A cinematic quest part 1
I grew up lovin’ the movies, and the cinema. A broad sentence most of us agrees with. To this day, some of my fondest memories of my childhood, involves movies and the feelings they projected upon me. I traveled far into my adulthood, before I finally picked up a camera, as a serious hobby. With my new “obsession”, I started to realize, that it was possible to recall some of the same feelings I had as a child, and it didn’t even have to involve moving pictures. With magic and a special ratio, I would turn a still image into all the same feelings, as the ones I received from movies. For me it felt like a secret set of cheat codes, the code was 65:24. A lethal combination that turned my, usually boring compositions, into pure childhood nostalgia. All this was combined into a single tool, a tool called XPan.
a quick introduction:
The XPan is an extremely unique rangefinder camera, that hit the market back in 1998. It combined all the advantages of the 35mm format, with the possibility of switching between regular 35mm images, and stunning panoramic stills in the format of 65:24. A camera of perfection, in my eyes. A marvelous wonder, made in a collision with two of the markets biggest giants at the time. The Swedish Hasselblad and Japanese Fujifilm. The camera was also branded under the Fuji name as TX1, and not XPan.
This rare beauty stands as my end camera.
With a big emphasis on end camera, as of now it’s just a unicorn in the sky, a mirage on the horizon. The current price, as I am writing this post, and the only listing, at my local go-to market for used cameras is 50.000DKK including a 45mm and a 90mm lens, equivalent to roughly €6700.
a comparison of a regular 35mm frame, next to the panoramic format of the XPan
So let’s say buying the XPan is plan A. If you can afford plan A, look no further. But if plan A isn't an option, let’s take a look at the other options out there. Let’s look for a plan B or C.
Let’s start with plan B.
The first and absolutely the easiest + cheapest option is simply to crop your regular 35mm, and this can be managed with two different approaches. Buy a camera that allows you to crop your standard 35mm frame into a panoramic, or use the 35mm camera you already own, and crop your frame in-post. There are pros and cons with both approaches, and it mainly comes down to what workflow works best for you. If you choose to get a camera that crops in-camera, you have the pleasent joy of seeing your crop through the viewfinder, and therefore are able to compose your shot, with the crop in mind. On the other hand by cropping in-camera, you end up “wasting” a lot of space on your negatives. If you choose to crop in-post, you have the possibility to expose the whole area of your negatives, and then see if you like a specific crop, or if it needs to change a bit.
Below are some examples of me cropping in-post + the top photo of this post (the blue wall with lights) These were all shot on my Canon A1, and cropped afterwards in Adobe Lightroom.
Chinese restaurant located in the western part of Aalborg shot on 800t
foggy gas station in Aalborg shot on 800t
football match at the local stadium, shot on tmax 3200
the Danish championship in rally sprint at Aalborg's airport shot on very expired gold 200
Cropping in-post definitely makes it easy to turn “regular” shots into small interesting masterpieces, but it also feels a little bit wrong, if wrong is even the correct term to use. It feels incomplete. For me seeing the crop through the viewfinder, while I’m composing the shot, holds enough value to have an impact on the end result. Even though this kinda restricts me in terms of which camera I can use when shooting, if I want the panoramic crop. Below are some frames shot on my Pentax Espio 115 (a camera that sadly died during my Sweden trip this summer). It allows me to crop the shot in-camera.
a view between houses, Nr. Lyngby shot on ultramax 400
morning haze in Nørresundby, shot on gold 200
on my way to see Barsebäck nuclear powerplant - Sweden, shot on 400D
a scene in Lomma - Sweden, shot on portra 160
So if plan A, the expensive solution, and plan B, the easiest solution, doesn’t suit you - you can always opt for plan C. A dive into the forgotten format of APS film.
Let’s start with a small introduction to the world of APS film:
APS or Advanced Photo System, was first introduced to the consumer marked in 1996, and then discontinued in 2011 with Fuji and Kodak being the last two manufactores. It was a common opinion, spred across different manufacturers, that the standard 35mm format - was too difficult, for the regular consumer. I wrote a small blog about the forgotten format already, and it can be read on my personal blog friskluft.eu
The APS film format is smaller than regular 35mm, and it came with the option to switch between three different ratios. The APS-H (High definition) with an aspect ratio of 16:9, APS-C (Classic) Aspect ratio 3:2 and APS-P (Panorama) 3:1. The “pano” crop was the whole reason I looked into this forgotten format, the hunt for a “cheaper” solution for panorama shots. With the film stock discontinued, and every roll still left - long expired, the cheap solution part went straight out of the window. The rolls are getting harder to come by, and unless you have one of the few camera models, that lets you change the iso manually - the shooting experience is tricky. I have only gotten decent results by overexposing the film, with at least two stops.
Here are some examples of the panoramic aspect ratio of APS-film:
an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront in Nørresundby, shot on nexia 400
abandoned shed in Nørresundby, shot on nexia 400
crooked lightpole, nexia 400
along the waterfront in Nørresundby, shot on nexia 400
My own experience with APS, has been fairly short - and the two cameras I currently own for the format, doesn't offer me the opportunity to change the iso when shooting. Along with the headache of finding decently priced APS rolls + not being able to scan the film at home, makes this format a tricky option for cheaper cinematic shots.
For now my own favourite option, is a camera that allows me to crop regular 35mm in-camera. One thing I haven’t played around with yet, is plan D. Modifying a 120mm camera, to shoot panoramic frames by masking/cropping the rest of the negatives. Or even shoot 35mm in a 120mm modified camera, so I get full 35mm panoramic negatives with sprocket holes. I am sure that this is another rabbit hole to fall into, for a future blog post.
Written by Martin Junge Kjøbeløv