Hasselblad Acute Matte 42165 Screen

[Simon Benton]

I have just purchased what I thought was a used Hasselblad Acute Matte 42165 focusing screen. There are no identifying marks on it and it looks identical to the screen in my 500 El/M. Is there a way to tell if this is an Acute Matte screen? I can see no difference in the brightness of either screen and I am wondering if this a regular screen in an Acute Matte box. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dan Henderson]

You should see a marked difference in the brightness through a regular screen and an acute matte screen. It made a huge difference when I bought one for my Hassie. But other than brightness I am not aware of any way to tell the difference.

 

[timd]

There's usually two small D-shaped cutouts on the frame on an Acute Matte - there's a picture in the Hasselblad section of Karen Nakaumra's site

 

[Ed Sukach]

There's usually two small D-shaped cutouts on the frame on an Acute Matte - there's a picture in the Hasselblad section of Karen Nakaumra's site

Uh ... aren't those "tabs" in the camera body itself - to hold the screen in place?

I'm holding an "Accumatte" screen in my hand at the moment. I can't see any easy way to tell the difference.

One thing I know - the Accumatte is of a two piece construction - a ground glass and fresnel lens combination. I found that out after using a lens cleaning liquid (distilled water) which migrated between the two. Took about two weeks to dissipate through capillary action. I suppose one COULD 'unbend' the retaining tabs - (four - centered in each side) and disassemble the screen - something I've never tried - considering how much these puppies cost. Come to think of it .... that might be the distinguishing part: four bent retaining tabs in the center bottom of each side.

 

[MikeK]

Ed:

The notches are on the metal frame of the screen itself at the lower bottom right; hard to see but on the side of the screen glass - not the clips on the left and right that hold the screen in place

Mike

 

[Ed Sukach]

Well - I have both the 42160 and the 42170 Focusing Screens - Accu-Matte, (the 42170 has the grid and split-image rangefinder) and neither have anything like "notches at the lower bottom right" - in fact I can't even tell where "lower bottom right" is. They are, most assuredly, difficult to see ... I haven't yet found them.

 

[Ed Sukach]

I've scanned my Accu-Matte 42170 Screen- placed it on the scanner, bottom down. Can you see where the notches are? - or if I have the correct orientation?

 

[timd]

I've scanned my Accu-Matte 42170 Screen- placed it on the scanner, bottom down. Can you see where the notches are? - or if I have the correct orientation?

that's upside down - the notches will be on the other side if they're present. I'm not sure exactly when the Acute Matte screens started being marked in this way, from memory it was some time in the last 20 years. So if you've got a AM screen without the notches, there's a fair chance it's older than that...

 

[Ed Sukach]

No "notches" on the other sides either. I've tried to access the image you write about on Karen Nakamura's site, but I can't find it. could you be more specific about its location?

 

[BrianShaw]

Ed.. Karen's sit is great, but it's not too easy to navigate if you don't know where you're going! Try this:

Go to: http://www.photoethnography.com/
Select: Equipment
Select: My Classic Camera Collection, more...
Scroll way down to the bottom and Select from "Professional Level Cameras": Hassleblad 500 c/m
Scroll down to the second picture.

Observe on the lower right corner of the focussing screen the two notches on the metal bezel of the accumatte.

 

[Antje]

Oh, but that's a "D" - the non-Ds don't have these notches if I'm not totally mistaken (which might well be).

Antje

 

[BrianShaw]

I think you are correct, Antje. Here is some discussion on another forum that might help. My Hassy has Accu-matte D so I don't know much about what came before that. This discussion is making me want to go out and buy a copy of Wildi's book!

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009K0Q

 

[Ed Sukach]

OK ... I see them. Faint, aren't they!

I'm curious, now --- Karen says "the Ds are much brighter." I wonder HOW much brighter -- but I'm not so curious that I'm about to spend $$$ to find out.

 

[amphoto]

Sorry to take this slightly OT, but I'm looking at a Linhof adapter which has an Acute Matte screen in the middle. It looks very much like the Hasselblad ones mentioned here, but the screen is only 56mm x 56mm in size, measured from the outer edge of the metal frame. Could this be the case, or are the Hasselblad ones larger (having never seen one, I'm assuming they're 6cmx6cm). Thanks.

 

[raoul]

Hasselblad 6cm = 56 mm in reality. This is the same for all medium format. The film itself is 6cm across, but needs a couple of mm either side of the image - hence the 56mm.

 

[dorigatti]

acute matte

The original Acute-Matte screens have no notches cut in the metal frame. A couple of years later (1996 , 1997, two small d shaped notches were added (on the frame bottom lower right) and these new screens were called Acute-Matte D.

The D screes were made a little less bright to help with focusing. In viewing through the camera one can hardly tell the difference between the original Acute-Matte and the D version Acute-Matte.

One way to tell an Acute-Matte is to hold it diagonally and move it across a path of a strong white light source; by moving around into the light multicolor patters (like from a crystal prism) will appear. Pre Acute-Matte screens do no do this. Another difference is that the cross hair in the center of the Acute-Matte screens is etched and translucent. On the older non Acute-Matte screens it is painted black.