The Hasselblad XPan's long and thin 24x65 aspect ratio gives an energetic, cinematic feel to everyday scenes. Its images are at once expansive and focused, capturing a huge angle of view but leading the eye to the center of the frame. Whether you are treading old haunts or exploring a new city, the XPan is a companion for dynamic composition. 

The XPan 90mm f4 doubles the focal length of the 45mm and in some ways makes even more dramatic use of the XPan’s unique aspect ratio. Featuring pronounced vertical compression similar to many 35mm portrait setups, the 90mm maintains the expansive horizontal angle of view inherent in the 24x65mm format. This combination of compression “zoom” and the panoramic width of the format results in a unique perspective. It’s a similar effect to using a long telephoto lens on a 4x10 view camera — the XPan 90mm renders a tight-cropped yet wide view. This gives the 90mm excellent ability to highlight a subject against the background of a cinematic frame.

By virtue of its longer focal length, the XPan 90mm f4 offers much shallower depth-of-field at the same aperture and subject distance as the 45mm f4. The 90mm f4 can create a defocus area that accentuates the details of the subject with a pleasing plasticity. In contrast, the 45mm f4 has an extensive depth-of-field even wide open at f4, making it much less suited to distinguishing a focus area from the background. In most circumstances the deep depth-of-field of the XPan 45mm f4 is a benefit, contributing to even focus across a landscape or street scene. The XPan 90mm f4 adds the ability to separate the subject with selective focus, further dramatizing the already striking XPan frame.

The XPan 90mm f4 is not a particularly heavy optic but is about twice as long as the 45mm f4, which makes sense given its focal length. This makes the 90mm less easy to keep mounted to the camera as a walk around lens, but is still noticeably more compact than medium format setups. The 90mm uses the same hard-to-find plastic lens hood as the 45mm f4 but does not require the use of a center filter, even wide open.

Find our complete XPan comparison test on our Codex here!

In this test, we compared the XPan 45mm f4 and 90mm f4 lenses directly. How do images made with each lens change the feeling of a scene, and which lens is a better “standard” optic for the XPan system? To test this, we made images with both lenses while standing in the same spot to compare their field of view. Each image was shot wide open at f4 with the Auto shutter speed setting on Ilford XP2.

The XPan 45mm f4 offers an expansive wide angle view that takes advantage of the XPan system’s unique aspect ratio. The 45mm easily captures an entire block, its greater vertical angle of view creating an atmospheric quality. The XPan 45mm is an excellent travel lens for this reason — a single image can capture the character of a time and place. The XPan 45mm f4 is remarkably sharp and distortion-free.

The XPan 45mm f4’s compact dimensions also make it an excellent choice for travel, keeping the somewhat large XPan small enough to fit in a shoulder bag. XPan 45mm lenses came new with a neutral density center filter that evens frame illumination (eliminates vignetting) for critical use. This is helpful when shooting slide film or in images with large sky areas, but in practice it is usually possible to leave the filter off and retain the extra stop of light that the filter absorbs. These images were made without using the 45mm center filter.

Find our complete XPan comparison test on our Codex here!

The fellow who loved and cared for this X-pan passed away a year or so ago.  His wife and daughter brought the camera all the way to our shop from South Africa.  They brought this camera to us because they know that we honestly want to see our cameras go to good homes.  It is about more than just selling cameras.  We want the cameras that pass through our shop to keep living on through other photographers, to continue a legacy, of sorts.

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A dual take on this dual format rangefinder camera.

Funny side note: The making of this photo was more educational than the picture itself.  As staff member, Sophia posed for this photo, she actually spent the time reading the brochure and learning tidbits about the XPan she had never known. 

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We love our customers, especially our regulars.  Nico Wachter is one such beloved regular.  His main camera - when he is not making documentary films - is a Hasselblad XPan.  Which, he admitted, he has only ever used in pano mode; he's never made a single standard frame with the camera. 

Here is his X-Pan, paired with one of his favorite book of panoramas - The Antarctic by Stuart Klipper, who used a Linhof Technorama to make the images. 

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