Fun with the Hasselblad 907x

james.liam said:
I wondered that myself. Clearly a modern lens, but perhaps a little less contrasty?
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I’m thinking that because I was shooting in a large open shaded area there isn’t any obvious direction of the light, except way in the background where you can see bright sunshine. More evident in the colour version.

The lens used was that big beautiful 65mm f/2.8 XCD lens. I also have the 30mm and the 45P, but sometimes I think I could just sell both of those off and simply use the 65. It's that good :)
 
Vince Lupo said:
I’m thinking that because I was shooting in a large open shaded area there isn’t any obvious direction of the light, except way in the background where you can see bright sunshine. More evident in the colour version.

The lens used was that big beautiful 65mm f/2.8 XCD lens. I also have the 30mm and the 45P, but sometimes I think I could just sell both of those off and simply use the 65. It's that good :)
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Sounds like your predilection is towards a "normal" lens, typified by a 50mm lens on 35mm format, since 65mm is just about a perfect match to the angle of views of that normal for 33x44 format:

65 on 33x44: H37.4 V28.5 D45.9
50 on 24x36: H39.6 V27.5 D46.8

I've often felt the same way about that "normal" on any format. My Summilux 35mm is by far the most used lens on the Leica CL APS-C format, my Summilux-DG 25mm the same on FourThirds format, the Summicron-M 50mm or Summicron-R 50mm on FF 35 cameras.

Still thinking what my third XCD lens will be ... :)

G
 
jmpgino said:
I have been waiting for a reasonably priced digital back for my V system Hasselblads. I have my first purchased 500 CM from Fox Talberts in London, a 503CW and SWC/M with a bunch of lenses. This new offering of the back and tiny body has me interested, I would rather just buy the back as I have all wide enough glass for my needs. So the question is what is this system like with the 80/50/150 lenses attached. I am a black and white film person primarily but I am prepared to use it for color if need be. So what about it ?
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As Vince said, just fit the back, set the body to whichever V system 500 series body you have (you need a different setting for the SWC than the 500CM or 503CW), and go shooting. In essence, the back becomes an infinite roll of film.
You can also use the LCD on the back to nail critical focus when needed for precision work (set exposure to Bulb and release the shutter, lock the shutter release) and use the aperture stop-down on the lens to see actual DOF.

You can also use the back's electronic shutter to do everything, essentially reducing the body to acting as a bulky XV Adapter tube. It's only useful for relatively static subjects due to the 300ms sensor readout speed, but is useful nonetheless.

Shooting with a 500CM or 503CW and a waist level finder, it's best for me to lock the framing to a square crop (the full frame is recorded in raw, but the LCD shows the square crop as do JPEG files produced if you've set it to produce JPEGs). That allows "native" framing, with the benefit of having a peek past the borders of the actual taking frame like you do with RF cameras.

I have the Distagon 50, Planar 80, Makro-Planar 120, and Sonnar 150. All perform beautifully on the CFVII 50c when used with a 500CM. Hasselblad's Phocus software contains lens corrections for all of them too, although I haven't found much need for the corrections so far and have been processing my raw exposures with Lightroom Classic. The effect of setting the back to square crop means that my lens kit is jumped up one lens in FoV ... the 50 acts like the 80 does on film, the 80 acts like the 120 does, the 120 acts like the 150, and so forth. Used on an SWC, the FoV goes from "super wide" to a wide normal.. that's why I bought the XCD 21mm to use on the 907x body: so that I could retain the SWC FoV.

Whether you prefer B&W or Color imaging is completely up to you; capture in raw format and render whatever you like. I do both. Color from the 907x/CFVII 50c is truly lovely at the default settings, but that doesn't mean that you can't manipulate the rendering however you like.

Oh yes: Buy and install the focusing screen that Hasselblad used to include with the CFV 50c standalone product for use with the SLR bodies. It makes focusing much more consistently accurate and has the engraved markings so you can see the 33x44 format boundaries clearly and explicitly.

My guess is that they won't offer the CFVII 50c as a standalone product until demand for the 907x package tails off at least. The 907x body unit is likely being sold in the package for only a few hundred dollars; I can't imagine a standalone CFVII 50c package being much less than $5900 or so anyway. Right now, I suspect that demand for the 907x is high enough, and the availability of CFVII 50c backs limited enough, that they're basically using all the backs they can make to keep the supply of 907x cameras rolling. For me, I'd only want the full package anyway as it extends my Hasselblad kit to include the X system line of lenses, which are all excellent quality.

I've been adding all my 907x/CFVII 50c and 500CM/CFVII 50c photos and such to an album on flickr.com if you feel like perusing it:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/gdgphoto/N1f60D
I have more that I've not processed and posted yet, of course.

