A Hasselblad, more than 40 years after first looking.

XX 500ELM 80mm A12 Meter Prism by Nokton48, on Flickr

Oh No! I've done it now !! The EL/M is loaded with 120 XX, with 80mm F2.8 black T* Zeiss Planar. Adding a Bay 50 Hasselblad Medium Yellow Filter, 80mm Black Shade, and the original Meter Prism (reads out directly in EV's). Microprism Screen.Ready to roll. Next a roll will go into my Black Plaubel Makina II with the 100mm F2.9 Orthometar, Medium Yellow Plaubel Filter. EI 200 is fast enough to shoot medium format XX in interesting light.
 
Nokton48 said:
XX 500ELM 80mm A12 Meter Prism by Nokton48, on Flickr

Oh No! I've done it now !! The EL/M is loaded with 120 XX, with 80mm F2.8 black T* Zeiss Planar. Adding a Bay 50 Hasselblad Medium Yellow Filter, 80mm Black Shade, and the original Meter Prism (reads out directly in EV's). Microprism Screen.Ready to roll. Next a roll will go into my Black Plaubel Makina II with the 100mm F2.9 Orthometar, Medium Yellow Plaubel Filter. EI 200 is fast enough to shoot medium format XX in interesting light.
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It's about time! You should be ashamed, letting that poor camera sit on the shelf, gathering dust! 😉
 
Actually it's one of my favorite studio cameras, love to hear that EL/M winding. It's been hungry for Eastman 5222, should be delicious in medium format 😍😱😎
 
Richard G said:
Love your Sudek kitchen sketches Vince. You’ve kept this thread alive, drawn more users in, including X-Ray’s photos now and various bits of wisdom on the continued viability of a 500C/M in amateur hands (Retro-Grouch), or even older Hassies -you! I finally finished a roll to be developed this week. Took the camera for a walk mounted on the monopod, carried in the hand, and over the shoulder. Took one shot. But it’s a different walk with that camera. So far my only repair in five years is the Distagon 60 3.5 with three other lenses requiring only the replacement of a front lens cap.
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Hey Richard I wanted to ask — you mention in your post above that “it’s a different walk with that camera.” Can you elaborate a bit on that? I’m always interested to know people’s thoughts/philosophies about things like that, so if you’d be willing to expand a bit on it I’d be appreciative. Thanks!
 
A few shots from the Sheep and Wool festival that was held just west of Baltimore a month or so ago. With the 1000f, 80/2.8 Tessar and HP5.

Nothing exciting -- really just keeping the wheels turning if nothing else. One thing I think this does show me, however, is that the Hasselblad can be a versatile one-lens camera.


Sheep and Wool2023-3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Sheep and Wool2023-2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Sheep and Wool2023-1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
The freedom to shoot for ‘free’ is possibly producing a unique Hasselblad/MF body of work with your digital back. I’d have to push hard against the tide to spend one of my 12 frames on the roast vegetables, a sad missing out on a delicious x 2 shot.
 
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The different walk. A lot of my shooting is around home and around where I work. My Leicas are a bit like what HCB said of his Barnack, a sketch book. A client gave me a Pentax with a 55mm Takumar. I hadn’t shot a lot with SLRs but I took over my Dad’s OM kit and loved the OM2n. That 55mm Pentax SLR view was stunning, an even more telephoto element of the so-called standard focal length. I went for a walk one street over from my office and took two shots I would not have ‘seen’ without that camera shifting my view of this very familiar street.

The Hasselblad is the same, but more so. Even the square format of what’s in my hand sets up different thinking as I look around. That gnarled tree on one of the early pages here had an antecedent in Michael Kenna’s work in Japan, me with enough hubris to think I might put a Hasselblad to good use. I’d been walking past that tree twice a day and more for two weeks at least, each year for over ten years, and I never noticed that tree till I had the Hasselblad on a tripod over my shoulder. There’s also the short roll of twelve frames and the cost of film that cannot be ignored and which makes you think harder about the shot. Then there’s the colour of the Zeiss lenses which I love. And then the wonderful range of mid tones with medium format. All these things get programmed in and affect what I look for and more more to the point, what I see.

i don’t know if others have this but so often when out with a camera I completely fail to get a backup, or often, the superior shot, with the iPhone in my pocket. My brain has totally switched off the iPhone channel.

There’s a temporal element too. I’m going to take time with the Hasselblad, and so often use a tripod or monopod. It shows. I have a small collection of LTM Leica and M9-P shots which are out with my wife - “don’t bring a camera.” I did. But she won’t wait if I want a shot. That time pressure has been the making of those shots.



The Doug Stirling Track, Lorne, Victoria by Richard, on Flickr
 
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Great description Richard, thank you. You're right, the square format does cause one to look at things differently, or to even notice things you hadn't even considered. It's great that your camera has opened up a whole new world for you, as well as revealing your familiar world in new ways to you.

And I do understand you wife not waiting while you take a photo -- my wife does the same thing, and oftentimes by the time I'm done taking the photo and look up, she's a fair ways from me. Ah well, she's grown used to it after all these years.

In reference to your previous post, yes you're right that there is a difference when I use the digital back, not the least of which is that I'm now dealing with a rectangular frame. Many times if I’m around the house and something catches my eye, I'll want to know what it looks like photographed. So I'll grab the 1000f with the digital back, snap a shot and immediately take it into the computer. If I think it's worthwhile I'll work on it some and then save it. I do admit to liking that immediacy, but I'm as comfortable switching that digital back out for one with a roll of Delta 100 in it.

Funny but when my wife and I were out wandering near our Canadian property a few weeks ago, we passed another couple and the husband remarked on my 1000f. I showed him the digital back and he said "ah, you're cheating!" I'm pretty sure that I'm not 'cheating' (but if I were, who/what am I cheating?) -- after all, isn't this what Victor Hasselblad's philosophy was all about? The interchangeability of the components, the fact that parts from the 1950's will work with parts from the 21st century, that it can be different cameras for different situations. So I hope that's not 'cheating' -- although who knows!


Wherever I Hang My Hat by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
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My favourite kind of day happened today - rain! I had time to wander around the backyard this morning and grab a few shots. I'm fully aware that there is a 'sameness' to the ones of the fennel but honestly I don't care -- I just like being in the backyard on days like today, as it becomes a new kind of wonderland for me.

WIth the 1000f, 80/2.8 Opton-Tessar wide open and the CFV II 50C digital back.


Friday Morning Rain10 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Friday Morning Rain9 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Friday Morning Rain8 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
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