I'll just wait until my dad "gifts" me his. Isn't that how everybody gets their expensive and rare camera?

To clarify, Hasselblad advertises they will still service the Xpan. Price starts at ~300 euros.

So as someone who fell in love with the XPan/TX-1 over the last couple years and seeing the prices rise always crushed my dreams of ever shooting one of these. It makes me wonder, with the rise of film why hasn’t someone went and started remaking cameras in this format? I understand most camera manufacturers are not interested in making film cameras anymore (especially film cameras with so many quirks), but I would totally buy a “imitation” product that might not be “as nice” but has a price that reflects that. I don’t know, just seems like a missed opportunity.

I'm pretty sure this is secretly an attempt to suppress TX-1 prices so you can still afford replacement parts.

Been shooting my $500 Fuji GW690 and just stitching multiple images on LR. Endless panoramas with way more image detail without going broke.

Baxter's appearances: - NONE Second week without seeing our king. Cheers!

I would have been too scared to buy one of these a couple of years ago. There's NO WAY I'm getting one now lol. I think if film continues to grow in popularity and companies want to make new film cameras again, a compact panoramic 35mm camera would be a good place to start. I have always had a dream of there one day being an all mechanical XPAN which would be soooo cool

For the current street price of a tx1/x-pan you can get a new GFX50r and a decent set of very sharp manual lenses, like the Nikkor PC 35mm Jason mentioned, or an adapter for a plethora of medium format lenses. If the wide aspect ratio is that important, the GFX has it built in. You can drop all kinds of dosh on Leica Glass if you want, and the GF sensor will more than keep up. You can put glass that was in no way intended for any use beyond it's own mount and get wonderful results. Shit, you can mount the GFX to a 4x5 back and go nuts with all the tilt/shift/rise adjustments possible with that system. As long as the image circle of the lens is bigger or close to the 44x33mm size of the sensor, you'll be in business. Why would anyone still pay $5000 for a dying camera?

Or you know, get the Linhof 612/617 (or fuji 617, horseman 612) for about the same price if not cheaper. The 612/617 frame can be handled on most flatbeds, manual seiko/copal shutters, and BAM, you're back in business! Or something like 612 horseman back and chroma camera with 90mm angulon if you're on the poor side, pop in some of that Gold on 120 and you're golden!

While I don't use film any more and probably not motivated enough to go back (apart from adapting old film lenses) I am really enjoying the following the experiences of those discovering or rediscovering the joy of film photography. Great work Jason.

Hey Jason. I have a hasselblad xpan body with a Fuji lens. I think our lenses were switched in the hospital

That sponsor transition was so smooth I didn’t even realize you were in an ad there for a sec. Squarespace should pay you extra for that.

My little E-PL 10 Olympus Pen has an awesome panorama mode where you simply rotate (sweep L - R) with or without a tripod. Most any lens will work just fine and the results are great.

Another life changing film as usual, by far the best film photography channel ❤️

I wanted to get an m7 but ditched that idea and got an xpan instead. The shooting experience is something to behold and is of tremendous honor. However having the batteries die on me was enough to make me freak out like Pete Davidson hanging out with Kanye's kids.

Hi Jason, recently picked up a Canon AV-1 from watching your channel. I sold my Canon 200D and brought a 2013 blackmagic pocket cinema as I wanted to do more high quality video work but you've re-inspired my love for stills and I can't wait for more great videos :) Thank you

Well, there is always the cheapskate version, A.K.A. the Lomography Sprocket Rocket. Or the DIY approach that involves taking a dead SLR and an old folder with torn bellows, gutting the SLR except for the film advance and the frame counter, enlarging the film gate to the max and sticking a handmade lens cone on it.

I will and always appreciate the xpan/ TX-1 from afar. It’s a great camera system but the organs I’d have to sell to get one would kill me lol. Still a beautiful camera and the images you get are amazing!

That segway to squarespace was hella smooth man. I did not expect it hahaha

For the second half of the video I had a comment locked and loaded for the medium format adapter .... then you go and mention it to shut a bloke down, good job. The biggest thing you forgot to mention with the 35mm / medium format adapter is the sweet sprocket holes for the true film look!

