Hasselblad 1000F with Film Back Engraving

k2adir · May 9, 2018

I have a Hasselblad 1000F with engravings on the film peeking whole.

Does it add any collectible value to the overall camera? is this thing a collectible? I have never seen a such a thing before. If yes, could you give me an estimate for such an item?

Here are the pictures
https://imgur.com/a/fyMfySi

Back numbers do match, Body and lens numbers does not but I might be able to find it's original lens or body. I have 5 1000F bodies right now and few more 80mm lenses. yeah, I like these cameras.

The camera works fine if you wonder.

polka · May 10, 2018

Jean gifted this camera to Ed on December 25, (Xmas)1951. If Jean and/or Ed were some kind of celebrities, it might add some collectible value !?

Polka

Kevin Caulfield · May 10, 2018

Bodies and lenses are not paired so your numbers will not usually match.

guangong · May 10, 2018

For some reason not able to view pictures of camera. I don’t understand Kevin’s comment. Many, many years ago I had a 1000F before availability’s of C. Shutter very delicate. After two breakdowns I got rid of 1000F. Camera came with Ektar lens but was able to use Kilfitt and Some Leica lenses with adapters. Could not afford C when it came out but bought 2000F when it was introduced and still use it, sometimes with same lenses I used long ago on 1000 F with different adapters.
Hasselblad’s success was due to how comfortable to hold and use.
My advice is that if shutter still works and is not jammed, don’t fire it. Either keep as shelf baby or sell. Don’t let buyer fire shutter...they can go at any time. Warning: read manual before using!

jtk · May 10, 2018

IMO "Hasselblad's success" was mostly thanks to Zeiss as well as modular design (vs Rolleiflex) and adequate durability. Bronica came along with most of those features but lacked Zeiss and until redesigns wasn't adequately reliable for serious studio use.

summicron1 · May 10, 2018

k2adir said:
I have a Hasselblad 1000F with engravings on the film peeking whole.

Does it add any collectible value to the overall camera? is this thing a collectible? I have never seen a such a thing before. If yes, could you give me an estimate for such an item?

Here are the pictures
https://imgur.com/a/fyMfySi

.

That's a cute engraving -- looks as if this camera was a wedding gift from wife to husband, possibly? Anyway, unless you can locate the name of the original owner -- who was Ed ... some famous photographer for example? -- this doesn't give the camera any more than novelty value. If it were Ansel Adams' you'd have something, but just "Ed Nobody from Smallville" doesn't boost its value.

+1 to Guangong's comment about how delicate these are -- these are the cameras the Ukranians copied to make the Kiev 88s, and there's a very good reason Hasselblad switched technology from this to the in-lens shutter system: It was crap and prone to failure. At this stage a working 1000F would have more value just because it is working, but I'd hesitate to show someone how well it works, lest it die.

BrianShaw · May 10, 2018

"Jean" could have been a French male too.

Sirius Glass · May 10, 2018

guangong said:
For some reason not able to view pictures of camera. I don’t understand Kevin’s comment. Many, many years ago I had a 1000F before availability’s of C. Shutter very delicate. After two breakdowns I got rid of 1000F. Camera came with Ektar lens but was able to use Kilfitt and Some Leica lenses with adapters. Could not afford C when it came out but bought 2000F when it was introduced and still use it, sometimes with same lenses I used long ago on 1000 F with different adapters.
Hasselblad’s success was due to how comfortable to hold and use.
My advice is that if shutter still works and is not jammed, don’t fire it. Either keep as shelf baby or sell. Don’t let buyer fire shutter...they can go at any time. Warning: read manual before using!

My Hasselblad repairman has always advised me that Hasselblad 1600 and Hasselblad 1000 are too delicate and too hard to repair if parts are available. Therefore they are best kept as shelf queens.

moto-uno · May 10, 2018

^ I have now lived long enough , to have " Sirius Glass " suggest that a Hasselblad is best kept as a "shelf queen" !
I am impressed ! Peter

Sirius Glass · May 10, 2018

moto-uno said:
^ I have now lived long enough , to have " Sirius Glass " suggest that a Hasselblad is best kept as a "shelf queen" !
I am impressed ! Peter

Dems are just the facts, dude.

k2adir · May 10, 2018

Indeed these are very delicate, I currently have 4 full copies, one of them isn't working. I wish I could learn how to repair it so I would use it with peace in my mind. I'm not sure if any of you used one of these before but I prefer these over the 500C.
1000F is lighter than the 500/200/2000 series and feels better in hand in my opinion.

