Love the Xpan

[Vickko]

Yep, fully agree.

RF screws are glued in place. Very similiar to the RD1 and Minolta CLE adjustment. And the RF adjustment is a bit more sensitive than the Leica M rangefinder.

And yes, plenty of circuit boards all over the camera body, once you remove the body covers. This is now de-rigeur with the M6 and newer Leica's. You need ESD procedures and a lot more care when doing repairs and adjustments.

But I am impressed by how solid the internals are. Japanese design is often very clever with respect to assembly and simplicity. Or, in engineering parlance, "elegance".

🙂

Vick

from what I was told, Hasselblad/Fuji locked down the adjustment screws with something tough to remove and there was also something about the flex circuit boards being in a vulnerable place=if it busts, yer pooched. This is coming from someone who knows their way around M guts blindfolded 😉

btw, would love to get a 30 for the Xpan but the wallet is not agreeing with that expenditure 😉

 

[newsgrunt]

yano, I sometimes wish the Xpan was a fully mechanical camera or used easy to find AA batteries. Regardless, still a really nice camera to use but don't make the mistake I did once of mixing formats on one roll. Really messes up sleeving yano lol

 

[Colin Corneau]

Hey grunt, I do that on *every* roll...but I was mixed up before I ever picked one up.

 

[hausen]

I put my xpan plus 45/4 up against my M6 + summarit 35 the other day (Tri-X + Xtol) and looking at the negs I was happier with prints from the Xpan. The prints were environmental portraits of my son in his Army Fatigues printed at 10x8. Might be sacrilegious to say so but it was what happened. The Xpan lenses are under-rated in my opinion.

 

[gshybrid]

from what I was told, Hasselblad/Fuji locked down the adjustment screws with something tough to remove and there was also something about the flex circuit boards being in a vulnerable place=if it busts, yer pooched. This is coming from someone who knows their way around M guts blindfolded 😉

btw, would love to get a 30 for the Xpan but the wallet is not agreeing with that expenditure 😉

RF adjustment is easy for both vertical and horizontal. There is a blob of something holdind the set screw for one axis but it just popped off for me and I used Locktight after adjusting it. My biggest complaint with my xpan is getting the film to load properly. It often take several attempts to get it to engage... but other than that it is by far my favorite film camera.

 

[Vickko]

Yep, agree, I've had it miss the film.

My trick is to catch the sprocket hole with the little tooth and make sure that the film tension holds onto the tooth. Then close up the camera. This method hasn't failed yet.

Pulling out the leader to the "red line" often fails.

Vick

 

[gshybrid]

next roll I'll try that....

Yep, agree, I've had it miss the film.

My trick is to catch the sprocket hole with the little tooth and make sure that the film tension holds onto the tooth. Then close up the camera. This method hasn't failed yet.

Pulling out the leader to the "red line" often fails.

Vick

 

[DennisPT]

Got one finally. Yipee !!!