Something that I haven't seen a lot of people mention are swing lens panoramic cameras-they're certainly not the same as an xpan but they have their own unique look and are a true panoramic 35mm camera without the bulk of an adapted medium format system. Even though they're not the same, my Horizon 202 was fifty times cheaper than an xpan, so that alone makes up my mind.

Gets better with time and if the worst happens it will be a beautiful display piece

I’ve been shooting panoramic by shooting 35mm in my Mamiya C330 with some 3D printed pegs that allow 35mm to be used in a medium format camera. The only downside is you have to wait until you’re in a pitch black room to rewind the film

This was brutal haha. We're reaching peak hypebeast levels of film camera acquisition.

I wanted this camera at 2,000-something or when it was amazingly less ... but 5k is a hard no. I liked shooting panos in a Pentax 6x7, except then it broke my 6x7 and it was only the third roll I ever shot on it.

You can do 35mm panoramas on any MF camera with a simple adapter. This also gives you the option of various widths.

I recently picked one up with the 45mm for 1900€, you can still find good deals here and there in local stores but it's hard, def not on ebay. It's the most expensive piece of gear I own and I'm temped to sell it but I'm afraid I'll never be able to afford it again : /

Not the conclusion I was looking for but as always I’m happy to ignore any sound advice and carry on with my delusions that I can afford the xpan and it won’t die on me one day

One of the funniest videos I‘ve seen for a long time!

Thank you, Josephina! ;-)

I remember looking at these in 2010-2011 when you could get a body+lens for ~$1500 thinking that they were way too expensive for an electronic camera even back then. I'm still pining for one though.

For me it's very important that a panoramic camera also makes normal format as all subjects cannot cope well with panoramic format. I use a lot the "normal" format of my X-Pan, so I don't have to take a second camera with me, Problem is that frequent format change drains a lot the battteries and it's mandatory having always one to two sets of camera batteries in your bag. Problem with used X-Pan 30mm lenses is that I have never seen one complete ! My 30mm was sold new in a nice leather jewel case containing : the lens, the center filter in a plastic case, the lens hood, the special viewfinder, a leather softpouch for the lens, a fabric softpouch for the viewfinder.

I owned an XPAN1 some years ago. I also owned a Mamiya 7. And a Hasselblad 501CM and a Rolleiflex 3.5E and a Nikon F2 and a Nikon F3. And then I scanned my film with an Imacon Flextight 646. It was this great time, when everybody was shooting digitally and film stuff was CHEAP. The Nikon F3 electronics died and it is not worth the repair. The Imacon Scanner went to a Hasselblad technician every two years for a really expensive maintenance, but he warned me, should the mainboard die, it will be really really expensive. I sold all electronic stuff. The Xpan went. The Mamiya 7 went, the Flextight went. Now I am down to the Hasselblad, Rollei and F2, all of which can be maintained by any decent technician, since there is only mechanics involved (ok, the F2 is an AS, but as long as Sover Wong is around ....). And I either print in the darkroom or digitalize with my Sony A7RII and Sigma 105 macro, which actually does not look worse at all than a Flextight scan, yet goes MUCH quicker. The Sony camera could die, but it is subject to digital rot anyhow and since I bought it as new old stock one and a half year after the successor A7RII had been released it was not that expensive. So I agree: Paying thousands of dollars for 20-30 year old cameras containing rather sophisticated electronics that nobody can repair when they go bad and knowing that they will go bad at some time in the future ... not a wise decision. I also owned but sold a 6x17 view camera though. I really miss that thing.

Honest - nice. I've had great results with the Mamiya 7 pano adapter, sharper glass and a wider selection of lenses than the xpan. Having said that I think I'm addicted to the panoramic aspect ratio so I just HAD to add the Shen Hao 617 ! :)

someone recently told me you could get a 35mm film back for the Bronica ETRS that shoots panoramic photos much like the XPAN... perhaps not quite the same thing, but I'm seriously considering it.