G
 
It's their season...


Xmas Community - Santa Clara 2020
Hasselblad 907x + Leitz Elmarit-R 135mm f/2.8
ISO 800 @ f/5.6 @ 1/6000​

:D

A little careful looking at the original raw files: The Elmarit-R 135mm is a better optical match to the sensor than the Elmar-R 180mm, although I've gotten pretty good results with both. The R180mm exposures take more correction work. Now I'm wondering how the 135 will work when I fit it on the 2x Extender-R ... Time for more experimenting! :)

G
 
jsrockit said:
Simple yet it speaks to me...
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Many thanks - I think for me that's the big challenge with any of these cameras that I own/have owned, whether it's the Monochroms, the Leica M-D, or any other cameras I've had in the past: How to make meaningful imagery with them. Essentially, can I live up to the privilege of owning any of these cameras? For me that's among the many questions I ask myself, particularly when it comes to a camera such as this one.
 
Vince Lupo said:
Many thanks - I think for me that's the big challenge with any of these cameras that I own/have owned, whether it's the Monochroms, the Leica M-D, or any other cameras I've had in the past: How to make meaningful imagery with them. Essentially, can I live up to the privilege of owning any of these cameras? For me that's among the many questions I ask myself, particularly when it comes to a camera such as this one.
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Meaningful imagery is hard to define. I let go of trying to "live up to" my cameras years ago. They don't care...

I just want to make photos that satisfy me, and I like the equipment I have to work with in doing that. The equipment is wonderful, but it's not the threshold over which I have to climb. That threshold is my own resistance to being creative, or just the development of vision that I want to have. And that's a mighty steep slope to climb already, don't need another weight to drag along.

:D

Vince Lupo said:
Hot out of the oven :)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50736597493_9d8df1a7bb_b.jpg :: Fresh Biscotti
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Yum! :)

G
 
I decided that yesterday was a "walk and shoot" day with the Hasselblad 500CM. So I fitted the ancient Sonnar 150mm f/4 and the CFVII 50c digital back, stuffed my PD Travel Tripod into a shoulder back and put a neck strap on the camera, and headed out for a hour and a half walk around the neighborhood.

Coming up on the end of the walk, I stopped at the cafe to grab a cup of coffee to have with my lunch and walked over to the stone bench near the fountain by the cafe. The sky was a clear pale blue, a bit of mist up there, but just barely visible was the quarter Moon. "Hmm, I wonder how big that will image onto the medium format digital sensor with this 150mm lens...?"

So I stuck the camera onto the tripod, set the lens to infinity and f/5.6 (or f/8...?) and the shutter to about 1/125 (1/250 ..?) and snapped a photo using my cable release. Using some post-processing to make the Moon as visible as possible smashed the pale blue to nearly black ...


Quarter Moon - Santa Clara 2020

It's a pretty small image of the Moon. But as I looked at it on my computer display last evening, I thought I saw enough structure on the face of the Moon and decided to crop down to it for a better look...


Quarter Moon - Santa Clara 2020 (cropped)
Hasselblad 500CM + Sonnar 150mm f/4
CFVII 50c digital back
ISO 400 @ f/5.6 @ 1/125 (est)​

LOL! I don't think I'm going to believe anyone who tells me that "those old Hasselblad lenses don't have enough resolution for the digital backs!" any more. :D

enjoy!
G
 
james.liam said:
So the 907 can accept other backs? Film? Digital?
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No, at least not that I am aware of. The 907x can only be used with the Hasselblad CFVII 50c back, they are a tightly integrated pair. (At the present time, you can only buy the 907x and the CFVII 50c back packaged as a set, you cannot buy either as a standalone item.)

The key is that once you buy a 907x, you can use the back on any other Hasselblad 500 or 2000/200 series body, or on any technical camera that includes a Hasselblad back adapter. Hasselblad X system lenses are native on the 907x, and you can use H or V system lenses (as well as many third party lenses) via lens mount adapters too.

G
 
james.liam said:
So the 907 can accept other backs? Film? Digital?
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I can't imagine how a film back could even work with the 907x - there'd be nothing to power it (the battery is in the CFV II 50C back), and since the XCD lenses are also electronically controlled, I don't see how that could physically work at all.
 
I saw this lovely little Lotus Elise on my walk the other day and snapped a front-top-down photo of it ... I had a wide lens and didn't really like the other views of the car with the wide lens.

So I saw it again the other day when I was walking with the Sonnar 150mm lens and took the opportunity.







​

Pretty car; I'd love to borrow one to play with for a bit. :)

enjoy!
G
 
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