 What's up cover girls? You're probably wondering is the Hasselblad X-Pan worth it? I don't know you may love or hate my answer so much that you punch your computer screen Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace Hey Hey, I'm sure you have a wealth of free time to answer questions like these so here goes I've always wanted to like M6, but after watching your channel I'm really looking into the Hasselblad X-Pan slash Fuji TX-1 that being said I'm a little reluctant to drop nearly $5,000 or more on eBay, but it looks like the options to find one of these cameras elsewhere is fairly slim I'm also a little worried about the electronics aspect of the X-Pan that may go out and repairs would be difficult or expensive So I get this question a lot and my answer was always Duh, it's worth it. Panoramic images are tight and the camera itself is How do I put this delicately? It's quite f***able However with the ongoing boom of interest in film photography and the prices for everything skyrocketing I recently had to reevaluate my position on the X-Pan I could sit here and reiterate that the X-Pan and the TX-1 are the exact same camera Collaborated on by Hasselblad and Fuji and released over the turn of the century They're both 35 millimeter rangefinder cameras and are the only ones of their kind that shoot double the width of a standard 35 millimeter frame Aka panoramic. Of course, they can also shoot standard 35 millimeter, but come on Who the f*** actually buys that camera to do that? That's like some zodiac killer s*** But chances are you probably already know all this information and you're just watching this video for confirmation on whether or not to buy The damn thing so as the X-Pan slash TX-1 worth it No, I don't Not anymore So herein lies my biggest gripe with this babe magnet. It's electronic Everything is pretty much automated on this camera and while that was cool and futuristic in 1998 It's ultimately gonna lead to this camera's demise Electronic parts are known to die over time from what I hear they usually last about 40 years or so But there's always outliers What happens when they do eventually bite the dust on this camera? Well You're pretty much a s*** Hasselblad and Fuji though. I love them Don't give a flaming fart about these cameras anymore and because of that They don't make replacement parts for them or service them from what I hear So when your X-Pan s*** the bed in your greatest hour of need, that's it That's all you get unless you buy another body and cannibalize the parts when that dark day comes for my own TX-1 I plan to cope with the issue by pretending It still works it in fact being a lifeless husk of panoramics past will be my little secret I mean, it's either that or a total emotional breakdown where I end up naked So if you know that eventually one day this camera will die using it will give you many hard palpitations I was recently loading some Kodak ectochromes slight duplicating film and when I close the film door the auto wind on the camera Didn't do the literal only thing it was designed to do auto wind my film. So I started thinking well That's it. It wasn't a good run But I knew this day would come time to start making preparations for this camera's Viking funeral But guess what turns out the camera just has some dumb-ass quirks and it isn't flammable aside from the version 1 not being able to do exposures longer than 30 seconds without overheating turns out that there are also some Weird ISO rules because there was no DX code on the slide duplicating film I had to set the ISO on the camera to a certain number before loading I think it was a hundred ISO, but I can't really remember once I did that it wound just fine I have the manual for the tx1. Maybe I should just read it sometime. Ah Anyway long story short. That was the day that my mom saw her grown-up 30 year old son his pants before her very eyes Okay, so for the sheer price of these alone I really don't think it's worth it to own one of these anymore especially because I just told you that they are basically Taking time bombs like that lump of my ass. I don't know if you've looked up prices on these bad boys lately But it's not so chill. In fact as I recently scrolled through eBay. I had to take a Tums Averaging about five thousand dollars for both the body and lens combo I think that that is far too much to pay for this camera about two years ago I picked up the tx1 body for about two thousand dollars and I picked up the 45 millimeter lens for just under a grand Which I still felt was pretty high at the time. Why are these cameras so damn expensive? Well, as I said before they're the only ones of their kind and they aren't being made anymore But just you wait five thousand dollars is the base price There's always an opportunity to spend more money with this camera turns out that there are three lenses for this system As I mentioned before I have the 45 millimeter and there's also the 90 millimeter, which is actually slightly cheaper But that's where the savings and there's also the 30 millimeter lens Which is apparently made of diamonds or something because it goes for about four to five thousand dollars alone pretty much The same price as a coffin. I don't know might just be easier to die I have actually shot with the 30 millimeter before thanks to Phil over at the darkroom and it's an amazing lens I'll give it that but still like damn But wait, there's even more These lenses are good, but they're not quite perfect out of the box or presumably gold horse drawn chariot that they arrive in They have heavy vignetting in panoramic mode I don't know about the 90 