I got my TX1 for $1700 in 2016 😅. Its a fun camera but pretty limiting. Plus the constant paranoia of it breaking one day. After it sat on my shelf for an entire year without getting used I sold it and bought an M10 which gets used constantly. For the ppl who want one of these, just know it doesn’t work well as a main camera…

Alternative: Zenza Bronica SQ / Etr with a 135W Filmback. The Filmbacks are about 400-600 USD depends on condition. Still about 10 time cheaper then the X-Pan and you do have a lot more lens options.

had one and while I enjoyed it for about 1-2years I also sold it because honeymoon phase wore off and I knew it was a ticking time bomb once something failed. my only mistake was selling it earlier (back in 2015) when prices were still low

One alternative to shooting native 35mm panoramics is the bronica systems. But even for those the film back (135W) & focusing screen that does it is expensive as hell. You literally get a whole normal medium format system with lenses etc. for the same price. *Edit: On the positive side, those are not electronic components and you can just change the body if your camera dies.

I’ve been iffy about the price of the XPan but I ended up buying one last year because I really fell in love with it. So far, I’m on the clear, but I do wonder what I’d do when the time comes and it fails on me 🥲 cherish every moment I guess haha

thanks for dropping the price boss

If you're itching for full manual panoramic: Find a Kodak Tourist with the Kodak Anatstar 101mm f/4.5 syncro shutter. The f6.3 lenses are good too, the Kodet lens is not worth the shipping. Not every Tourist body is the same either, some have mats in the viewfinder, some viewfinders have little lenses in them that make them much easier to use, others are just shit plastic panels. You'll also want to do light leaks because it's a folding camera. Find 3D printed 35mm-to-620 adapter to hold the film. Enjoy the 24x84 mega panoramics that you've misframed in the viewfinder and probably overlapped because you lost count while advancing the film. You can get like 6 exposures I think, god help you if you pull the film out of the canister. This has been on my to try list for like, 2 years now and I finally have a box of Pro Image 100 to waste a few rolls of.

With the announcement that the main board of the Leica M6 Classic running out of back stock, it's in the same bed as the TTL. This is EXACTLY why I bought the original M4. I can just always buy a separate light meter that's more accurate too.

Your warnings about how the electronics will fail make me antsy around my EOS 500... but it does encourage me to use it more.

It'll always be something a bit more expansive than it should be. I paid £700 (about $1200) for my Xpan like 15 years ago. That number looks cheap by today's standard, but it was a time when everybody traded their film camera for digital, so I was laughed at by many to spend that much on a film camera. It has been, and will still be too expensive for most people, that's how capitalism works.

There's always the option of getting one of the several 35mm panoramic pinhole cameras that are made by companies like Noon, Ondu, Zero Image, or Lerouge. These cost anywhere from $150-250, so they're about 5% of the price of an Xpan/TX-1, camera body only. Of course, you're dealing with pinhole images which won't be terribly sharp, and you have to take longer exposures, meaning you're dealing with reciprocity failure. But for a 95% price savings, I'd be willing to consider it.

The great thing about instagram is that you can crop to 2:1 and no one will be able to tell. Just get a real wide lens. My 16mm is already way more frame than i need. You can get decent prints with the smaller frame as well. If you really feel the need for giant prints (or you are a purist or pixel peeper) then a proper pano solution is potentially worth your while. There are so many options from larger format pano, to swing pano, medium format adaptors. Most people have no business buying a camera this expensive unless they are loaded or using it specifically for a project and selling it after. Frankly, just think about how many trips you could go on for 5k.

is there a digital camera that has the same panoramic style? sorry im new to cameras and photography so I don't know much apologies if its a dumb question

I paid £800 cash for my Hasselblab XPan with the 45mm lens + center filter + leather xpan bag. Before the price went mental ;) i also remember when the 90mm lens was dirt cheap.

Dude that Segway into the ad was so good hahahah

Gonna just get a pano kit for my free-to-me 6x7 and spend $4,975 on Ektachrome. With processing, that's what, like 8 rolls?

I was able to track down a xpan2 with what was a claim to be less than 10 rolls ran through it, It is my child now.

