End of the V - Hasselblad 503CW discontinued

As much as I probably knew this day would come, I am disappointed that it finally has, the distinguished Hasselblad V series camera is now no longer being made.  I have owned 3 V series in my time, two 500C's and a 500C/M.  They are all the same camera, though the later 500C/M had an interchangable mirror, and confusingly, so did later 500C's of which one of mine could do.  Two of them had the 80mm f2.8 standard lens, one had a 150mm f4 portrait lens, and I also had a 50mm f4 wide angle, which was the later CF FLE model.

The 500C is a completely manual camera, that requires you to think.  It is almost completely useless as a street camera, as it is too bulky and not 'quick on its feet' like a Leica M is.  However, when you get it right, the results are incredible.  Those huge negatives are just magic and capture so much detail from those great Carl Zeiss lenses.  V series, I'll miss you.

Sony NEX 5n with Sigma 19mm f2.8

Hasselblad - H in focus

Over the years I have had 3 Hasselblads, the one pictured below being the first one.  All have been 500C/Ms with the interchangeable screen.   When you get a shot right on a ‘Blad, the results are nothing short of stunning.  The Carl Zeiss lenses are excellent and the 6x6 negatives are huge, allowing for amazingly detailed large prints.

I took this shot with the Nikon D2X and a reversed Nikon 24mm f2 Ai-S lens.  The narrow depth of field gives the shot a very artistic feel, yet the ‘H’ is completely sharp (or at least the second half of it is!).

Medium Format Macro

When I had my first Hasselblad I decided to invest in 5(!) extension tubes to do close up macro work.  It was a whole lot cheaper than a Carl Zeiss 120mm Makro Planar, and I thought with a bit of skill and cunning I could make it work.  I used the 5 extension tubes plus two Carl Zeiss Proxar close up filters on the 80mm f2.8 Carl Zeiss Planar lens, then hooked up a sync cord to the Nikon SB-29s ring flash and used a flash meter to get the correct exposure.  I did some test shots with a Polaroid back (which we end up using with our glass drink coasters) and then I shot some frames on some Kodak slide film.  Here’s one of those shots.

Ancient Film

About 4 or 5 years ago I found a photo store in Newmarket selling off some bits and pieces for Hasselblad.  I ended up purchasing an older Carl Zeiss 150mm f4 portrait lens and an extra film back.  We then got talking and the owner decided to throw some film at me.  “Here’s some 120 Kodak T-MAX.  Its over 20 years old, but it’s been in the freezer the whole time.  It should be fine.”  That raised some questions about what else was in the freezer, but I left that alone and considered myself fortunate that someone had just thrown 25 rolls of film at me.

One of the films was used on a walk around in the Spadina and King area in downtown Toronto.  The shots worked out well and the film turned out superbly.  These shots were enlarged and now hang in the stairway of our house.

Better Being Negative

Quite a while back I took this photo using my Hasselblad on 120 Kodak Portra colour negative film using some fill flash.  As a photo it’s pretty crappy.  No, really crappy.

One day my sister, who moonlights as an artist, was looking at some of my images on the computer and she saw the negative below.  “That would make an AWESOME print!!” she exclaimed.  And ya know, she was absolutely right.  I sent her a detailed scan of the negative, though I have no idea what she ended up doing with it.

The Hasselblad is a great camera, with super sharp lenses on a huge 6x6 negative.  I’ve owned three, and all have been excellent.  The first one I bought to try out and I then proceeded to build up a kit.  The second and third were kinda by accident. I ended up buying another body as I couldn’t sell the second lens and back I had bought.  The third one was a spur of the moment deal as it was a great price.

Unfortunately I didn’t really use them a ton.  Though the images are out of this world when you get it right, they can be unforgiving.  Once I didn’t load a film quite right and it tore when I was shooting a wedding.  Another time I loaded the film backwards (easy to do) and got nothing.  They’re also not small cameras and more awkward to carry around for casual shooting.  So I ended up selling them and moving towards Leica.