30f5.6 for the Xpan!!

[didjiman]

...I have seen a voigtlander 15mm viewfinder masked for the Xpan 30. It wont be cheap though.

I have one of those I much prefer the smaller 15mm VF as it is MUCH smaller. Actually I have the Zeiss finder which is more expensive but much clearer.

 

[atlcruiser]

nice PICs! I have lusted for ths lens for a while but to be very honest I need the 90

 

[quantum-x]

Bought the TX2 (with the 45) and the 30mm lens, never put the 45mm back on.
For what I shoot, it's perfect. The 90 could be nice sometimes, too

More here .. http://www.ninjito.com/2011-03-01-SouthAmerica-Pano/

 

[sepiareverb]

One cannot fault the IQ of the 30. Been missing the XPAN these last few days, this thread hasn't helped .

 

[angeloks]

Wow, beautiful shots!

Bought the TX2 (with the 45) and the 30mm lens, never put the 45mm back on.
For what I shoot, it's perfect. The 90 could be nice sometimes, too

More here .. http://www.ninjito.com/2011-03-01-SouthAmerica-Pano/

 

[Matus]

quantum-x, those are beautiful shots.

Here and then I keep coming to the "X-pan idea" but the price still keeps me back (I do not want to let my Mamiya 6 go). The 30/5.6 seems to weighted in gold. But it is really wide, so I guess it requires lot of practice to do it the justice. I would be perfectly fine just with the 45 ... for the start

 

[quantum-x]

quantum-x, those are beautiful shots.

Here and then I keep coming to the "X-pan idea" but the price still keeps me back (I do not want to let my Mamiya 6 go). The 30/5.6 seems to weighted in gold. But it is really wide, so I guess it requires lot of practice to do it the justice. I would be perfectly fine just with the 45 ... for the start

I never felt comfortable with the 45mm lens - but I shoot mainly wideangle on my SLR. The 30mm is roughly 17mm equiv in 35mm (well, 24x36) speak, which is great if you've got a foreground element.

I think the 90 could be very handy for landscapes, but never had a chance to play with one...

Incidentally, I normally shoot handheld - for night shots, sure, it's on a tripod, but it's not so slow that it's annoying..

 

[andrewmore]

A cheaper alternative to the 30mm lens is to use a (second-hand) Nikon 28mm (f3.5) PC ('perspective control') lens in unshifted mode, mounted on a Nikon to Hasselblad X-pan adaptor. There is some shading in the corners which I expect could be corrected after scanning or just cropped to produce a slightly less wide picture. The arrangement is little bulky, but otherwise has worked well for me.

Regards

Andrew More

 

[gshybrid]

I scan them successfully also. I wonder if there is a lab that does it.

It shouldn't be a problem for most labs. Panda labs here in Seattle used to do mine before I bought a scanner.

 

[Nettar]

The 30mm is an excellent lens, but you need to be aware of one or two limitations. First, if your experience with ultra wide angle lenses is on a regular format, rather than 6x17 (say), you may miss the height. The beautiful images posted on this thread don't suffer from this problem, on account of careful choice of subject matter, but sometimes I do miss the "wide angle depth" that is provided by extra height (relative to the proportions of the Xpan format). Secondly, the lens is slow, and (unlike the 45mm lens) you can't really use it effectively without the centre filter, even on print film. This means that you lose a lot of speed, and that creates limitations. For both of these reasons I find that, unlike some of the other posters above, I use the 45mm more often than the 30mm. Peter

 

[thegman]

These pictures are just brilliant, all of them.

Bought the TX2 (with the 45) and the 30mm lens, never put the 45mm back on.
For what I shoot, it's perfect. The 90 could be nice sometimes, too

More here .. http://www.ninjito.com/2011-03-01-SouthAmerica-Pano/