Happily bringing this project back to life again with a new Hasselblad Xpan, this post sees me try out Kodak Tri-X & Ilford HP5+ shot at ISO 1600. Come join me for some night time views of busy London.
I started this 'Wide Angle Living’ project about 18 months ago when I still lived in Germany, all shot exclusively on a Hasselblad Xpan camera. Unfortunately the camera I owned died on me and that was the end of that, luckily I was able to split up the parts and sell them individually to recoup some of my money. That can be a risk with old analogue cameras, especially ones that have any kind of electronics in them. Most of my other cameras are fully manual and in theory should last for a very long time (subject to the odd professional clean and adjustment every few years).
Thankfully I managed to source another one and hopefully I have better luck with the longevity of this Xpan. It is a delight to own this wonderful camera again and see the world through panoramic eyes, so welcome back to my “Wide Angle Living”!
Tell me more about the Hasselblad Xpan
The Xpan camera is a one of a kind panoramic 35mm camera, born out of a joint venture between Hasselblad and Fuji in the late 1990’s, made exclusively in Japan. The body carries the Hasselblad insignia and it uses special Fuji lenses, 3 of which exist (the standard 45mm, a longer 90mm and a super wide (and super expensive) 30mm lens).
The uniqueness of the Xpan is that it takes panoramic images by exposing two 35mm frames at once, covering a mouth watering 24x65mm range, which puts it well into medium format film range. You can also switch between panoramic (two frames exposed) and standard 35mm (one frame exposed) without changing the film. When shot in panoramic mode the camera takes 21 exposures on a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film.
Unfortunately for the Xpan (and the rest of us), its demise came with increased digital camera competition and to make matters worse, new EU regulations that required a change in the components used in its construction.
About the shots
I came up with the idea of putting Kodak and Ilford black & white films to the test, deciding to push them to ISO 1600 given the low light during night time shots. In hindsight a better option would have been to purchase Kodak T-Max 3200 and Ilford Delta 3200 for higher ISO and more personality in the shots. I may do that experiment in a future post.
The camera comes with probably the world’s most expensive filter: the coveted centre filter, that has special properties (we will avoid hard core physics here) that avoid severe vignetting due to extreme light fall off at the edges of the panoramic frame. I have actually heard it is mainly evident on slide film, but nonetheless I usually have it on my lens permanently. However, today was an exception, as the 45mm lens has a maximum aperture of f4 and the filter cuts the available light but about 1 or 1.5 stops, shooting anything hand held in the dark would be an issue. So off it went and I went for a long walk around central London, with most of these pictures shot wide open at f4.
These are best seen on a laptop / desktop monitor due to their panoramic nature. If viewing on a smaller mobile device I suggest you turn it sideways to enjoy full panoramic vision!
Ilford HP5+ film
The first set of images were shot on Ilford’s HP5+ film, which I usually find the grainiest by far of both films, with a certain old school black & white film look to it. Although for some reason I found the results of both films very similar, which may be due to the overall lack of light (“dark” is complete black regardless of film) or the processing (or both reasons).
Luck has it I stumbled across a Diwali Indian festival in Trafalgar squar
A better wider panoramic shot showing the whole scene.
At f4 it is hard to get any detail in the shadows, but the bright lights come out well.
Probably my favourite shot of the post - I will probably get a print of this one. Shooting vertical panoramics is very hard, but sometimes it works really well!
Charing Cross station. I was missing one more person sitting down to get the full set of people horizontally across the shot.
This shot came out very dark but there was a really long queue waiting for some food in China town.
Busy kitchen in Covent garden - this would have been nice in colour too with the moody lighting.
This is where the Xpan comes into its own, there is so much going on in this scene.
I like how wide of a shot you can get on the Xpan and the movement of the people going from one side to the other of the frame. It works really well when you place objects (or people) at different ends of the shot.
More queues!
I love this shot, really great to capture so many people in one long panoramic shot!
Vertical shots can be really hard to take - I decided for this one as I thought the different levels would show more than one thing going on in the scene.
Popular street performance!
Not panoramic but a really great shot, I really like the lighting.
Kodak Tri-X
The following set of images were shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 film pushed to ISO 1600. This film is a staple black & white film for many photographers and I have always had good results with it. I find Ilford HP5+ better if you want a grainier look, so I tend to shoot both quite equally.
Oxford Street tube station.
I liked the lighting in this shot and thought the building patterns would work well in a vertical composition.
Nice bright shop lighting, pity about the rest of the scene being in complete darkness…the challenges of shooting at f4 and handheld.
Despite this shot having so much darkness in it I really like how the lighting works, it almost looks like a painting.
Another favourite shot - I love the solitary figure in the middle of the frame under a street lamp.
Captions welcome!
Panoramic view of China town - some really good photo opportunities here. Next time I will definitely shoot in colour.
Glad I caught the Chef at work but it is a pity the reflection on the street food menu threw the exposure off a bit.
Barber shops are always great to photograph when empty.
Queueing to get into a shop has always confused me.
Straight down Oxford Street - it is a pity this came out so dark.
Overall observations
Certainly shooting night-time shots at an aperture of f4 is not something I will likely repeat again. Pushing to ISO 3200 would have also made a difference, but I think instead of doing that it would have made more sense to purchase Kodak Tmax 3200 and Ilford Delta 3200 film. I had a really good experience comparing these films in Innsbruck (post here), but those images were taken with my Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 lens, which enjoys 2+ more stops of light than f4, that is a huge difference in how much more light is hitting the film.
I enjoyed the short walkaround London, although from this post perspective I was a bit disappointed there didnt seem to be more to compare between the two film stocks, given they are very different under normal shooting situations. I suppose pushing both of them to ISO1600 and the large amounts of negative dark space in my shots meant they were come up with quite similar results.
That being said it is a delight to have one of my favourite cameras back and I will be keeping this “Wide Angle Living” project alive for hopefully a long time! I finally got through scanning all my film shot over July & August so will be posting these before the end of this year and already thinking about a new project for 2020 - all ideas welcome!!
See you next time,
Neil