A few years ago I was curious about the X Pan but i wanted a Medium Format more, Prices now are even crazier than back then lol.

I think that's the most fun I've had watching a camera review ;-)

When are you going to get the panoramic adapter for your Mamiya 7???

All very valid points. In general, I would not recommend any electronic film camera anymore. My Minolta CLE finally died after about 10 years of using it. No more options to get it repaired. I would not want to live 6K+ camera system. Just get a Texas Leica (No electronics!) and crop into 6x9 medium format.

Thanks for making great content! I shoot only digital, but I really enjoy your work. Its not many who can work in that much dry humor in a KZfaq video. Your photos are not half bad either. Anyway, first time I saw the TX-1 in one of your videoes it struck me the time of cray cray camera seems to have passed. And I thought, what if FujiFilm took the X100 series camera and placed two APS-C sensors next to each other, made a lens that could cover the width and just for the hell of it made a digital Pano Camera? The X-TX-1 maybe? X1000-1? TX100? Does it make sense? No, but would it be dope AF? In the immortal words of some one: Fuck yeah! Anyway, keep it up. (Maybe it would make more "sense" to use two micro 4/3 sensors?)

Been saving for 135W for my Bronica. I guess now, since you mentioned it in your video, I will have to sell a kidney.

Hey, have you tried shooting panoramic on the Pentax 6/7 with the adapters? :D

Best sponsor placement ever!

Informative and funny!!! Subscribed!!

If Fuji ever made a video cinema camera, this would be IT!

What about the M6 is it worth it?

Personally I have mixed opinions on the xpan! I’ve used the TX2 for a while now and yeah it’s a great camera to use and gives great quality images but for almost 5k! I’d save some money and shoot some panoramic images in the bronica etrs with the 35mm back. I know it’s not the same same but it’s similar and if you use adaptors in the 120 back you can cover the sprocket holes with the image

What’s your shutter count?

The only dream camera

the wait is finally over

If you have to stitch 2 images together when you scan, why not take 2 images with a regular 35mm then stitch them together later ? its ok for landscapes ...

While we're on the topic of "is this thing worth it", I'd love to hear your thoughts on your Leica glass. As a proud Voigtlander shooter, I often wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze on the coveted Summicron line, but so far haven't been able to justify the expense to find out. Please validate my life choices for me so I can sleep again.

First time I hear about this camera was in digitalrev tv channel whey Kei was on it, man, great videos back then! Anyway I showed up to my camera shop in Madrid and I was about to buy one for about 1000€, unfortunately I didn’t and I regret so much! (I end up buying a first gen sony A7 and man… what a waste of money hey)

This is what I needed to hear almost sold my kidney for one just a month ago glad I was saved

I kick myself for not buying the Bronica ETRS 135w back 10 years ago when it was (I thought) absurd price of $200...especially since my entire kit including AE II Prism, speed winder and 3 lenses cost me $250, but now they are like $800...sigh. Apparently you can do some Viking sword work on the 135N back to go pano, but the gear ratio is off, so you lose frames overall.

Im glad you admitted it's not worth it anymore. paying that much for such a niche camera that few can fix is unfathomable

Best way ever to introduce Squarespace 😂

This is like when you dad says you can’t buy the 96 toy car set from the store

You can get a Linhof 612 PC II for less money than the XPAN... I've given up on the XPAN dream. Good thing there are so many other cameras to pursue.

Can you do a video on the Mimiya 7 and if its still worth it in today's market?

I know back home in China, theres repair shops that got cheap labor cost, & manufacture new parts for electronics in xpan. Maybe its completely worth it years ago when it costs less than $3k, but I can't justfy this as if fricking costs more than what I paid for a unused black paint m6... I've been shooting with a 220 back on rz67, its wider and got sprockets, with great lens, can't really see the point of droping 6k+ on it. Even the bronica 135w backs alone on ebay are listed for $700.. hell, maybe I'll rent one someday and see if its really worth it for me personally.

