“The Xpan was a wonderful moment of madness from a large manufacturer, sadly, it’s hard to see any of them taking that kind of risk again,” is what photographer Walter Rothwell said to the Phoblographer in an interview back in 2016. In that interview, which you can read here, he elaborated on why he chose it to do street photography. Most photographers would choose it to do landscapes, and those such as Josef Koudelka have used it for documentary-style work. Hasselblad’s cameras have the ability to shoot in X-pan mode — but those cameras are often out of the reach of affordability for most. That’s fine though, as I’ve been having a lot of fun with one that’s under $2,000. Here’s how I’m getting the digital X pan look.
That camera is the Panasonic S5 II. Make no mistake, Panasonic LUMIX has surely done its share of sponsored articles on this site. But this one isn’t sponsored at all. Instead, it’s a further enrichment of my own creative fulfillment. For a while, I’ve done lots of in-camera paintings — but I’ve felt that I’ve needed to go even further. These days, most people look at images on their phone and belive that this is the only place where photography takes place. But after a while, they put their phone down and start looking at books again. Then they go to museums and galleries where they can stare at an image, internalize it, ponder, etc. But most importantly, they’re not being bombarded by a million notifications.
The 65:24 format that the S5 II has inside mimics to look of X Pan without the little film notches on the top and bottom. This panoramic format is so much different from what’s valued online. Everyone wants vertical photos, vertical video, or square format. But if you’re catering to the social media platforms and what does well for their algorithms, then how is what you’re making different from what might be needed for it to be done well in a gallery? Sure, Instagram and TikTok are transparent about what does well. You’re not really creating images from the heart then, you’re just making them to please an attention economy.
So why not just make images for yourself?
With this digital X Pan format, I’m combining the S5 II’s L Monochrome D setting with extra sharpness, enhanced grain, a low ISO setting, and a choice of lens filters. Then I’m simply just making the images in-camera. If you’re a cinema shooter, think of the digital x pan format as Panavision or 70mm but for photography.
Sometimes I shoot square and then crop in post-production, which is perfectly valid, too. However, it doesn’t get you thinking specifically in a panoramic format. For that, you have to be extra careful and pay close attention to the details near the center of the image.
This process is one that I find easier to do than with square crops — which I feel can really only take the center of the frame and nothing else. Sure, a square crop gives you a ton of freedom when composing an image. But the panoramic format is far different. You start to think more critically about just the center of the image and you flex creative muscles that you haven’t had before. In turn, you start to remove previous limitations and start to mold your creativity to shoot differently.
Truly, it’s something that you have to do to experience it. It’s going to be tough at first. But then you’ll find a way to make it suit your own creativity and you’ll quickly fall in love with it.