A week with my Hasselblad 500C

lxmike

lxmike

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Well just over a week with my 500C and l m taken aback by the build quality, its stunning. Anyway, the weather has been so typically British for April, wet damp and grey, so l have spent a week indoors cleaning and getting used to focusing the beast, as l call it, anyway, l feel now comfortable with focusing this beauty, incidentally it does not seem to snap into focus like some of my old rangefinders but focus it does, (even when wearing my varifocals. It came with a WLF but l have added, after wise sage from fellow forum members, a 45 degree prism with working meter:). Now the meter of this prism seem accurate and matched the reading on my x pro 1 and my Sekonic L208. l am still in two minds whether to touch up the paint work of the prism or leave it as it is with its patina of use:D
 

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I agree about the Prism although I use the non-metered one. It adds weight but I find it is much better for non-studio work.
 
Good to hear you are happy with the finder and it's working well. Look around for a tripod quick coupling plate and load up on film.
 
madNbad said:
Good to hear you are happy with the finder and it's working well. Look around for a tripod quick coupling plate and load up on film.
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Hi, although heavey, the finder makes the Hasselblad easier to handle, buying a few bricks of my fav Ilford:D
 
I recommend to leave it as is.

I have a 45 degree prism like yours.

You'll enjoy making photographs wih your Hasselblad.
 
Come up with a story to tell folks how much you used it! Size of camera impresses some. You might as well get some good mileage out of it!
 
Bill Clark said:
Come up with a story to tell folks how much you used it! Size of camera impresses some. You might as well get some good mileage out of it!
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it is quite some camera, you get to shoot film and have a workout at the same time, l loke your idea Bill of telling a story of its use:)
 
mfogiel said:
Just focus on the image, and remember you only have 12 frames per film. This is going to improve your photography really fast.20130406 by marek fogiel, on Flickr
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Very nice image by the way, l grew up with film in the 1970's, back then you were over the Moon if you got an extra shot or two out of your roll of film. To be honest what will take some getting used to is shooting in the square format....seeing square as it were
 
It's cool how it all works -together-. I have a couple of the same meter prisms, they read out directly in EV's which is what you want with your C lens. Set the EV and then slide up and down to pick your exposure combo.

It's just very well thought out. Old and underrated IMO.

I left my prisms alone for a while, then after a bit, I touched them up. No worries, the paint will wear off with time.

If you can find somehow the rubber eyecup from the Kiev 60, it fits this vintage of Blad prisms like it was made for them.
Keeps my eyeglasses from getting scratched.
 
I have a prism for my Hassi too, and used it for portraits.

But for landscapes, I found the WLF to help me compose more consciously.
 
It sounds like my 503CX arrived two days before your new camera :)

I've also been stuck inside waiting for the weather to brighten up, but managed to sneak out for an hour yesterday and shot a roll of Ektar at a local air museum. I'm not used to handling the camera yet, but I do love the build quality and bright focusing screen. I also need a strap. It was damn scary hand holding it without one.

Have fun with the 'blad.
 
FujiLove said:
It sounds like my 503CX arrived two days before your new camera :)

I've also been stuck inside waiting for the weather to brighten up, but managed to sneak out for an hour yesterday and shot a roll of Ektar at a local air museum. I'm not used to handling the camera yet, but I do love the build quality and bright focusing screen. I also need a strap. It was damn scary hand holding it without one.

Have fun with the 'blad.
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many thanks, how are you finding your hasselblad
 
The image quality is as incredible as the build quality. I ended up selling mine for a Mamiya 6 system because I couldn't carry the weight of the Hasselblad and the lenses I had for it due to poor health. The Mamiya is small and light, but its plasticy body feels cheap and nasty. Fortunately, the Mamiya 6 lenses are incredibly sharp. I do miss the Hasselblad at times.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
The image quality is as incredible as the build quality. I ended up selling mine for a Mamiya 6 system because I couldn't carry the weight of the Hasselblad and the lenses I had for it due to poor health. The Mamiya is small and light, but its plasticy body feels cheap and nasty. Fortunately, the Mamiya 6 lenses are incredibly sharp. I do miss the Hasselblad at times.
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many thanks for the reply, l must admit the hasselblad is a heavy beast, glad you like your Mamiya, they have very good glass:)
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
The image quality is as incredible as the build quality. I ended up selling mine for a Mamiya 6 system because I couldn't carry the weight of the Hasselblad and the lenses I had for it due to poor health. The Mamiya is small and light, but its plasticy body feels cheap and nasty. Fortunately, the Mamiya 6 lenses are incredibly sharp. I do miss the Hasselblad at times.
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I went the opposite direction. I had a brief fling with a mamiya 7II. The image quality was excellent, but I didn't like the touchy shutter release, and had reliability problems with no fewer than three 65mm lenses. I wound up dumping it and going back to my trusty 500CM and SWC.

In my case I think it has something to do with getting older. By now I know what I do and don't shoot with. It's time to knock off the GAS and spend my time shooting, developing, printing! So if the Hasselblad kit starts to feel too heavy, I'll just leave one or two of the lenses at home.
 
If you are going to shoot film, it's hard to do better than a 'blad. The quality of the glass is amazing. Just don't forget your dark slide!

Local Pageant hired some New York photographers to shoot their pageant back in the day (I'm in Texas). They got here with a brace of 'blads, dozens of empty backs, lots of film...and no dark slides. Sure was glad I wasn't them.
 
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