XPan and sports photographers

[Dave G]

Hi,

I know the XPan is hardly the most suitable camera for action/sports photography, but whilst sat in the pub with a few photography mates, we started to question if there are any sports photographers exploiting the panoramic format. I guess using the 30mm lens would produce amazing stadium/crowd pictures or perhaps pit shots inmotor racing - but even after a look on the web I cannot seem to find any sports pictures using the panoramic format.

Does anyone know of any? Or indeed do any of you want to share some sports pics you might have taken.

Just curious.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[stet]

Mike Blabac, the team photographer for skateboard-shoe company DC Shoes, has a gallery of Xpan skate pics and portraits on the company site. If you have a fast connection or are very patient, check out http://www.dcfilms.com and go to Blabac's knockoff Kodak icon on the top nav. Lot of good stuff in there. I like all the shots of Devine Calloway and Ryan Gallant (the vertical city shot is interesting), and especially the cross-processed photo of Danny Way.

 

[Dave G]

Stet,

Thanks for this - very interesting.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Dave G]

Stet,

Thanks for this - very interesting.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[suzums]

Thanks for the link!

 

[celluloidprop]

Have they changed the site? From the main page (and the subsections), I don't see any kind of faux Kodak can.

 

[Jason_K]

I know Robert Beck of Sports Illustrated used to use an X-Pan.

http://www.robertbeckphotography.com/

Check the Toy Cameras section - that's where he files anything out of the ordinary.

I believe he recently sold his X-Pan, or at least was trying to.

 

[celluloidprop]

I found the Blabac retrospective - you now have to go to the main DC shoes site, then special features then archives or something like that.

Some very nice work - too many skate-mag fisheyes, but the straight photography is colorful and interesting.

 

[stet]

yeah, the old Xpan article did come down. You can see some xpan shots by going to http://www.dcshoes.com/home.asp and under the Home bar on the nav, going to Special Features / April 02 Blabac Retrospective, but it's not the same as the old article, which was strictly Xpan and had a cool pic of the camera too. The funny thing is that that article had been up forever, go figure that it gets deleted when a week after this thread pops up.

Celluloidprop: yeah, fisheyes are the bane of skate photos, but I love how they come out, and I'm looking for one myself right now. They make spots and tricks look exciting, and of course, bigger. But then that's 20+ years of skate-mag brainwashing talking. =)

 

[sf]

I think it would have a hard time in that market because of the usual print format. Magazines, newspapers, etc. Though, I suppose it would be pretty cool to get some panoramic shots of field sports, etc. But, it seems that the most effective way to do that would be to shoot medium format AF and use a wide angle lens. Really wide. Contax 645/distagon 45. Then crop to panoramic for effect, and have the full page spread format if needed.

But a TX-1/2 or an XPan1/2 would be great too, best if you're NOT on the sidelines with the rest of the photographers, and are merely sitting in the stands somewhere.