The Hasselblad XPan camera has always been something that’s coveted by many a photographer. It took 35mm film and made it panoramic. But it also did so in a pretty compact format — which means that you didn’t need to think about doing pushups to life a Texas Leica. Considering how lightweight those were, that’s saying something. Of course, we’re kidding because we know that photographers are afraid of doing pushups, but it is worth the cost? Well, a Hasselblad XPan appeared on Ebay. And the cost? $42,000.
Many of us might know that the Hasselblad XPan is actually a rebranded Fujifilm TX-1 camera. But there’s something about the Xpan that really appeals to so many folks out there. We listed it as one of the best vintage Hasselblad cameras. It was so successful that even as late as 2003, they introduced the successor in the form of the X Pan II. It boasted improved features that included shutter speed and exposure data viewing on the LCD display of the viewfinder, bulb exposure capabilities at 540 sec, 2 or 10-second options for self-timer display, and options to set the flash sync at the start or end of the exposure.
“If you want to get the Hasselblad experience on 35mm film, you can grab either this XPan with a 45mm f4 lens for $3,800, or this XPan II with a 45mm lens from Hong Kong for $5,280,” is what we wrote about the camera back in 2020. But since then, the world has gone pretty crazy. Tarrifs make getting products more expensive, people fell in love with film really deeply, and the camera became actually vintage because it’s over 20 years old now.
To clarify here, that’s more expensive than the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 and a camera body. Granted, digital probably won’t last as long. But at the same time, you’d probably need mechanical parts to fix the Hasselblad Xpan — and unless those get 3D printed, you’re kind of out of luck.
But most of these cameras on eBay don’t cost nearly as much as this one. User joshsoskin is selling his camera for $42,000. High? Yes, we think so. And considering that there isn’t any information about why it costs so much, we think that you’d have a better time getting the came somewhere else.
Arguably, you could do this digitally these days with certain cameras. Fujifilm, Hasselblad, and Panasonic LUMIX all make cameras with the XPan crop format.
Genuinely speaking, this is one of those situations where someone might have more money than sense (pun intended) to buy the camera. Even so, you’d have to probably do some maintenance work on it. on Blue Moon Camera’s website, the lens alone could go for $1,650. And for another $1,200 you could get the 90mm in Fujifilm.
You’re probably then wondering why this is worth reporting on: because photographers these days are lacking the skills needed to do research and critical thinking. Here are a few tips to consider when buying a vintage camera:
- Look up the price and get up to 5 quotes.
- Compare and contrast the quotes
- Look at the seller’s reputation deeply
- Look at the quality of the product
- Ensure that what you’re seeing online are images of the actual product itself
Consider these, and you probably won’t get scammed in the future.