Video @ 4:05 "far too much to pay for this camera" - I agree Jason ! - Here's a CHEAP & reliable Pano using Zeiss glass ! - Spend less than $400 and get a fully mechanical & reliable Pano - - - Plus again, you're using your Zeiss glass ! - Own a classic & fully mechanical 6x6 Hasselblad ? - Well buy an 'old' 12 Back to sacrifice/modify (not the newer A12), then Dremel away three teeth of the large gear (the gear teeth in the 12 Back are visible from the access 'hole' ; the camera uses this to connect to the back). Doing this doesn't allow THE CAMERA to grab the back's transport mechanism. After you get the 12 back mod'ed & reassembled, install Hasselblad's 41151 6X3 panoramic mask KIT into your Hasselblad (this kit doesn't alter your camera body, it's totally reversible). Now, to make it easy to 'Move the Film' , install the OEM accessory; Hasselblad 41076 Quick Winding Crank. Okay, when putting the film to its number one position (the normal procedure for loading & positioning the film), then go & take a Pano picture. To get the film to the next position, turn the 'rapid crank' on the back 270 degrees (not critical for an exact 270) - after every picture taken, RESET THE COUNTER back to #1 then again turn the Rapid crank 270 degrees . You'll get 20 wonderfully spaced 30mm X 60mm Pano images. I typically use my WLF, an OEM Spirit Bubble 43117 and a 50mm Distagon lens on my fully mechanical ULTRA reliable Hasselblad 500C/M !

never understood the xpan, I alwats said "Get a Mamiya 7II and crop your 120 film to a panoramic crop ?"

More youtubers need to shit on these ridiculous camera prices, thank you for doing your part

Light meter recently died on my M6. Thankfully enough it's a mechanical camera so it downgraded itself to an M4 i guess. Repair is only 1000€ by Leica Germany. 😅

I use Pentax 67 +$19 3D printed 135 adapter, 36-135 a roll yields 19 frames, only bulkier.

I have long accepted the fact I'm just gonna crop my 6x6 pics if I feel the masculine urge to take a panoramic shot to revive the spirit of Sergio Leone's movies

I am thinking about using an anamorphic squeeze adapter for 35mm pano.

Woke up with this question on my mind. Get out of my dreams, Jason.

I remember thinking the prices were insane when I met a guy who said he spent $1400 for a TX-1 in 2016. At this point you could save some money and just buy a Leica instead tbh

I used to crave for XPan so much, until I decided to buy a 3D printed 617 camera with a Super-Angulon 90/8, all for a price less than a XPan central ND filter. Now when I look at XPan, I still think it's beautiful and amazing, but with a 617 in hand, I feel I don't really need a XPan anymore. (Of course XPan can do things like street photography which is basically impossible for 617.)

I saw one last week for only USD$300 of course with a cracked viewfinder and some scars(He said he dropped it while traveling to Angkor Wat). But otherwise everything still functions according to the seller.

When are you going to make a video about the Nikon f2?

Considering how expensive it is I just ended up going the anamorphic route on digital , it's just not worth the money and effort. When it comes to posting wide aspect ratios on social media it indeed sucks but right now my workflow there is to bundle up three shots in a triptych than makes sense either visually or as storytelling.

I remember watching one of your TX1 videos recently and looking up the price of it. I was so shocked I nearly coughed up my own ass

What about the Horizon Cameras? True panoramic on 35mm using a swing lens. and they can be had for

Sorry for the stupid but vital question. I found an xpan at my grandfather's house recently. Is it normal that you can't see what you are focusing on when looking in the viewfinder? Or does the camera have some kind of problem? Thanks to anyone who will answer me and make me understand!

Forever thankful I bought mine 5 years ago, it's such a great camera but too popular now.

so, why there is a bag?

I got it, I use it and I love it :)

Have one, and this is the best KZfaq video about x-pan. It is to expensive and the lens is f 4. And it is old electronic. If you do not knew if you like to have an Leica or Xpan , go for Leica, you can get a new for same price and service for years.

I’ve just checked Hasselblad’s website, they do repair X-pans, €400 is the estimated cost they provide

what about the Samsung ECX1?