When you start going down the rabbit hole of analog photography you can develop what is known as G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), where you want to buy ALL the cameras of ALL the different types out there because they’re just so cheap! At least they used to be. Nowadays analog cameras are going up in price at a somewhat alarming rate (for those who want to buy new stuff all the time). Personally I am quite happy with the cameras I have at the moment so I don’t feel the need to hunt for any new gear…except perhaps a lens or two for my medium format camera. But that is for a later date.

There is however one camera that has intrigued me ever since I heard about it a few years ago. A completely unique camera that shoots images in a way that I don’t think exists in any other 135 format camera - the Hasselblad X Pan. A regular 135 format camera shoots a negative that is 24 x 36 mm (a.k.a. full frame), while the X Pan shoots a 24 x 65 mm negative. That’s why I named this post what I did, because the images really are VERY wide. You can squeeze in 20-21 images on a standard 36 image roll, and that is one of the reasons why I’ve seen SO many YouTube videos and read so many articles about this unique camera, the wide images it produces.

*People can end up in your wide pictures too…like my constant photo partner (a.k.a. Dad).*

Unfortunately I’d have to donate a kidney or something to afford to buy one at this time, since they’ve skyrocketed in price in the last few years. A quick check on eBay tells me that the cheapest one I can find at this moment is 3,000 dollars and that is definitely NOT money I am willing to spend on a camera. However…when an ultra generous fellow member of my photo club offers to lend me his camera for a month, I am not the kind of person to turn down that offer, quite the contrary!

I’ve now shot four rolls through it and developed three of them and I must say that it is an intriguing camera to shoot with. I’d never shot with a rangefinder before and that took some getting used to (I don’t know how many times I put the camera up to my eye only to have to move it over so I could look through the eyepiece rather than stare into the back of the camera, where an SLR would have its eyepiece). Hopefully by the time I have to return the thing I am fully comfortable with shooting a rangefinder style camera…in case I decide to invest in one of those at some point in the future.

*The Bridge to Denmark…which we can’t cross right now. :-(*

The images in this post are taken in two locations - the beach at Falsterbo on the Baltic Sea coast of Skåne, Sweden and in the Västra Hamnen (Western Harbor) area of Malmö, Sweden. It’s both locations I’ve visited and photographed several times before, but with this camera you see a location in a very different way than with a standard camera.

I had hoped to spend a lot of time during the end of March and first three weeks of April shooting this camera and developing the rolls I put through it, but now it looks like that will have to be done at a much slower pace, so that I may not finish my 10 rolls that I picked up dirt cheap from another photo club member. That is okay with me though, because I don’t want to run the risk of catching and spreading the virus in any way, given that I’ve got close family members who are in the risk categories. So caution is the key there. I am okay with NOT taking photos all the time and staying home more so that the risk is minimized for them and for others out there.