220 backs for $200.
A very, very good presentation. Thank you. I will buy and use the 35 mm panoramic adapter for my Mamiya 7ii. Good advice.
There are anamorphic adapters for Fuji. The anamorphot 40 and 50 do a great job and you don't really miss any details by cropping
I've just started shooting sprocket panoramics in my RB67. I get 35x67 over the sprockets, or if/when I make a film mask for it, I'll get 24x67. The camera with 90 mm lens and two 120 backs was under $400, and the 220 back I'm using for the 35mm adaptation was under $20 ("for parts or repair"). When fully built up, I'll be shooting cassette-to-cassette with leaders, on bulk loaded film, to minimize waste, and I should then get about 18 images on a 36 exposure length of film. Yes, it's heavy, but the lenses are quite good and the reasonably common ones are fairly cheap. Also, it's fully mechanical, doesn't even need batteries unless I add a metering viewfinder. A drop-in frame mask is child's play, so I can accurately compose for my final 24x67 frames, and with a very minor mod to the 220 back, I get perfect frame spacing and automatic advance handling, just as I would with 120 or 220 film.
I bought some cheap 220 backs for my mamiya rb67, use a 3D printed 120 to 35mm adapter, printed framelines in the waist level viewfinder, and can have several film going at the same time: colour, black and white, different brands etc. I rewind them in a darkroom bag after the shoot before developing. That is a quite flexible solution, very cheap, and gives high quality results.
On the expensive side, I use my Hasselblad X1D mk II in XPAN mode very often. Actually, I have custom setting 1 to do exactly that, including also setting the camera to electronic shutter in order to use vintage glass :-)
Im shooting the gfx50r 65:25 and for me this is my solution to eliminate film process and it works for me. I use the xpan 30mm lens plus so many more.
Love your videos. Love my Hyperion Camera Strap. I just bought a few more. Thank you.
There are 2 Linhof panoramic cameras: the Technorama 617 (6 x 17 on 120 roll film) and the Technorama 612 (6 x 12 on 120 roll film), which are professional, with exceptional lenses, some model can even shift the lens to control the lines.
There is also the cheaper Fuji 617 (6 x 17 on 120 roll film).
To be noted that the Hasselblad was born thanks to a collaboration between Fuji and Hasselblad and that uses the 35mm film, which means that the image quality is much lower than the one you obtain from the medium format panoramic cameras like the Linhof ones.
Just one extra note: you can hand-held the Linhof cameras, but I guess that most users would use them on the tripod. More likely, the Hasselblad is much more used hand-held.
Great video! I'm in the same boat. I love composing in panoramic frame line but XPan is just way too expensive. I have thought about 135 in medium format camera solutions, but I find them too large and heavy for XPan kind of usage. What I ended up doing it cutting out a plastic mask and put it onto my a7R3's LCD screen to block out the frame outside XPan ratio. In this way, I see the panoramic frame at shoot time. After cropping, I still have 23MP left, which isn't bad. The downside of this method is I can only compose using the screen, not the eye-level viewfinder.
BTW, two other digital cameras I know of that have built-in panoramic crop are Fuji GFX50 and Hasselblad X1D. Both have 65:24 crop, which is identical to XPan ratio. On the other hand, with their 4:3 sensor, after cropping they don't have much more MP than a 40ish MP 135 camera.
I had a Horizon 202 I bought in a Moscow market for very little. Had a heap of fun with it. The IQ was pretty good but the distortion was a bit too much for certain subjects.
Also but not quite the same was a Rollei Prego that shot in panoramic mode. I think it just masked the film to get the pano but it was fun to use.
Great info - love the van shot at 10:18 and the beach shot at 12:11 in particular!
good video mate. The fuji GFX 50's and r also have a pano function. I use it all the time (sometimes I wish it cropped the raw's so that i must commit but you can alter the crop in post whereas the jpgs are cropped for good). Not exactly a cheap camera but it's an alternative.
This is great. There are a bunch of 80’s Pentax SLRs with a pano mode as well. It’s nice to have interchangeable lenses 🤓
My old Pentax ZX-5 has a piano mode but I treat it with disdain as you're only getting a cropped 35mm frame.
Always a pleasure to see the ETRSi get some love. I was lucky enough to get the 135 W back from my grandpa.
Thank you for that idea!!!
I have an Agfa Billy 1 (Medium-Format 6*9). I try to get some panorama photos with a 35mm Film. It's round about a 21:6 ratio. Let's have some fun!!!
That 35 back looks like a definite goer for my bronny cheers mate great vid 📷❤️
I have a Bronica ETRSi with a 40mm lens. It’s a nice setup! You can just crop 120 film with the same effect as the 35mm back. But, the 35mm back will let you shoot film not available in 120, and you might get a couple more shots per roll than the normal med format backs.
