Help, my XPan2 pictures are horrible

[OscarGarrido]

Can you scan the negs in other scanner?

 

[dermo]

If you want great colour I suggest two things -

1. Fuji Velvia. 50 or 100 ISO

2. Get up for sunrise.

www.dermotokane.com

 

[quantum-x]

I shot superia 200 in mine as the first roll I placed though, and got similar lackluster results - mainly a lack of constrast and saturation. Not sure why - I always shot w/ superia 200 in my SLR and it came out grand.

Changed to Velvia and Fortia 50, and the results speak for themselves.

 

[Ben1]

2 things..

Do a search in google for "hyperfocal distance focusing" ... great for landscapes as you get the best depth of field for your chosen aperture. Its easy to do and doesnt require using the RF patch at all. All my work is shot using this method...If your shooting landscapes where you want EVERYTHING sharp, this is your best way to go!!!

Second, in my early xpan experience i found my photos were pretty hit-and-miss as well. The meter in the xpan is the only thing that is crap about the camera (IMO) ... it is tricked very easily and is made worse by the fact your shooting such a large frame (in pano mode anywayz). There are a few tricks you can use to overcome the cameras dodgy metering, one method i use with very good results is to meter off the back of my hand held arms length from the lense.. Its *similar* to a grey card and usually helps your exposure.. (unless in some instances you could be standing in a shadow and shooting a sunny scene)...
Generally the xpan overexposes... that is, when the meter says its right on the money, the image is generally overexposed. My advice would be go out and shoot a few test rolls, take notes of exposures, and shoot a half to one stop UNDER exposed according to the meter.

Best of luck
Ben

 

[berci]

XPan Hyperfocal Manual

XPan Hyperfocal Manual

I disagree with the meter being crap, just be careful not to include loads of sky while metering and it will be spot on.

This is an extract from the manual:

 

[wdenies]

I do not understand it! ( am I too old?)
The exposure of slide film is more critical than neg. film.
So if your pictures taken on slide look ok and those on neg. film not, blame the printing process of your lab and not the XPAN.
During development of slides the lab has no influence on the quality (except age of chemicals, temp), it is a standard process!
On the other side, during printing from negs 1000 or more things can go wrong.

ex. the famous sunset. For the automatic printing machine this picture will have a dominant colour cast (red-yellow) and will be filtered out.

Wim

 

[wdenies]

Xpan

Xpan

This what I got after minor corrections

 

[quantum-x]

This what I got after minor corrections

Thank you Wdenies - I agree, it looks a lot better - also proves the points raised above, too.

Shooting Superia 200 without tweaks / corrections will result in a less contrasty / saturated image - so it's not the XPan's fault there! 🙂

Thankyou again for your efforts Wdenies 🙂

 

[wdenies]

I prefer shots (film/digit) with a contrast at the low end.
In the pixelroom it is easier to boost the contrast to my taste than the other way around (no shadow details).
The same applies for saturation, etc.