carstenw
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corposant wrote:
It's very similar to shooting with something like a Hexar RF - the differences for me are the weight (it's much heavier than it looks) and the frustrating lack of the metering information in the VF (solved apparently with the XPan II).
The biggest issue I had was I found that for all the RFs I have used, it's actually one of the more difficult to focus - the patch isn't as well-defined as my ZI. However, if you're primarily using the 45mm lens, it won't matter much, as in pano-mode DOF is pretty big.
The pleasant surprises were how ingenious the film transport mechanism is (it winds all the film out after you load it, so if you accidentally open the back, it will only expose unused film), it's easy to load, you can easily switch from panoramic to 24x36, and the metering is excellent (I only needed to spot meter with E-6).
Regarding the lenses, I used two out of the three - the 30mm and the 45mm. The 45mm is an excellent lens - you can switch from "24mm" in pano to 45mm in 2:3, it's reasonably fast for medium format, and the IQ is great. The 30mm is incredible - I'd put the image quality of this lens right up with the Mamiya 43mm, the ZF/ZE 21mm, and the ZM 18mm. Fuji's style is quite a bit different from Leica/Zeiss, so it's probably a little closer to the Mamiya "classic" rendering. The drawbacks are - 1) price 2) the aux VF is huge 3) at an equivalent 15mm it's very easy to shoot a crooked horizon, and these are costly mistakes if you straighten in post, and 4) opportunities to shoot something this wide are pretty rare, unless you're shooting vistas.
All in all, it's a great system, and if you utilize the pano-switch, it can sort of be considered versatile. Unfortunately it's something you have to have in your hands and use a bit to understand how practical it is for you and how much you'd use it. The fact that the one I had broke (which has rarely, if ever, happens to me) left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, because I usually use mechanical cameras. If you have a more specific question, feel free to PM me.
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Thanks, that's very helpful, and more or less matches my expectations. For now I am planning on just using the 45mm and 90mm, since the 30mm is so expensive, so hopefully the focusing is okay. I have owned both an M6 and M8, so I hope that I can focus accurately enough with the XPan. I am sort of thinking of getting the XPan II, since everyone mentions the missing info in the viewfinder, but it is about double, which makes no sense as an experiment, I guess. I could always switch later, if I get along with the system, and make sure I get a good price on the I. I am not planning on using the 24x36 mode at all, I find the negatives too small, and prefer digital for this purpose.
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