Xpan or X-Pro1 - landscape?

[hrzlvn]

above opinions are informative enough, but I still want to give out my 2 cents since I've tried both before.

1. It's totally a different perspective when you look through the XPAN's viewfinder comparing to the XP1's. Please be noted, that's a 617 viewfinder on the XPAN instead of the regular one. What you see is what you get. The panorama mode on XP1? It's all about imagination..

2. You can always get a XP1 or a digital camera better than XP1 for a cheaper price in the future, but you won't get a better XPAN. Besides, who knows how long will XPAN last? How long will film last especially slide? Slide for landscape is stunning..

Go for the XPAN, shoot with it while you still can. Yes, I know, I know, it's huge, heavy..but it's XPAN.

 

[Tim Gray]

I had an XPan. Sold it because I didn't like carrying around it and my M at the same time, so I usually just grabbed the M, leaving the XPan neglected. However, it was a great camera. Fantastic image quality. If you are still a film shooter and a panorama shooter, I'd say you should at least try the XPan. Who knows how long before you won't be able to get one?

Scanning it was a pain in the butt when I shot B&W, which I dev and scan myself. But for color, I just sent it to one of the forum sponsors, Precision Camera. They sent back pretty nice files. You could always send off a handful of your best shots for drums scans if it was needed.

Nice thing about the XPan for panoramas is that you can get 'action' shots in one picture.

Here's a few precision camera scans of E100VS shots. If you click through, you can look at the original 12000 x 4500 scans:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgray1/5972611258/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgray1/5966012924/

 

[sepiareverb]

My take...if you're invested in digital, don't screw up your workflow. The X-Pro 1 can do either panoramic stitching in-camera, or you can shoot the 14mm (or 12mm from Zeiss) and crop/correct. The advantage is super clean files which already exist in the digital realm.

+1. Scanning film will never give as clean an image as one that starts digitally unless one jumps to a very pricey scan.

 

[taemo]

thanks everyone for your comments, I guess my decision is final now that I pulled the trigger on a Xpan + 45mm. might get the 90mm down the road too.

 

[rbelyell]

thanks everyone for your comments, I guess my decision is final now that I pulled the trigger on a Xpan + 45mm. might get the 90mm down the road too.

congrats! you will not regret it! a fabulous piece of gear, and truky one of a kind and timeless engineering. by all means pick up the 90, its absolutely stellar.
tony