Crappelblad It's alive! ... Frankensteins Hasselblad...

[Andrew Moxom]

Okay, after playing with and being totally smitten with the Great Wall DF-2 camera I have. I realized that the body will likely only have a short life if I continue to use it like I am. However, the lens has this wonderful signature that is just too good to waste. So I got creative and thought about how I could adapt this asian wonder to more thoroughbred camera marques.... Well, after about an hour of tinkering in the garage today, I came up with this..... Crappelblad, Frankenblad, Greatblad, Wallblad, not sure on the name yet.

I used a spare body cap milled out to accept the thread of this screw mount lens. Voila, inifinity focus, close focus using the focusing barrel. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Now I just need a 201f body with focal plane shutter!

One other thought about the vignetting the Great Wall camera has is due to there being metal parts and felt actually in the image plane. You can see it at the bottom of the lens opening on the DF-2 (flat ledge) I can imitate that with some felt on the body cap and the job will then be totally complete!!

 

[Q.G.]

Congratulations!

But maybe the job isn't totally complete until you adapt the Great Wall to take Zeiss/Hasselblad lenses?

 

[papagene]

That is so cool Andrew!! I can't wait to see some images you create with this new mutation.

gene

 

[DaveOttawa]

...the lens has this wonderful signature that is just too good to waste.

So can you mount the lens on your enlarger and get the "Great Wall signature" on negs from another camera??

 

[Andrew Moxom]

IT might work..... Another thing to try now

 

[deisenlord]

I'd say its a "Bladwall", has a nice ring to it. Very cool Andy!

 

[Q.G.]

IT might work..... Another thing to try now

It would be in reverse (like using soft focus filters under the enlarger works in reverse). Or would that be inverse?

Anyway, what a lens does depends very much on distances.
So rendering a 3D scene on a flat bit of film is totally different from rendering a flat piece of film on a flat piece of paper.
But vignetting and other non-image forming 'effects' can be the same.


But give it a try anyway!

 

[Kerik]

Nice!!!

 

[smieglitz]

Great Hassle?

 

[Andrew Moxom]

Thats funny Joe!

 

[wildbill]

who needs skgrimes?

 

[Andrew Moxom]

exactly Vinny.... The body cap idea was $8 and an hour of my time

 

[Prest_400]

Isn't the human race interesting? We try something new (crappier here) even having the best of the best.

 

[gandolfi]

well - Hasselblad has a good name for this.. (I'm on the same path; trying to make a "Dianablad" with an old Diana lens fitted..

However, I prefer my Rolleiflex for this sort of things.. due to the shutter in the camera, and the bellows.
It works quite good and is FUN to try..

Only problem is the name..

I've made an Rolllancaster if you will...
My Rollei with an old Lancaster landscape lens in front.. It works.

 

[Andrew Moxom]

Okay, as an update..... The Great Hassle just got an extension tube Using the modified body cap as a template, I was able to mill a rosewood disc that fits inside the body cap and has a hole in the middle for the lens to fit into. The extension disc is just a tad over 1/4" thick and allows close focusing to move from 1 meter to around .6 meter. I will likely make a double thickness version of this to give me even greater flexibility. The Planar is in complete disgust at such absurdity!

 

[JRJacobs]

Looks like so much fun! When do we get to see what this amazing combo can produce?

(BTW - I want one for my Hasselblad!)

 

[removed account4]

i look forward to the resulting images!

john

 

[papagene]

Bah Humbug!! You guys are having way too much fun, an' that ain't allowed!

I also can't wait to see what this monster will produce.

gene

 

[Andrew Moxom]

I have to acquire a 201f first, then all will be revealed.... However, seeing the image on the acute-matte on the 500 c/m, it looks great. Not as much fall off as I'd imagined and I attribute that to the blad having too flat a film plane. I think the way the great wall film transport worked allowed some film bowing that contributed to the overall 'look' and vignetting of the image,area. That said, the out of focus areas are wonderful to look at. I am itching to try the new rig out, but I have to be patient and wait for the focal plane body.

 

[MVNelson]

impressive engineering Andrew. I got to staring at my RB67 after reading this... nah ... I better let well enough alone

 

[mike c]

Try using the auxiliary shutter on the back of the blad,I read somewhere that it was roughly a 30th of sec.

mike c.

 

[Q.G.]

Try using the auxiliary shutter on the back of the blad,I read somewhere that it was roughly a 30th of sec.

It's roughly as long as you keep your finger on the release button.

If you manage to do that for a very short time, the time between your finger tripping the camera and the rear shutter starting to open (the shutterlag) is about 30 ms.
It takes about that long again for the doors to open fully.
And about that long for them to to slam shut again.

If you do it this way, i.e. so fast that you can ignore the time your finger keeps the button depressed, the upper and lower edge of the image will receive considerably less light than the center. So when using the rear shutter as main shutter, it is advisable to do it for considerably longer times (compared to the 50 - 60 ms the shutter alone takes to open and close) only.

But unless you have very fast fingers, you will do that (keep the thing open for longer) anyway.

 

[F2_bokeh]

I love when this kind of approach works out so well! It's always a neat way to be creative outside of the darkroom. You'll have to show us some images.

 

[Terrence Brennan]

Well, after about an hour of tinkering in the garage today, I came up with this..... Crappelblad, Frankenblad, Greatblad, Wallblad, not sure on the name yet.

How about Blahblad, Gladblad or Hasslefreeblad?

 

[Andrew Moxom]

I think I am settling on Joe Smeiglitz's Great Hassel As for using the barn doors as a shutter.... I certainly could but will need the 1/1000th on the 201f as even with iso 100 film @ f3.5, it's easy to need that high a shutter speed. For extremely low light work, it might work using the barndoors if I keep the shutter open and use my hand as a shutter. Would work quite well on relaly long exposures.