Here are two shots from this body that I took while back to test its functionality.

Also, does anyone know how much were these cameras back in 50's?

itsdoable · May 11, 2018

My view differ on using the Hasselblad 1000/1600 series cameras.

If you have a working camera, you should use it. When it breaks, then it can be a shelf queen. Even if you are a collector, leaving the camera unused over an extended period is a sure way of making it a shelf queen. For some old (mostly German) cameras, the oil and grease used will have resinified buy now, but if not, most old machine last longer if they are exercised.

There is quite a on-line belief that these cameras were fragile. That is not the case, they are well made precision devices that are very old (with an unknown history of service, good or bad). They used an pneumatic vane as a governor for shutter speeds, which spins rapidly at low forces. The mechanism is more akin to a watch rather than the inertial reciprocating pendulums used in almost all other shutters (which uses a much higher spring force). The high speed and low force of these governors means they are more sensitive to contamination and oil thickening. They also need a lighter touch by the service personal - the difference between fixing a watch compared to a Compur shutter. The fact that you can see the governor through the open lens mount means that it was easy to contaminate the mechanism while working fast in the field (especially if weather was bad). That and most service personnel were not used to fixing something different with a lighter touch, meant that they often broke something and had to replace the part - resulting in their desire to avoid them.

There is/was service houses in eastern Europe that regularly rebuild the Kiev-88 (which uses the exact same mechanism), it's a mater of knowing the product. They take great pictures, especially with the original Kodak lenses. (Remember, they switched to Zeiss because they were cheaper!).

guangong · May 12, 2018

itsdoable said:
My view differ on using the Hasselblad 1000/1600 series cameras.

If you have a working camera, you should use it. When it breaks, then it can be a shelf queen. Even if you are a collector, leaving the camera unused over an extended period is a sure way of making it a shelf queen. For some old (mostly German) cameras, the oil and grease used will have resinified buy now, but if not, most old machine last longer if they are exercised.

There is quite a on-line belief that these cameras were fragile. That is not the case, they are well made precision devices that are very old (with an unknown history of service, good or bad). They used an pneumatic vane as a governor for shutter speeds, which spins rapidly at low forces. The mechanism is more akin to a watch rather than the inertial reciprocating pendulums used in almost all other shutters (which uses a much higher spring force). The high speed and low force of these governors means they are more sensitive to contamination and oil thickening. They also need a lighter touch by the service personal - the difference between fixing a watch compared to a Compur shutter. The fact that you can see the governor through the open lens mount means that it was easy to contaminate the mechanism while working fast in the field (especially if weather was bad). That and most service personnel were not used to fixing something different with a lighter touch, meant that they often broke something and had to replace the part - resulting in their desire to avoid them.

There is/was service houses in eastern Europe that regularly rebuild the Kiev-88 (which uses the exact same mechanism), it's a mater of knowing the product. They take great pictures, especially with the original Kodak lenses. (Remember, they switched to Zeiss because they were cheaper!).

Ask the man who owned one! The shutter mechanism was fragile, even on a brand new camera. Breakdowns were reason Hasselblad shifted from shutter with 1/1600 sec shutter speed to lower 1/1000 (I bought the 1000F) which really didn’t improve reliability that much. Hence the move to C and CM models. Later, when introduced, I bought 2000FCM. From my experience using it for almost four decades there is no comparison with its focal plane shutter to those of the early pioneer Hasselblad’s. The shutter Is robust and makes a very reliable camera that uses Hasselblad C lenses as well as my Kilfitt and Leica lenses. Although, from what I read on APUG, when shutter does go I shall be left with an unrepairable doorstop.
As I understand the story, having no camera shutter designer available Mr. Hasselblad used a Swedish watchmaker to design the 1600F shutter, buwho did not consider the stress on a shutter mechanism compared to a watch. While I am not familiar with the Russian knockoff, I suspect that the shutter mechanism might be similar but was significantly modified.
Again, the saving grace of the Hasselblad was an overall design so perfect that while many tried to imitate no other camera maker was able to achieve.

Hasselblad 1000F with Film Back Engraving

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