Fujifilm Photography News and Rumors

Many love X-Pan and the prices have gone way up in recent years, but I only recently got into the format with the GFX100 since it provides plenty of extra megapixels to use. X-Pan is primarily seen as a Hasselblad format, but Fujifilm also released an X-Pan camera the TX-1. Amazon and B&H Photo carry used XPAN cameras if you’re looking for one. Above is a lengthy review of the TX-1 and below are excerpts from the review.

• Interchangeable lens
• 35mm format
• Fujifilm has a Titanium/aluminum body that is champagne colored
• There is a wood front grip that can be swapped for a ruber or custom one
• Range Finder camera
• Came with a 45mm f/4 and 90mm f/4
• There is also a rare 30mm wide-angle f/5.6 that requires an external viewfinder that is rare and expensive
• You can shoot regular 35mm 24x36mm or 24x65mm
• You can change the format size whenever you want
• Panoramic mode gets 20-21 images out of a 36 exposure roll
• Built-in OVF is very bright and it adjusts to the lens mounted and has auto parallaxing
• Focal Plain shutter that goes 1/1000 to 8 seconds and then an above move (bulb) and self-timer that goes off after 10-seconds
• TTL only covers a small area of the center and it’s a center-weighted averaging meter
• If you’re using something like slide film the TTL might not be accurate enough
• ISO can be set automatic with X encoded film or manually on the front
• There is an aperture priority mode/automatic mode/manual mode
• The light meter is displayed in the OVF via +/-/o
• The selected shutter speed is only displayed on the back on a tiny LCD
• You can half-press the shutter button to see what shutter speed is being used on the back when shooting automatic
• The rear LCD also shows settings and battery power
• There is an exposure compensation dial on the top right that goes +2/-2 EV in half stops
• You can shoot continuously at 3fps standard and 2fps in pano
• The film counter counts down
• The camera uses two CR2 batteries providing 6V of power and they last at least 20 rolls
• The lenses are great and obviously optimized for panoramic shooting
• The lenses have great corner sharpness and almost no vignetting on the 45mm, no vignetting on the 90mm and just some vignetting on the 30mm
• There is almost no distortion across the frame on any of the lenses and it only happens when the photographer doesn’t position the camera correctly
• All 3 lenses have beautiful color rendition
• Amazing for landscapes
• You need a lot of light when shooting with this camera because of the limited aperture of f/4
• The lenses are f/4 because they are medium format lenses so you will need faster film or a tripod
• Panoramic can give a very cinematic look
• It can be tricky to get a straight correct composition, which can lead to heavy distortions
• The frame is huge and it can be hard to get a nice composition
• You shoot completely differently with this camera and see the world very differently
• The film winds into the canister instead of out
• It’s frustrating to not have the shutter speed in the OVF
• The only downside is its price at this time is very high
• It is an electronic camera so it could just die on you and become a brick

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