I shoot 35mm in a folding bellows 6x9 medium format with 10$ spool adapters. Easy. Cheap vintage camera (80-100$). Great look. And you expose over the sprocket holes which is nice if you want that look as well. Or just crop it out.
Your videos are always interesting. I love your enthusiasm. I played with that Russian camera back in 2001 and I guess I need to find the negatives. The Oxygen camera reminds me a little of a Goodman Labs Zone or One.
Love the the XPan! Thank you Andrew
!
saying the quattro is an ugly camera is one of the most upsetting things Ive ever heard, I think its (at most angles) one of the best looking cameras
Probably worth mentioning that the Panasonic S series also have 65:24 ratio as an in-camera shooting option. Obviously the higher resolution S1R would be preferable to an S1 or S5 as you'd have plenty of file size left after the crop.
I just got a Minolta Riva Panorama. It’s a nice and simple point and shoot that crops down the top and bottom of 35mm film.
I was just daydreaming about the x-pan today at work... Thank you :)
If you can live with the long exposure times, the very affordable RealitySoSubtle 6 x 17 pinhole camera produces amazing panoramic pics on 120 film (four shots per roll). Not for run & gun street work though.
Very well done. Ondu pinhole decent option too but not for hand holding.
Shooting a Leica iiif/if with 15mm, 21mm, or 25mm lenses might give you a similar effect as the XPan if you crop it. So that might be another good alternative than the massive XPan. The only limitation would be the larger print size you can get with the uncropped XPan.
I've stuck to digital cropping. It works remarkably well once you develop an eye for it.
I'd mention the Malefic 6x12 and 6x17 panoramic cameras, using 120 film and any large format lens
I prefer my Mamiya 7ii with the panoramic adaptor. It will never fail like the Xpan. Nor does it require special filters to compensate for light fall off. And best of all, it can shoot 6x7 negs.
just put some 3d printed adapters in my fujica 690blp. Works a treat for panos. Plus you have to love those big medium format 6x9 negatives
Fuji have that crop in their GFX bodies. You also missed the Mamiya 7 which has an adaptor for pano.
Mamiya is super cool but it's pretty much the same at least at ebay and Russia. pricetag aside - mamiya is a better choice
I have a small spool adapter that will let you run a roll of 35mm through any 120mm camera, makes for some amazing results! Especially going through my Fuji 6x9, the frame ends up super wide!
Nice video. The mamiya 645 pro 135 back also has a panoramic slide adapter!
I have been shooting xpan style with my x-t2 for a while. It's hard to envision the ratio. I wish that we could get a firmware update that gives more crop options. Constraints are creativity in my opinion, so I make galleries regularly with forced rule sets to follow.
Today I made mask for my hasselblad V(drop in) with the ratio 24x65 on transparant screen, and taped the parts I don't use away, later cropping the negative, yes it cost maybe some film, but on the other hand it's cheaper and flexible than the X-Pan. And it's an SLR.
I was excited about xf 16mm f2.8 for this purpose.
Hmmm, there's an M42 to Sigma adapter...which means one could use quite a few good and relatively inexpensive lenses. Several of which I already own and enjoy using...
Nice overview of alternates to the Xpan. I don't think there is really any replacement for them but what you've shown us are probably as close as it gets. Thanks!
I put 35mm rolled into 120 backpaper, then use it on a Fuji GW690ii, y have no frame guides, but pretty much I compose leaving a 1/4 up and down the original frame, the plus side of this method, you treat/loadl/unload the 35mm film on camera asif it were any 120 film
The Pentax 67 can be used as well to shoot panoramic 35mm photos using a 3D printed adapter to put the canister in the body - love mine! Haha
Nice video! My go to camera when faking the xpan look is the Fuji GW690III. It's possible to load it with 35mm film using some tape and a load of patiens, and the results are pretty great actually. Biggest draw-back is that the film can not be rewinded so it must be unloaded in complete darkness. The whole width of the film is exposed so you get that hipster look as well! ;) Keep up your good work!
A bubble level in the viewfinder is really a must for panoramic format shooting.
With the X-Pan, only the 30mm lens viewfinder has it.
The digital X1D has a bubble level in the finder for all lenses and all different formats.
It shoots 3 different panoramic format ratios : 16:9, 6x12 and X-Pan.
Last but not least, X-Pan lenses fit on the X1D body via the Hasselblad X adapter.
Great video. To add to the options is the mamiya 6 with the adapter.
I love this ratio. My ideal format would be 6x12. A camera with a coupled rangefinder for walking about. Yet to find anyone who is interested in trying to Male one.
Well, I have good news for you: Linhof Technorama 612pc. (linhof.com/tag/6x12/) Also available in 6x17.
Klaus Moritz Peitzsch I didn’t even realise you replied mate. Sorry lol. Yes I’ve then them also the noblex and widelux 6x12.
