Fun with the Hasselblad 907x

Many thanks - I'm going to be in New Mexico (hopefully!) for the month of January for an artist-in-residence program, so I hope to have many more opportunities for environmental portraits there (I'll be using the 907x alongside my Nikon Z7).

I'll be interested to find out how you like using the manual-focus R lens vs the native XCD lenses. I had that brief time using my 50 Summilux, but in the end I sold the lens and returned the adapter. I personally didn't see any advantage as these XCD lenses are so good, but here again that's just for my personal workflow. I do definitely appreciate the attraction of using different lenses, as I'm finding out with my vintage V lenses.

Congrats on the AIR program! I hope there are no obstacles in the way of that.

To be sure, I prefer using the 907x with XCD lenses. However, I have the adapters so that I can make use of other lenses ... Not so much because I think they're better or interesting, but because I have them and I can see from using them what might suit me better were I to buy another XCD lens.

I did some testing with the Summicron-R 90 this morning...
---
I taped a color chart and a tri-tone chart to the wall, set the camera up on a tripod at 6.75 feet away, and did two sets of test exposures at all f/stop settings ... One with the lens hood collapsed and the other with the lens hood extended. I used a Fotodiox Pro Leica R to Hasselblad X mount adapter and manual exposure (metered with my old faithful Sekonic L358).

For processing, each frame was slightly different on color balance, so I used the white balance eye dropper to normalize them, picking the white tone in the tritone chart. Exposure was slightly under what I'd prefer, so I set all exposures up by +0.9EV. Also, because I used lighting through the window at the left of the target, I applied the same gradient filter to all exposures to even out their density from left to right.

First three of just snaps of the camera with the lens and adapter mounted, taken with the iPhone 11 Pro on a tripod:

50587877301_6b8d58a42f_b.jpg

907x_Summicron90-1

50587998952_bed72b6391_b.jpg

907x_Summicron90-2

50587998947_da7e1ff817_b.jpg

907x_Summicron90-3​

Evaluation of the frames showed no differences between the set with the hood collapsed and with the hood extended, so the following is a frame comparison across the set:

50587131383_7bce2e7a7b_o.jpg

907x_Summicron90-4​

There's some corner/edge falloff at f/2 to f/4, then from f/5.6 to f/16 illumination is very even across the entire frame, and virtually indistinguishable at all four of those lens openings.

I include a full frame capture of the f/5.6 frame as being indicative of what one might expect using this lens on 33x44 format.

50587131378_b83130dacf_o.jpg

907x_Summicron90-5​

Summary: This is a nice adapted lens on the 907x. It performs well—even the falloff at f/2-f/4 is pleasing for some kinds of photographs. The resolution becomes sharpest at f/5.6 and beyond, and the bokeh at larger apertures along with the falloff can produce beautiful results. The slight softness wide open makes it a terrific lens for portraiture...

Hope that proves fun for you!

Enjoy,
G
 
Hey! Lovell fan here :)

It’s the second-to-last frame he made before his accident, and he only made one like this (he told me this himself back in December 1984 shortly after I bought it). Tange Aero tubing, mostly Dura Ace. I also have a Cyclops that Mike Mulholland made for me back in 1985.
 
Love the image Vince. I was not familiar with Lovell and found this in looking him up!

http://www.handbuiltbicyclenews.com/c44-the-ride/324-vince-lupos-1983-lovell-time-trial-bike

That would be the one :)

In addition to that nice video clip that’s linked in that Handbuilt Cycle News page, there’s another partial clip of a story that the CBC did on Jocelyn back in the 1980’s. This is about the time I met him and his then wife Sylvia at their shop in west-end Toronto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUzC2awUpSk

Here's another, newer clip I found: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/680876099751
 
It’s the second-to-last frame he made before his accident, and he only made one like this (he told me this himself back in December 1984 shortly after I bought it). Tange Aero tubing, mostly Dura Ace. I also have a Cyclops that Mike Mulholland made for me back in 1985.


Awesome. Up until recently I was making my own frames, and inevitably I befriended the Barry family and learned a lot about cycling history - including Lovell of course.
 
Awesome. Up until recently I was making my own frames, and inevitably I befriended the Barry family and learned a lot about cycling history - including Lovell of course.

Yeah a lot of knowledge was lost when both Jocelyn Lovell and Mike Mulholland died. Mike pretty much bought Jocelyn's frame-building business and helped launch Cyclops bicycles in late 1983. That was a good era for Toronto bike-building.

BTW not sure if you know The Bike Place on Dundas St. W (been in business for 35 years), but Louis Zammit is my brother-in-law. The best mechanic in Toronto, bar none.

Sorry for the thread diversion!
 
I fitted my Voigtländer Color Skopar 28mm to the Hasselblad 907x with a Fotodiox Pro M to X adapter and snapped a few frames as an experiment. As expected, this lens design isn't particularly compatible with the 907x sensor, showing a good bit of color shifting across the frame as well as significant fall-off towards the edges and corners of the frame. However, that doesn't mean it can't be used for B&W rendering.


Bicycle Wheels - Santa Clara 2020
Hasselblad 907x + Voigtländer Color Skopar 28mm f/3.5

Here's a photo of the the camera outfitted with this lens, the control grip, and a 21/25mm OVF (seems to match this lens' FoV on the 907x sensor well enough).

