Hasselblad XPan 45mm vs 90mm Lens Comparison Test - 2/2
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!
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