Re: [Leica] Hassie XPAN

[Simon Ogilvie <simon_ogilvie@ionica.co.uk>]

Forgive me if this is out of date - I am a little behind on
reading my LUG digests...

Jem wrote:
> ....The coverage required is   
> equivalent to 2 1/4 square format and the normal 'fast' lens there is   
> f2.8, though some really fast  lenses hit F2 I believe, so really the f4   
> max. is almost there, keeping the size small enough not to unbalance the   
> camera perhaps?

The image circle for a typical 6x6 camera (56mm square image) 
would be 79mm diameter, while this new camera requires 69mm
which is less than required for a 6x4.5 frame.

Many current medium format lenses have small max apertures
because they use leaf shutters which are difficult to produce
with the larger opening required for a larger max aperture.
The Mamiya 645 however uses a focal plane shutter and it's
lenses currently go up to f1.9 I believe, so there is the potential
for wider apertures on this Hasselblad.

The initial two lenses for it are 45mm and 90mm which are
the same focal length and max aperture as two of the fixed focal
lengths used in the current Fuji rangefinders.  Coincidence?
I doubt it!  More lenses are promised, so a logical next guess 
would be the zoom lens used in the Fuji 645Zi, and the 65mm
and other fixed lenses in the other Fujis.

This camera has the advantage over the Mamiya 7 (which I own
by the way) in that it can be switched between panoramic and
standard frames in mid roll.  With the Mamiya, once a 35mm film
is loaded it has to be finished off (in panoramic mode only) before
switching back to normal rollfilm.  The XPan also has TTL metering
and the usual automated film advance mechanisms you expect of
a modern 35mm camera (which the exception of Leica ;-)

By the way, the trick of winding to the end of the film and then
winding the shots back into the cassette as they are taken, is
not a new one.  Many compact cameras use that method, and
some of the Canon EOS cameras do it.

Simon.