Fun with the Hasselblad 907x

I'm also a Hasselblad 907X + CFV II 50C owner with some film equipment as well (500C/M, 50mm/100mm/180mm). I do believe I've found a practical use for the V-system along with the CFV - it's the best way to get a useful viewfinder to use with it. I have a PME metered finder, and this, combined with the CFV, works well for me in bright lighting conditions where I find the 907X to be a challenge to see the screen well. As an added benefit, I find I get much more accurate focus than I do when using the waist-level finder on the 500C/M.

Of course, it's a beast compared to the 907X, but for those who are frustrated at the lack of a good viewfinder for it, it's an option. I can't say I'd recommend going out and buying V-system equipment *just* for that - if I was starting from scratch and going all Hasselblad, I'd probably just have an X1D for that kind of shooting - but it is another option. Plus, all of my V-system equipment and lenses put together still probably cost less than an X1D.
 
@Vince: I love the photos you're making! Very nice

Joe L: I have the 907x/CFVII 50c and 500CM as well. I have four X system lenses and four V system lenses. It's a great system, and all works together well. the 500CM body is often useful and fun to use in ways that no modern mirrorless bodies can be, and vice versa. The CFVII 50c back returns results that are just stunning with both bodies.

My biggest issue with all of it, lately, is that I find I just don't want to carry so much gear around at this point in time. I want smaller/lighter gear to carry most of the time.

G
 
Many thanks Godfrey - my long-term goal is to compile an album of sorts of our Canadian property, particularly at different times of the year. Right now it's admittedly a bit scattershot, so I'm hoping that I'll become a bit more thoughtful and intentional with what I do up there.

These two are with the 65/2.8 and a +1 closeup filter. I just ordered one of those TTArtisan 90/1.25 lenses for Hasselblad X-mount (I managed to find a 'like new' used one for about $100 less than retail) so we'll see what kind of weirdness I can get up to with it.


At Grey Owl6 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


At Grey Owl8 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
First shot with the TTArtisan 90mm f/1.25 lens in XCD mount. Yeah it's a keeper :)


TTArtisan First Photo by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

The lens seems to be really well-made and has a definite 'heft' to it. If you were strictly looking at the barrel you could easily mistake it for a Leica M lens. The aperture ring has nice soft clicks at half-stops, and the focus is nicely damped. Only real downside is that it close-focuses to a meter, but that's easily rectified with closeup filters (77mm). All in all, a worthwhile addition to the 907x kit.
 
A couple more with the TTArtisan 90/1.25.


Riley on the Side Porch by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Backyard Globe Thistle by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

The lens seems to be fairly straightforward in terms of obtaining sharp focus wide open -- just don't sway your body too much!

I'm planning on attending an event tomorrow and will try the lens 'in the field', as it were. Besides I think I may need to give my loving wife a bit of a rest for a while.
 
Vince, nothing wrong with another picture of Riley! Often, when shooting our spouses and partners, we forget that these are strangers to the folks here on RFF. Always, in the pictures you show us, we are presented with a beautifully executed photo of someone who looks like a fascinating person to know. She just happens to be your wife, but the pictures stand on their own.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Vince, nothing wrong with another picture of Riley! Often, when shooting our spouses and partners, we forget that these are strangers to the folks here on RFF. Always, in the pictures you show us, we are presented with a beautifully executed photo of someone who looks like a fascinating person to know. She just happens to be your wife, but the pictures stand on their own.
Click to expand...

Many thanks -- maybe I should just consider it to be something along the lines of how Nick Nixon, Harry Callahan and Lee Friedlander photographed their wives over the years, so maybe it's not so hateful after all. Only thing is that my wife has never 'posed' for me and I really wouldn't want her to.


Riley at Union Mills3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
An old friend of mine in photography once said, "We honor those people and things with which we are most familiar with the majority of our photographic efforts. In other words, they are what we practice on. Sometimes, we get a good shot or two out of our practice... "

Which led me to ask, immediately, "So what then do we shoot when we do we our real photography?"

"Something completely different," he said with a wry smile, as I looked at the array of landscape and aircraft photographs on his walls, punctuated by photos of his wife, children, grandchildren, and friends...


... Your photos of Riley go beyond practice, Vince. :D

G
 
Many thank-you's Godfrey -- I appreciate the sentiments. Plus I'm very fortunate to have such a patient wife!

My use of this camera seems to ebb and flow -- one minute I'll pick up this camera, the next I'm onto something else and then back again. I'm coming up on two years with the 907x and I still love it.


Early Morning Grey Owl by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
Well, it may be 907x magic, or your processing, or the lens, or all of the above, but I can only describe your colors with Helen Hill's favorite technical term: Yummy!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Well, it may be 907x magic, or your processing, or the lens, or all of the above, but I can only describe your colors with Helen Hill's favorite technical term: Yummy!
Click to expand...

Ha dunno which it is - most likely the camera and Hasselblad’s ‘Colour Science’ and not my all-thumbs methodology.

I do have a bit of a personal dilemma, and maybe others feel this too — I love using this camera and am really pleased with the results I get, but I still feel this attraction to my old cameras, yet I get more reliable results from the Hasselblad. I definitely appreciate the ‘perfection in imperfection’ of some of my other cameras like the Ermanox, but sometimes I just want to take good, reliable photos that I can work on right away instead of having to finish the roll of film, developing the film, scanning the film etc etc. Or worse yet, shooting a bunch of film only to realize afterwards that I missed focus on most of the shots (like the guesstimate-focus Ermanox) or I had a light leak etc. Maybe this comes from having more cameras than I really need, though I don’t really have all that many compared to others.

Thoughts on this?
 
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