{"id":810,"date":"2025-01-20T01:24:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T01:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/?p=810"},"modified":"2025-01-20T01:24:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T01:24:32","slug":"i-hated-this-oneplus-camera-mode-but-now-i-see-how-wrong-i-was-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/2025\/01\/20\/i-hated-this-oneplus-camera-mode-but-now-i-see-how-wrong-i-was-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"I hated this OnePlus camera mode, but now I see how wrong I was about it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Hasselblad<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image credit: JJ Davies\/ Hasselblad Xpan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t understand theXPan mode on a OnePlus phonewhen I first tried it out. In fact, I didn\u2019t like it at all, and passed it off as a silly gimmick to promote OnePlus\u2019s partnership with Hasselblad, which at the timewasn\u2019t quite living up to expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I\u2019ve been using theOnePlus 13, and think it has one of the best cameras on any OnePlus phone yet, so I challenged myself to give XPan another try. I soon discovered I had been completely wrong about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a history lesson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hasselblad and Fujifilm\u2019s XPan camera was first introduced in 1998, when it was the first dual-format 35mm camera you could buy, enabling you to take full 65:24 aspect ratio panoramic photos, in addition to standard format photos. Hasselblad promoted the XPan camera using the tagline, \u201cFor a world less square,\u201d and you can read more about its history and impact on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OnePlus entered into a partnership with Hasselblad in 2022 and the OnePlus 9 was the first phone to showcase the pair\u2019s efforts. The XPan mode arrived on it in a software update soon after release, and it is hidden under the More menu in the camera app to this day, if you want to find it for yourself.  After that, you can drag it down to the main camera option bar if you\u2019re really keen. I wasn\u2019t<\/em> keen, but I gave it a shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>>>BLPA97 Battery for OnePlus Nord 4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

XPan has changed a little for the OnePlus 13. You can shoot ultra-wide 15mm equivalent photos, 23mm wide photos, or 73mm zoomed in photos. It seems to shift away from the \u201cpure\u201d XPan experience, but in doing so it has made the mode more accessible. The interface is unique too, with a custom overlay to give it that unique XPan camera look, plus the screen flashes into a negative when you tap the shutter button, just like if you were taking a \u201creal\u201d photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>>>XE202 Battery for Auuc Oneplus IEC 62133-2 BA-E202-03<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Am I sure it\u2019s not a gimmick?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t take panoramic photos very often, and for a start I couldn\u2019t get my head around using the XPan mode. I\u2019mnot the only one, and the more I read,watched, and learnedabout the actual XPan camera, the more I not only discovered how challenging it is to get to grips with the format, but also how rewarding it can be when you experiment with it, and how dramatic photos taken with it can look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was getting sucked in.I love this quotefrom photographer Matthias Jambon-Puillet in a piece about XPan cameras, \u201cCursed to desire one, cursed to break the bank buying one, cursed to realize that you have no real-life use for it.\u201d It\u2019s very true. XPan\u2019s potential is exciting, but there\u2019s no truly obvious use case for XPan mode on the OnePlus 13, as most people will just use the wide-angle camera in the app instead of it. But XPan was calling me, and as I didn\u2019t have to fork out for a real XPan camera to test it, I went out to take photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A photo taken using the XPan mode on the OnePlus 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image credit: JJ Davies\/ Hasselblad Xpan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took some, then some more, andmore again<\/em>as I began to fall for the vision of the world it can create. Get it right, and photos can be gloriously cinematic, serene or moody, or dramatic and exciting. I began to learn how XPan photos require different framing techniques, andlooking at your environment in a new wayto find out if an XPan photo works. It doesn\u2019t work in all situations, just like a 1:1 aspect ratio photo isn\u2019t always right, but when you even partially get it right the result looks very cool indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should I just use XPan, then?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Hasselblad<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image credit: JJ Davies\/ Hasselblad Xpan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should this stop you trying XPan out? Absolutely not. Shoot photos for your own enjoyment as well as for posting on social media. Not everyone will \u201cget\u201d XPan anyway. I\u2019m the first to admit I didn\u2019t get it at all, but I\u2019m very pleased to also say I\u2019ve seen the error of my ways. It\u2019s another reason to get the OnePlus 13, a phone that continues to impress me more than two months into using it every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image credit: JJ Davies\/ Hasselblad Xpan I didn\u2019t understand theXPan mode on a OnePlus phonewhen I first tried it out. In fact, I didn\u2019t like it at all, and passed it off as a silly gimmick to promote OnePlus\u2019s partnership with Hasselblad, which at the timewasn\u2019t quite living up to expectations. Recently I\u2019ve been using … Continue reading I hated this OnePlus camera mode, but now I see how wrong I was about it<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oneplus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}