Mark Capilitan
Landscape | Last Updated: February 12, 2021
I shoot all my landscape work on a Hasselblad Xpan film camera in panoramic 3:1 mode.
From the first time I heard about that camera, in the year 2000, I dreamt about using one. It took 10 years to realise that dream and actually get my hands on one!
Since getting the camera I haven’t shot any landscape work, seriously, with a digital camera.
Film is a format I always choose when out looking for potential new landscape images. After shooting weddings, digitally, nearly every weekend from March to October, it’s a nice change to slow it down and have only 21 pictures per roll of film!
And when the film is developed and scanned, I have virtually no work to do on the computer!
It’s a pretty simple system to use, with only 3 lenses available. And once you get used to hyperfocal distance focusing, it’s quick to set up and shoot.
It’s a fully manual camera, but does have a few auto features like TTL exposure and auto-bracketing. The TTL exposure comes in handy when you only have seconds to set up and shoot quickly and don’t have the time to meter.
Everything you see laid out in the kit photograph is what comes into the field with me every-time I’m out shooting. Once I have all these items I’m sorted.
In terms of what lenses I use most, the 30mm would be my favourite lens, followed by the 45mm & 90mm lenses. But each situation is different.
The lenses are quite slow compared to modern Canon/Nikon lenses, so a tripod is a must, especially since my exposures range from 1/30 second to 8 minutes!
Fuji Velvia 35mm is my film of choice. It’s a film I started shooting with back in 2000, and I continue with it today. It’s renowned for its exquisite fine grain and fabulous colour saturation.
I use a small Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home Shoulder Bag to hold all the gear.
It’s a pretty small bag but lets me work without having to put gear on the ground, if necessary, and makes working very quick when time is an issue, when the light is changing fast, as it tends to do at sunrise and sunset times of the day.
This bag and kit also fit nicely into a backpack for international travel and easily fits into overhead bins or under the seat in front.
In this bag fits:
Hasselblad Xpan & Xpan2.
Hasselblad 30mm f/3.5, 45mm f/3.5, 90mm f/3.2.
Hasselblad cable release.
Minolta Autometer IV lighmeter.
Lee RF filter system with 0.9, 0.6, 0.3 ND Hard Grads and 0.6 ND Soft Grad and 81C warm-up.
Fuji Velvia50 35mm film.
Spirit level.
Manfrotto 055 tripod with 488RC0 Ball Head, which I end up having to carry!
www.markcapilitan.com | @markcap_photo
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