If I were to make a decision, I would probably try out getting an adapter for a medium format camera and run 35mm through it. While I understand it could be tough to work with or inconsistent, I don’t have a medium format anyway so it would be an upgrade for me regardless. The horizon 202 seemed like a nice entry level camera but the general lack of control is really discouraging to me.
What a well researched video! Not an ideal solution, but I'm looking at masking the ground glass screen of my Mamiya 645. It will allow me to frame up in 65:24 but obviously the negs will still be in their original format, to be cropped after scanning or masked during printing. The other solution of course is a Fujifilm GFX which has a 65:24 crop option. Pricey, but still cheaper than an X-pan, especially if you buy used and pair with vintage glass. Here in the UK you can pick up a used 50s from a dealer for around £1600.
By the way, nice move to use Arnold Newman's pano crop of the Stravinsky portrait to illustrate a point about creative constraint!👌
And finally, thanks for a great idea for an excuse when you're about to miss a deadline; "The dog ate my camera"!
I have never used the Hasselblad Xpan to obtain a 24x65 aspect ratio on 35mm film.
I have, however, used my RB67 to obtain a 24x68 aspect ratio on 35mm film.
I cut the ends off a 120 film spool and used those ends as spacers for my 35mm film canister in a RB67 220 back. After capturing twenty panoramic images, I can rewind the 35mm film in a black bag in the field. However, after completing the roll, I usually remove the 220 back, take it home, and remove the 35mm film from the 220 back in the darkroom. If I need to continue shooting, I replace the back with a spare preloaded back.
After I develop the film, I have the option of including or excluding the sprocket holes from the image.
I recently mounted an SLR Magic anamorphic adapter onto my Pentax 645n and can now shoot frames just over 6x9. Not quite the same or as wide as Xpan but it's an option.
Just had some 645 film developed. I use a mamiya 645 super. I was thinking today and felt the need to share it here.
The mamiya 645 uses a removal film back and a dark slide.
I don't think there'd be much work in cutting a nice hole in the dark slide such that it crops the full 645 frame down to something more panoramic. Luckily, the film can be advanced manually to any position, meaning you can advance it a half shot rather than a full shot. now you have 60mm wide compositions that are as tall as you want to modify the dark slide to be.
As for the view finder... maybe if you were smart enough, you could modify the ground glass to have a small etching on it to indicate the cropped frame.
What aspect ratio are you aiming for?
afaik, Fuji X cameras can do a 16:9 crop in-camera, and it seems the GFX (both S & R) can do a 65:24 crop in-camera.
16:9 is pretty close to 21:9, and 65:24 is even wider than 21:9
- fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-t3/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/index.html#image_size
- fujilove.com/shooting-panoramas-with-the-gfx-50r/
- fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/gfx50r/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/index.html#image_size
I'm with you on the Sigma approach. My choice of poison is the DP0 Quattro. Same sensor, 14mm ultra wide angle without distortion (91 degrees field of view, equivalent to a 21mm on 35mm full frame). Auto-focus on APSC with a 14mm is not an issue, the lens' fastest aperture is f4, so the DoF is massive. Zone focus is the name of the game and since you need to shoot it at ISO 100 to 200 anyway, that works out good enough.
The 21:9 crop leaves 12MP of nominal resolution to work with. The actual resolution of those 12MP from the Foveon will more likely be comparable in image quality to 16MP from a Bayer sensor. You can print from that for anything in a book, magazines and wall prints up to 45 inches on the long side are no issue at all with careful processing.
I agree with you that camera makers should update their cameras to include 21:9 and 16:9 aspect ratios in their viewfinders. Most smaller mirrorless cameras have plenty of resolution to go around to crop in like that. Framing is the hard part.
Pentax MZ7 which I got has a panoramic crop mode, its a 35mm camera and inside two metal blinds will cover the top and bottom of your film and so you can actually see it in the viewfinder and shoot like that all the time and its a great alternative. I got mine for 20 pounds.
But surely that’s just like cropping it afterwards, it’s practical but it’s not a true pano really. Or am I being really stupid and missing something...
Sigma will launch a new full format mirror less camera in 2020 which will possibly come up with a few panoramic crop modes
Another option is the Mamiya 6 MF. You can get a 35mm adapter for this which lets you shoot 24x56mm negs, and has framelines in the finder. There are also kits available for the Mamiya 7 and 7ii, although they don't have framelines for this crop.
There are markings for the panoramic inside the viewfinder and external finders. If you look along the sides you'll see the slight marks indicating the pano frame.
those bronica shots look awesome
Loved that disclaimer at 3:18
I'm going with the 35mm to 120 adapters and a mask for my Mamiya RB67. Fiddly is okay for me, I can live with that...
