Pretending to be an XPan

[P C Headland]

I took a walk round the south cost a few weeks ago during the last of the year's long-weekends. I took an extra day to make it an extra long long-weekend which worked out well as that was the best day weather wise.

I grabbed a a couple of cameras, one of which was the Fujica G690. I used the 100mm liens this time and loaded the camera first with Delta 100. I thought I'd try and mentally frame some XPan format (65:24) shots too - I like the format, but I'm not so keen as to drop a substantial amount of money on an XPan itself. The Fujica when cropped to the same ratio would yield a bigger negative anyway. The plan was, all going well, to shoot a similar roll a following weekend, but using the 65mm lens.

I've not really tried much Delta 100, but given the results I got from this roll, I think I'm going to have to try more. It looks really great developed in PC-TEA - great tones, sharp and little grain. The skies had lovely whispy clouds to add a bit of interest.

Here's some from the roll of Delta, a couple of "pairs" in their native then XP formats. The trees are native "Cabbage Trees", though they're not really trees, they are lilies. They certainly look like trees...

Cabbage Tree and Flax Stems

Crashing Waves

[Julio1fer]

Interesting idea, and with the 65 mm lens you should be close to your goal. Maybe a yellow filter next time, to enhance the clouds in that beautiful landscape.

Grain in the sky is visible, but not bad. One would expect hardly visible grain from a T-grain film in such large negatives, but then I have never tried Delta 100.

[melek]

Whenever I hear about the XPan, I shed a little tear. Sold mine around 2009 or so. One of five cameras that I regret selling.

[titrisol]

Gorgeous!
Well done

IDK i there is a 35mm adapter for the Fujica, I made one for a Ricohflex and got the 24x56mm panoramics which were fun.

[P C Headland]

Grain in the sky is visible, but not bad. One would expect hardly visible grain from a T-grain film in such large negatives, but then I have never tried Delta 100

The "grain" is likely compression artefacts as the full size scans show very little. I only had a red filter which would have resulted in too low a shutter speed (given there's always a bit of wind on the coast). I've bought a yellow and orange filter since.

Interesting idea, and with the 65 mm lens you should be close to your goal.

The XPan has a 90mm standard lens, close enough to the 100mm on the G690, especially given the slightly larger negative. The other lenses on the XPan are the 45mm and 30mm. I did see a G690 50mm lens for sale on our local auction site, but those are a little too spendy for me. So the 65mm would be a little narrower than the 45mm on the XPan.

IDK i there is a 35mm adapter for the Fujica

There are some third party ones, but I think it works out cheaper and easier just to crop 120. You lose a fair bit of 35mm just in loading / unloading the camera. I'd probably want a proper film gate mask too to avoid any film cupping.

[Brazile]

I've always enjoyed the "cinematic" point of view given by pano aspect ratios. It bugs me to do it by cropping, although that's personal and irrational -- you've got good results here at considerably less pain and expense than the alternatives. I hope you keep going with it!

I still haven't given my new 4x10 much of a workout, just one thing after another. But I look at it longingly every time I walk past it on my way to the workshop to finish my project there...

[titrisol]

I've always enjoyed the "cinematic" point of view given by pano aspect ratios. It bugs me to do it by cropping, although that's personal and irrational -- you've got good results here at considerably less pain and expense than the alternatives. I hope you keep going with it!

I still haven't given my new 4x10 much of a workout, just one thing after another. But I look at it longingly every time I walk past it on my way to the workshop to finish my project there...

In the late days of film there was the "Panorama" mode in some cameras, which was nothing more than a cropped 35mm (13x36mm) but the resulting effect was pretty cool.
I had a Pentax MZ7 (ZX7) which had that, I'll have to dig to find some of those pictures.

[Brazile]

In the late days of film there was the "Panorama" mode in some cameras, which was nothing more than a cropped 35mm (13x36mm) but the resulting effect was pretty cool.
I had a Pentax MZ7 (ZX7) which had that, I'll have to dig to find some of those pictures.

Ha ha, yes, I even have a small plastic point and shoot, the "Ansco Pix Panorama 35", that my wife bought for me sometime in the late 80s that was essentially just that. It's the moral equivalent of a 35mm Holga, with a plastic meniscus lens, a single shutter speed (1/125), a fixed aperture of something like f/11 and a mask at the film gate that reduced the normal 24x36mm image to something like 12x36. It was (and still is, I suppose, I haven't used it in years) actually kind of fun to shoot in the same way a Holga is, but as I said above, I always felt like I was wasting film.

Some sample images:







Nothing like the XPan-quality stuff seen above!