50594111598_946a9c5881_b.jpg

I doubt I'll use this combination very much, but it does illustrate for me how useful an XCD 30mm might prove to be should I decide I needed a lens between the 45P and the 21.

enjoy! G
 
Hi all,
I am enjoying this thread very much and wonder if anyone has tried the Leica 21-35 R lens lens on the 907x?
It fares well above the focal of 26mm on the Fujifilm GFX cameras and could be a nice contender on the X system.
Best, JM.
 
Hi all,
I am enjoying this thread very much and wonder if anyone has tried the Leica 21-35 R lens lens on the 907x?
It fares well above the focal of 26mm on the Fujifilm GFX cameras and could be a nice contender on the X system.
Best, JM.

I have not personally tried any R lenses, in particular the 21-35. I'm pretty sure it would vignette quite a bit, but Godfrey may be able to weigh in on this with a more seasoned voice than I.
 
Hi all,
I am enjoying this thread very much and wonder if anyone has tried the Leica 21-35 R lens lens on the 907x?
It fares well above the focal of 26mm on the Fujifilm GFX cameras and could be a nice contender on the X system.
Best, JM.

I have not personally tried any R lenses, in particular the 21-35. I'm pretty sure it would vignette quite a bit, but Godfrey may be able to weigh in on this with a more seasoned voice than I.

Hallo JM,

I've been slowly playing with my R-mount lenses on the 907x but I don't have any R-mount zooms. I've done some testing with 15mm, 19mm, 28mm, 60mm macro, 90mm, 100mm macro, and 180mm thus far. (I have 21 and 45P lenses in native mount at present.)

The Super-Elmar-R 15mm and Elmarit-R 19mm image well but both show a bit of hard vignetting; cropping to within the vignette produces a field of view not very different from the XCD 21mm, and cropping square produces a FoV significantly different from the 21mm cropped square, so neither of them are really worth using over the 21mm. The Elmarit-R 28mm images well overall, with just a little bit of vignetting ... I suspect this is likely similar to the zoom below 26mm. If the zoom performs well fun frame on the Fuji, then, I expect it would do the same on the 907x, in the same focal length range since the sensor is the same size.

(Note that when I say "vignette" I mean they "cast a hard shadow" .. as different from "corner fall off", like with the Summicron-R 90 and Color-Skopar 28 lenses which show substantial corner fall off vs casting a shadow. With a shadow, you can't do much to correct it other than crop; with heavy fall off, you can correct it to a great degree by using the anti-vignetting tools or manually lightening the darkened corners with your rendering tools.)

A zoom with the focal length range 26-35mm is of limited but useful capability, but I suspect that if I needed something in that approximate range on a regular basis I'd just bite the bullet and buy the XCD 30mm lens since the Vario-Elmarit-R 21-35mm lenses tend to cost over $2000 anyway (recent sold item search on Ebay) and the XCD 30mm can be found used for prices in the $2500 to $3500 range (again, recent sold item search on Ebay). There's just much more advantage to the native lens'e quality and functionality ... Using an adapted lens in that price category is only sensible if you happen to already have it and it works well. :)

G
 
Hallo JM,

I've been slowly playing with my R-mount lenses on the 907x but I don't have any R-mount zooms. I've done some testing with 15mm, 19mm, 28mm, 60mm macro, 90mm, 100mm macro, and 180mm thus far. (I have 21 and 45P lenses in native mount at present.)

The Super-Elmar-R 15mm and Elmarit-R 19mm image well but both show a bit of hard vignetting; cropping to within the vignette produces a field of view not very different from the XCD 21mm, and cropping square produces a FoV significantly different from the 21mm cropped square, so neither of them are really worth using over the 21mm. The Elmarit-R 28mm images well overall, with just a little bit of vignetting ... I suspect this is likely similar to the zoom below 26mm. If the zoom performs well fun frame on the Fuji, then, I expect it would do the same on the 907x, in the same focal length range since the sensor is the same size.

(Note that when I say "vignette" I mean they "cast a hard shadow" .. as different from "corner fall off", like with the Summicron-R 90 and Color-Skopar 28 lenses which show substantial corner fall off vs casting a shadow. With a shadow, you can't do much to correct it other than crop; with heavy fall off, you can correct it to a great degree by using the anti-vignetting tools or manually lightening the darkened corners with your rendering tools.)

A zoom with the focal length range 26-35mm is of limited but useful capability, but I suspect that if I needed something in that approximate range on a regular basis I'd just bite the bullet and buy the XCD 30mm lens since the Vario-Elmarit-R 21-35mm lenses tend to cost over $2000 anyway (recent sold item search on Ebay) and the XCD 30mm can be found used for prices in the $2500 to $3500 range (again, recent sold item search on Ebay). There's just much more advantage to the native lens'e quality and functionality ... Using an adapted lens in that price category is only sensible if you happen to already have it and it works well. :)

G

Hello Godfrey and Vince,
thanks for your feedback !

The 90 Elmarit v1 does really well on the GFX50 cameras, no fall off no vignetting.


Best, Jean-Marc.
 
Hello Godfrey and Vince,
thanks for your feedback !

The 90 Elmarit v1 does really well on the GFX50 cameras, no fall off no vignetting.

That's good to hear!

The Summicron-R 90mm v1 definitely has fall off even on FF 35mm format, when near wide open. Once down to f/4, the fall off is gone on FF35, but it takes another stop to disappear on the 907x sensor. It is the usual case with faster lenses... just a stop or so less in maximum aperture and the same focal length lenses otherwise are typically more even in performance wide open.

On the 907x, for evenness across the frame, I'd keep it to f/4 or smaller apertures ... but it can work beautifully even wide open for some purposes, so what the heck? :)

G
 
Back
Top Bottom