I am surprised that you did not metioned all the 6x9 foldable camera. It is a fairly cheap alternative with a lot of choice in terms of camera. I made some trial with 35mm film in a 1935 Kodak Brownie 616 and I got decent shots, suuuuper wide photo ;) . The lens is a single element so there was distortion on the edges, but I guess it might be very nice with a zeiss super ikonta ( 6x9 rangefinder ). All it needs is a 135 to 120 adapter and a bit of practice to not overlap frames. Anyway that's my suggestion.
I have tried the same with old box cameras. But it is very tricky to get the film to be plane.
I don’t like fiddling with 135, and especially find it annoying to load onto reels. Not being able to afford a dedicated 6x17 Linhof or Fuji camera, I taught myself to shoot my Graflex Super Graphic hand held using the rangefinder or zone/hyperfocal focus and the sport finder. Then I finally got a deal on a Horseman 6x12 back, so now the Super stays in the bag with the Horseman back on it. Now I’m shooting 6x12 on 120 film for a good bit less than 1k
The Foveon sensor in the Quattro series is limited from the previous series, hence it lowers the resolution of the green and red layers but uses the data from the high res blue layer to make up. They should have just stuck to simple whereby all colors had the same resolution...
nice video, I thought you should have mentioned the angle of view of panoramic shots, I think the Horizon captures around 140 deg, whereas if you convert a medium format camera to use 35mm film, the angle will not be much greater than a cropped point and shoot
Yes, pretty much everyone seems to forget this. You are simply achieving panoramic crops with most of these “solutions,” and not greater angle of view!
I actually like the look of the sigma a lot. I shot a quattro dp0 at some point. The detail in the jpeg was mind blowing, but raw support was lacking and i sold eventually... I regret though
Noblex is a German made camera by Kamera Werk Dresden. The lens if I remember right the optics are a Zeiss Sonnar.
Any tips for setting up guides on the Bronica so you have an idea of your frame when shooting with a 135 back?
07:37 its 120° i think, also i think i will buy that for this summer :)
I wonder if you can open it and refocus to like a meter or two
Check out the Fujifilm gfx 50r.... medium format digital camera that offers pano format in the same aspect ratio as the xpan...... more expensive, but new, at least.
Good stuff dude, great, thanks for that. Don’t forget the Fuji G617 and GX617, that’s the real stuff :-))
Hi Andrew, nice video thanks!! Have you seen the Dora Goodman 6x12 Zone they just recently launched? would be interesting to hear something about that as well, it seems pretty awesome
kind of a rookie question, how does the Sigma Quattro aspect ratio compare to that of the XPAN? Are they more or less the same panoramic ratio? Great video by the way, really informative!
Great review, thanx
Noble is from Germany by the way (I didn’t run through all the comments))) )
Ever thought about using an anamorphic lense and stretch the photo in post?
I was wondering that how it is going to look like if we use 14mm lens on modern FF camera and crop it as 21:9.
I ordered Samyang 14 2.8 for my Sony a7r2, probably after crop I'll have still 25-26 megapixels which is more than enough.
I don’t remember if you mentioned the Fuji GX617
In China, a lot of enthusiasts are making 3d printed little parts to use 135 films in 120 cameras. Costing about only 5 USD? I think this is a good option.
cool content, thanks for the video
I will probably put my Fuji GX 617 with 90mm and 180mm for sale next year as I suffer from back pain and had a shoulder surgery so the weight becomes hard to carry for a long distance but the image quality is out of the world with velvia or ektar film !
There's now a OnePlus 9pro phone that has a Xpan mode which uses the ultra wide lense, it's actually really good especially in the b/w mode.
Here are three other ideas: the Minolta Alpha Sweet II, XTsi, HTsi (I think), and some similar Pentax cameras have a pano move in an interchangeable-lens SLR. The downside is that a lot of film is unused on each roll. In a similar vein, there used to be disposable panoramic cameras. Those can be disassembled and reused, but it's a bit fiddly. You can also use a Kodak Brownie 3, re-spool it with 35mm, and get a 3:1 image with sprocket holes. The s Brownie 3 can hold a 4x5 sheet, so it's a good pano option for either 35mm or 120 if you can find a couple of spools and baking paper.
True I used to owned the XTSI and it was very sweet
What about shooting with an anamorphic lens or lens adapter and stretching the image like they do with cinema? I know it can be fiddly because sometimes you have to deal with double focussing, but could be another alternative.
@@Herobox-ju4zd ua-cam.com/video/ZbtdcVpeq88/v-deo.html this guy did exactly that
I used one of those disposable panoramic cameras on a trip to Arizona and Las Vegas in the mid 90s. I wonder if I have any of those shots left...
The lumix G9 allows you to preview a range of crops, including veeery wide. But the images themselves are not going to be cropped.