I have recently acquired a Hasselblad Xpan, the dual format 35mm panoramic camera from the stables of the the famed 6x6 manufacturers. I had been wondering about the possibilities of this camera and its format for some time and, now that I've had a test drive with a couple of films through it, I can see that I will use this new tool immensely and I love it to bits already.

There is a lovely, quality feel to it from the moment one picks up the camera. The titanium body has a soft rubbery coating giving a super non-slip feel to it and this, along with the shape, make for an ergonomically well designed camera. The camera is a rangefinder type, similar to those from the Leica stable, and despite only having ever used SLR cameras, I found it simplicity itself to use. The one thing that I need to remember as a long time SLR user is to remove the lens cap before taking a picture! The viewfinder is bright and pleasing to look through and displays crop marks showing the picture area and these crop marks are cleverly moved as one changes the format or adds a telephoto lens. There is no exposure information in the view finder and this can be a little annoying. The aperture has to be set on the lens and the shutter speed is displayed on the small LCD display on the back of the camera. Its a little inconvenient to have to remove one's eye from the finder to check the shutter speed, but this is only a minor inconvenience in my opinion as I always have the camera on a tripod and in any case, I can often be fairly sure what shutter speed I will be using at a given aperture and film speed.

Film loading can be a little fiddly and I find it is far better to take the film leader past the mark etched in the film chamber. Once the film is in place, it is neatly spooled right out of the cassette so that as each exposure is made, the precious images are wound back into the film case and thus avoid exposure if one accidentally opens the camera back (but I'd never do that, honest!). Film transport is power driven and can be used in continuous mode or single shot. Film speed is set automatically using DX coding but this can be over-ridden using the ASA speed dial on the front of the camera. I found adjusting this particularly difficult as the dial is very flat and set close to the lens mount. I have difficulty moving it from the locked DX setting to any other film speed due to my big podgy fingers. Additionally, the dial will only lock at the DX setting and so it may be possible to accidentally move the ASA setting from the desired speed during normal use, though I haven't used the camera on anything other than DX, so I can't be sure.

Switching from standard 35mm to the panoramic setting is easily achieved using a switch on the back of the camera. As the format changes, the frame counter cleverly works out how many frames are left on the film in the given format. I believe this is achieved by an infra red counter which counts the sprocket holes along the bottom of the film. This fact will be a fogging hazzard to certain types of high speed infra red films I suspect. Switching between the formats can be done at any time giving mixed formats on the exposed film, though to press, I have only ever used the panoramic format and to be honest I think I only ever will - that's the main reason I bought the camera. As well as the frame counter automatically adjusting as the format is switched, the crop marks in the viewfinder do too and, as previously mentioned, these marks also adjust as one switches from the 45mm to the 90mm.

Metering in automatic mode is centre-weighted and appears to be quite accurate from what I have experienced. In addition to the auto mode, the camera is capable of bracketing in half or full stop increments with the sequence being 'correct', under and over. Autobracketing is easily achieved by means of a small button on the back of the camera and the information is displayed in the LCD panel. There is also a fiddly dial for over-riding the exposure in half stop increments to +-2 stops. The camera can also be used in manual mode with shutter speeds ranging from 8 seconds to 1/1000. There is a B setting in manual, but incredibly, this is limited to a measly 30 seconds so bang goes my idea for panoramic start trails. Presumably the shutter magnets aren't up to the job and would burn out at longer exposures. I can see this being a real problem for some and its worth being aware of before purchasing the camera.

Although I bought the camera as a kit (c.£1,800GB pounds or $2,500)and got both the standard 45mm lens and the 90mm short telephoto, I have to confess to mostly using the 45mm and also find myself hankering after the 30mm, but with a price tag of £1,800 (or over $2,500), I will be hankering for a little while longer! The Fujinon lenses seem to be very sharp from the little use I have put them through, but I suspect they are at their best stopped down from f/5.6-f/16. At both wide open or fully stopped down I have heard of problems with vignetting and diffraction. Now, here's the big rub. I only shoot with slide film and that meant I had to buy the ND centre spot filter to even out the exposure across the frame. I tried to get away without buying it but there was very definate light fall off at the edges of the frames on many of the shots. This is a law of physics and is due to the light having much further to travel to get to the edge of the frame than it does to get to the centre. This in effect means the centre of the frame is one stop brighter than the edges, so the 1 stop ND centre spot counter balances this and gives an even exposure across the frame. Beware though, this tiny 49mm filter will set you back £200 (that's a staggering $280!). For this money I could almost buy a prime wide angle lens for my Nikon!

So, apart from a few minor gripes about the camera, I find it a dream to use and the format of the slides is quite different from anything I've experienced before and look really good on the light box. I have had the image below hand-printed to 24x9 and framed in a 30x15 with double matt. It looks superb and was going to be put up for sale at a recent exhibition, but my wife liked it so much its now hanging on the wall part way up ours stairs! Visit the panoramic gallery to see more of the images taken on the Xpan. This gallery is bound to increase in size. One final thing, when I go out with only the Xpan, its so small and light I feel that I've left something behind and find myself doing a mental checklist. I could really get used to this travelling light!