Shooting the Hasselblad X-Pan with the phenomenal 30mm f/5.6 in Istanbul

Mar 4

Last time I was in Istanbul I was meeting up with my friend Oscar who I initially met in Istanbul a year before that. It was a funny coincident because it is very rare to meet someone shooting a Hasselblad X-Pan out on the streets. So, when he told me that he would go back to Istanbul I asked him to bring his newly acquired 30mm f/5.6 lens.

It’s a lens I wanted to try out for a while and finally I had to chance to. He gave me the lens for a few hours and after shooting a few rolls I fell in love.

To me, it’s the perfect lens for street photography on the X-Pan. Just to give you an idea… In terms of height the frame is similar to a regular 28mm lens but it horizontally it is much wider and more like a 18mm. Because of that you have to use an external viewfinder that comes with the lens.

I had a blad shooting the lens and I’d love to get one for myself but unfortunately it is very expensive and not that easy to come by.

If you are curious about the settings I was using - as far as remember I was shooting between f/8 and f/11 and let the camera pick the shutter speed.

Developing and scans by the awesome folks over at https://carmencitafilmlab.com