Giving some thought to trading in my Mamiya 7 for a Hasselblad

dacookieman said:
Show some love for the Hassy!:) I love mine, it has never missed a beat and always delivers.

Sure, it doesn't do streets or candids well due to its heavy shutter slap, but horses for courses I guess. But it does shine whenever I want a portrait of the girlfriend or macro of a flowers and such.
The Zeiss lens just blows me away.

I love mine. hehehe.


Some macro shots here if anyone's interested. Taken with the Hassy and Velvia.
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Love the cityscapes, exactly my sort of photo.
 
FrozenInTime said:
I can't understand all the Hasselblad bashing going on here.
I've never had any issues with mine.

My 501C must be 15 years old and has been round the world several times backpacking.
Never needed a service, never missed a beat - despite frost,snow,dust,rain, sulphur springs ...

I love the compact size and they way it hangs on the shoulder.

The my only dislike is as you move away from the 'optimal' 80mm with WLF package
to two lenses and a prism; a couple back and a tripod it then becomes a short walk from the car only system.
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They do indeed prefer to be USED. And I completely agree with the view that if you're going any distance on foot, it's a fixed-lens (80mm) camera.

Cheers,

R.
 
thegman said:
I agree with getting the newest one, I know you can get hassies which are 50 years old pretty cheap, but I know there is a reason they are cheap!

I have my eye on a 503cx, which I understand is similar to the 503cw, and not that old.
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503cx is a good choice - usually cheaper than the CW. And who wants to use a winder anyway? The 503 is a little quieter than the 500, but doesn't have the gliding mirror from the 501. That means you get a little vignetting in the viewfinder with the 150/4 lens (and some others) but it does not effect the photos.
 
I’m bemused!
It’s a ‘Blad, not a Hassy!
No one calls it a Hassy, it doesn’t even roll off the tongue as does “Blad”.

Anyhow, I have the opposite problem.
I’ve owned a Blad with 3 lenses for 10+ yrs and bought a 7 with a 80mm lens the other day and take it out every day and shoot “stuff”. Next up a 150 & a 50mm lens.

The two cameras are not the same or even close.
I am finding I’m being thoughtful in my picture taking and have become quite abstract in my subject matter with the 7 and as such I’m really engaged with it.

Maybe this is the whole Rangefinder approach – I had an M6 for 7yrs and shot 1 roll of film a week with it.

My dilemma is that I want a medium format system with 3 lenses to take travelling for 6 months in Patagonia with a D700 and 3 lenses to document my wanderings. Thus the Blad looks favourite to go up on eBay right now with a 50, 80 and 250 lenses (one more thing the 7 doesn’t allow – decent long telephoto lenses!)

Tim
 
Not every Blad needs constant service, I've had 40-year old 500c-era gear that never missed a beat and probably never visited the shop. But whenever you buy used gear you never know.

That said, if I were buying into Hasselblad for his kind of shooting, I'd look for a clean, serviced 500cm body with the Accu-matte screen upgrade, two A-12 backs with matching serial number inserts (and recent service) and the 60 and 100 CF T* lenses with hard plastic hoods and Bay 60 to 67mm filter adapters. One close-up ring for portraits. Rapid wind cranks and converted Russian prism finders are nice too. The Chimney finder is a personal favorite, like Skrebenski!

The 80mm is fine but the other lenses are what make the system better than anything else. If all you want is the 80mm then get a Rolleiflex TLR.

The CF lenses are the ones immediately after the C lenses with the flesh chewing focusing rings. CF lenses use rubber rings and are still better built than the later cheaper lenses.

One nice thing about the modularity is that he could snatch up an inexpensive bargain body when one appears to have a nice backup.

Cheap Hasselblads come up pretty frequently, lots of old photographers getting divorced, buying Canon Rebels, dying, going into nursing homes.... (all the equivalent sort of event actually).