because I've never used it But the 45 and the 30 definitely have it luckily there is a solution You can buy a center filter for these lenses, which will set you back another 500 clams So if you're like me and think spending $500 on a lens filter is absurd Then I don't know. I guess you can go to therapy about it, which might be cheaper What's worse though is that those filters will take your already slow expand lenses and make them slower the 45 and the 90 Can only go down to f4 and with the center filter applied you're losing about a stop of light So that ain't good the 30 millimeter, which definitely needs the filter can only go down to 5.6 So with the filter on you're looking at shooting at an equivalent of f8 at its fastest and on top of that Literally you need a special viewfinder for the 30 millimeter Hey, this is Jason rudely interrupting the flow of the video from the future or one of many alternate futures I'm still not sure for anyone that gives two shits about this I just want to say that my man Casey pointed out recently that you can actually adapt an old Nikkor shift lens to the x-pan and it's a hugely discounted way to shoot a wider focal length There's actually a really great article about it on 35 millimeter C But every time I go to that website I inevitably end up buying a new film camera So I guess you've been warned shift lenses produce larger image circles And this one in particular has been tested and confirmed to cover the x-pan panoramic format and even better It opens up to f2.8 you will however need an adapter to get that mounted on the camera and It won't link the rangefinder. So scale focusing is your only hope. I'm gonna test it out myself I just didn't have time to do it in this video because I was busy playing video games And didn't want to get Dorito crust on my tx one anyway back to past Jason Who is probably happier healthier and handsomer if infrared film is your thing You'll have to shell out for the x-pan 2 or tx 2 which are like double the price. So good luck with that It's exhausting not a good situation at all, but that's all there is for compact true 35 millimeter panoramic Obviously panoramic is sexy it can turn an ok photo into a pole surprise winning banger But there are a few things to consider on the output side of your work scanning is kind of a pain of the ass That's right. It's evolved from in the ass to up it I use DSLR scanning and I end up stitching two images together to create a full resolution image of true panoramic If you go this stitched route for scanning There are a few things you have to keep an eye out for like overlap constant exposure yada yada yada Etc. Etc. If you're getting scans from the lab, that's cool, too But oftentimes they'll charge a little bit extra because it is an unusual format And they have to find some sort of crafty MacGyver style workaround if you're printing that's great Your shots will look beautiful But it's worth mentioning that finding picture frames for panoramic images will be by nature Just a little more difficult and harder to find than standard size frames furthermore If instagram is your final output then be prepared for it to look Daddy's duck doesn't like wide frames on instagram and won't display it to the full extent of its format Usually people just add white borders and or do a carousel But obviously that kind of sucks if your website is your final output I will say that today's sponsor square space actually presents your panoramic images in a nice large display online Square space is an all-in-one website building platform that features all the tools you'll need to build a visually pleasing photography website I've been using square space to host my own website and portfolio and to say it's been an absolute breeze would be an understatement With square spaces intuitive user interface and hundreds of professionally designed templates crafting your own professional or personal website has never been easier If you're keen to start selling prints zines or photo books, there are even modules for that You can build your own online store set prices and manage inventory all from the main dashboard And if you run into any snags square space offers 24 7 award-winning customer support to help get you on your way So what are you waiting for if you're ready to build a website? You can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainy days And if you use the code grainy days at checkout you can get 10 off your first purchase So yeah, even though I think that the camera is riddled with issues and not really worth the pesos anymore I think it's worth highlighting a few things that make the camera awesome. It shoots panoramic So with all that information now bestowed down upon you as you decide to plunge your precious gold the bloons into the system Do you still want it? There are a lot of positive things to like about this camera looking through the viewfinder is Gorgeous the body of the camera is made of titanium and the lenses for the system render your images with a subtle beauty that is unmatched But is that price just way too high for something that will inevitably break out on you? Like I said probably 600 times. Yeah, I think so I think that the window of opportunity for most people to reasonably buy one is pretty much closed now But it's ultimately up to you If you have wads of cash flowing out your ass and just have to have true 35 millimeter panoramic Then get it or just shoot medium format and get a 35 millimeter pano kit Oh, yeah, and they used s*** paint on the hassleblad versions of this camera So if you want something clean and pristine get the Fuji version