I’ve hoisted this flag before, but am curious about possible interest. If Fuji set 2 XTrans 5 sensors side-by-side and stuck them in a GFX body, I am confident the IC’s of the existing GF lenses would cover corner to corner. This would render 80mp in a 3:1 pan format compared to the approximate 45mp you get if you crop a current GF 100 to 3:1. So my question is would you buy one if Fuji made it, assuming the price was in the current GFX range? Of course this could be rendered moot if Fuji releases a 150+mp GFX and included a built in 3:1 crop.
Note however the slightly wider format of 2 APS-c sensors would render a 0.7x ff lens format factor, for a little wider net FoV than the 0.8x we get from current GF lenses on the 33x44 sensor.
Second question is would the current lenses hold up to the higher pixel density? This is where the stumbling block may be if the lenses are already stretched at 100mp pitch.
I think that building a specialized ultra-wide panoramic camera in the digital era does not make the same kind of sense it made in the film era.
Back then you still used the same film, just would more of it in front of the (larger coverage) lens for each shot. And because these were mostly 35mm film based systems, you had to make the image wider to get an image quality level suitable for making decently wide prints.
Today, when you can make a very good 30” wide print from APS-C, 45” or wider from full frame (I’ve seen great 60” FF prints), and 60” and wider from miniMF the need for something that doesn’t just take one of those existing formats and crop it seems pretty minimal.
As much as I like using X-pan mode, I don't think I want a body dedicated to it. It would only be about 10% wider than the current Gfx sensor and I'm not sure we are suffering from low res in the current format. It seems like there could be a digital mode for X-pan that prepped the camera for using two side by side shots combined in-camera for the same result using either X or Gfx sensor in the standard bodies.