Not to throw you too far off, but don't turn away a Rolleiflex SL66 if an outfit comes along -- they are quite nice if you find a set. Sort of like a BMW to a Volvo. And the other pie-in-the-sky awesome combo is the Hasselblad 2003F with the stellar 110/2F lenses... Google that and be swayed....
 
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Have you seen the size of the film backs / magazines they took with them - no A12's for them & no messing about changing rolls for them either - check out the gloves they wore !
 
Can you imagine being the guys/gals in the lab processing that film:

"Whoops ... sorry guys, someone's been messing around with the chemicals and the developer and fixer got mixed up ... can you go back?"

:D
 
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I have a Mamiya 6 and a Hasselblad. Love them both. But since I have a Contax645 I've not touched the Mamiya or the Hassy. The Contax is just sooo good.

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema
 
Ti29er said:
Have you seen the size of the film backs / magazines they took with them - no A12's for them & no messing about changing rolls for them either - check out the gloves they wore !
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The backs they used on the (taping of) the moon landing? Those were 70mm backs. You can get them quite cheaply these days although you might have trouble finding film for them ;)
 
Frank Petronio said:
Not every Blad needs constant service, I've had 40-year old 500c-era gear that never missed a beat and probably never visited the shop. But whenever you buy used gear you never know.

That said, if I were buying into Hasselblad for his kind of shooting, I'd look for a clean, serviced 500cm body with the Accu-matte screen upgrade, two A-12 backs with matching serial number inserts (and recent service) and the 60 and 100 CF T* lenses with hard plastic hoods and Bay 60 to 67mm filter adapters. One close-up ring for portraits. Rapid wind cranks and converted Russian prism finders are nice too. The Chimney finder is a personal favorite, like Skrebenski!

The 80mm is fine but the other lenses are what make the system better than anything else. If all you want is the 80mm then get a Rolleiflex TLR.

The CF lenses are the ones immediately after the C lenses with the flesh chewing focusing rings. CF lenses use rubber rings and are still better built than the later cheaper lenses.

One nice thing about the modularity is that he could snatch up an inexpensive bargain body when one appears to have a nice backup.

Cheap Hasselblads come up pretty frequently, lots of old photographers getting divorced, buying Canon Rebels, dying, going into nursing homes.... (all the equivalent sort of event actually).

Not to throw you too far off, but don't turn away a Rolleiflex SL66 if an outfit comes along -- they are quite nice if you find a set. Sort of like a BMW to a Volvo. And the other pie-in-the-sky awesome combo is the Hasselblad 2003F with the stellar 110/2F lenses... Google that and be swayed....
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Thanks for all the advice Frank, at the moment I'm in the tentative steps for a trade in on a 503cx in very good condition. The Rolleiflexes are lovely, but just don't feel right for me, especially as I like wides.

I'm thinking for a meter, either use my Sigma DP-1, or possibly get one of those tiny Voigtlander hotshoe meters, unless you have any other suggestions? I used to use a little Sekonic Twinmate, but didn't really like it all that much.

Hopefully this trade will work out and I'll be shooting it next week!
 
Jamie123 said:
The backs they used on the (taping of) the moon landing? Those were 70mm backs. You can get them quite cheaply these days although you might have trouble finding film for them ;)
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And even more trouble processing the film...

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
Keith said:
Can you imagine being the guys/gals in the lab processing that film:

"Whoops ... sorry guys, someone's been messing around with the chemicals and the developer and fixer got mixed up ... can you go back?"

:D
Click to expand...

They didn't tell Robert Capa something like that when they messed up his D-Day negatives, did they?
 
For those who helped me with this decision, just wanted to let them know that the Mamiya 7 is gone, and a 503cx + 2 backs + 50mm Distagon is here. The WLF is great, but I may upgrade the screen to something with a split view.

It's going to take some getting used to, did now how accustomed I'd become to RFs until I used something else.

Thanks to everyone who chipped in with their advice, I'm looking forward to getting out there with it.
 
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