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I just ordered a Hasselblad 501cm

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Rinthe

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I just ordered a Hasselblad 501cm from KEH:

501cm with late WLF
80mm CF T* lens
A12 Back 12 release
lens cap
strap

Everything in bargain grade except for the WLF and strap which are in EX condition.

just felt like sharing this with you guys :smile: any advice?
 
Have fun!
 
What the gentlemen above said!

And do read a manual.
These are simple cameras, but still...
 
I just ordered a Hasselblad 501cm from KEH:

501cm with late WLF
80mm CF T* lens
A12 Back 12 release
lens cap
strap

Everything in bargain grade except for the WLF and strap which are in EX condition.

just felt like sharing this with you guys :smile: any advice?

Bargain-grade makes me nervous, but they are great cameras. Welcome to the club!
 
Enjoy!

Obviously a man of good taste.

Steve
 
You'll learn to run through mental checklists when things don't work: Is the dark slide in? Is the shutter cocked? Is the back wound? Remarkably well made cameras, these, but their versatility comes with some complexity.

Get yourself a lens hood. The T* coatings are extremely good but the front element isn't well recessed.

Have a blast!
 
This is a wonderful outfit to start with. Please feel free to inform us when it has arrived. As Nick said a lens hood would be nice to add, and as far as I´m concerned, the camera will even look nicer with one ;-)
Is this your first MF-camera?
Greetings, Benjamin
 
I sold mine to be able to move up to 4x5, but I still love the 501.

Two tips come to mind:

1. Familiarize yourself with how to fix a stuck shutter. I carried a small flathead screwdriver in my camera bag for this purpose.
2. When winding/advancing the film check to make sure it's advancing the film properly. This issue was specific to my camera/back, but could pop up in yours as well. Basically, the film would not advance far enough at the beginning of a roll, resulting in overlapped photos, and too far towards the end of the roll, resulting in wasted space between photos. My solution to the overlapped images was to manually wind the film while looking through the back window (i had one of the older type backs, not sure if you can do that on the newer ones) until the frame number showed up. Towards the middle point of the roll, I'd have to watch while cocking the shutter, as the # would appear, in that case I would make sure the dark slide was in, remove the film back, and finish cocking the shutter with the back off.

Of course, a CLA should fix the 2nd problem, but I was/am a student and the $100-200 had other uses for me :smile:

Enjoy!
 
I've had good luck with the BGN grade as well-- be sure to run a roll or two through it within the return period to give it a good check-out.

Oh, and be sure to load the film in the back with the instructions in front of you. It is extremely easy to load the film "backwards" in the A12 back and "expose" the paper backing instead of the film.

Want to take a guess as to how I know this? Blank rolls are no fun. :wink:

Enjoy,

JT
 
I've been reading the manual, what does it mean when it says "camera should be fully wound"?

It means advance the film after taking an exposure.

That way you will not be trying to remove a lens when the lens and camera are not cocked. That is a bad thing to do.

Hasselblad designed the camera and the lenses to be safely stored in the cocked configuration. The darkslide will prevent the camera from firing and losing the frame.

Tomorrow I will be back at my computer and I will post the urls for loading film and unjamming the camera and the lenses.


Steve
 
Lol, I guess we've all been there....and all carry a small screwdriver? :D


No, I haven't been there and I also don't carry a screwdriver.:D
It's very simple, expose frame, wind crank, expose frame, wind crank..., see, very simple!:wink:

Cheers


André
 
While it can't hurt to know how to 'unjam' a camera, it is completely unnecessary.
I never had to with any of my cameras (except with an automatic bellows unit attached that was known to be defective. It was used, jamming, to demonstrate that it was defective).
So don't let this talk about jamming unnerve you. :wink:
 
I have had to unjam a lens that chose to fire off while sitting in the camera bag. It was useful to know how to recock it. I was in Yosemite and I took off the 80mm lens to use the 250mm lens and I was going to take one photograph and put the 80mm lens back on the camera. The 80mm lens moved a little in the bag and fired itself. I walked a short distance to the Ansel Adams shop and asked for a professional photographer. The only one there was a LF and VLF person. She got a screwdriver for me and I turned the screw 180Âş and the lens opened but did not cock. It went back to the way it was. The two of use studied it for a while and she suggested that I turn in more than 180Âş. But she first made some calls and verified that it was ok to do that.

When I got home I bought the special screw driver and put it in the camera bag. [I never had a problem with it in an airport] And I started looking for better websites to learn from.

No, I have not needed to unjam a lens very much, but it is a good thing to know. Picture having the lens off and needing to cock both the lens and the body, not knowing how, and unable to put both back in the camera bag safely!

Steve
 
That's called "cocking the shutter".
Not "unjamming a lens".

You do not need a special tool for it.
And how to do it is described in the manual.
 
I have had to unjam a lens that chose to fire off while sitting in the camera bag.

Same here Steve, fortunately, I was near home and was able to re-cock the shutter without too much trouble.

It shouldn't be necessary, but it's good to know how to recover if it does happen.

Mike
 
Again, a shutter firing while the lens is not on the camera is not a "jam".
It is just a shutter firing while the lens is not on the camera.
Not a big deal. Not something for which you need special instructions from the internet, not something for which you need a a special tool.

The shutter in the lens is spring loaded, with only a tiny catch keeping it from firing (the little thingy in the semicircular surround).
When you mount the lens on a camera, a pin in the lens mount depresses this tiny lever, releasing the drive shaft in the lens, which by then is held put by the dog in the camera's lens mount.
The release cycle is then controlled by the camera allowing the shaft to rotate through preset angles in sequence to affect the different phases in the release cycle.

You can, without fear for anything except having to recock the shutter, release the shutter in a lens when not mounted on a camera by pressing the tiny lever. Have done that countless times.
Using a coin, inserted in the slot on the end of the drive shaft, the shutter is cocked again.
(How to do this is described in the manual of Hasselblad cameras and lenses. It will indeed be "good to know how to recover", and you will, if only you RTFM. :wink:).

So again, so it is clear: a shutter releasing while the lens is not on a camera is not a problem. Not a "jam".
(Just as, say, having your car's handbrake on is not a malfunction, does not require special tools to fix, nor having the car towed to a garage to have it fixed.)


A jam occurs when the lens is on the camera, and something goes wrong during the release cycle, with the whole thing stopping where it should not, and not responding to the usual inputs (shutter release button, wind crank).
Then, you can reset the thing by turning the drive shaft through the rear of the camera (you do not need a special tool for that either). When you do, you should be able to take the lens off, and examine lens and camera separately.

Another way a jam might occur is when the camera and/or lens is released while you are taking the lens off the camera. When this happens, the position of the key/dog in the camera's mount and slot in the drive shaft on the lens will prevent taking the lens off the camera, as well as putting it back on again. You're well and truly stuck.
Turning the screw then may help, but it more often than not may not. (And still no special tool required). All it does is (try to) line the dog in the camera's mount up again, but with the slot in the drive shaft not lining up as well...
(This second type, by the way, is not a camera malfunction, but without fail due to user error.)


These jams are very rare. I have heard them reported often, but in decades of using a bunch of Hasselblad cameras never had one happen myself.

And if (!) they ever would happen to you, you do not need to spend ridiculous amounts of money for a special tool. So whatever you do, don't spend money on those!
 
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GOOGLE a film loading video on Youtube. It will tell you how to do it. I loaded my first roll wihout watching the video. Ruined the roll. Wathced the video. Several perfectly transported and exposed roll later, I'm not having any problems.

My 501 came with the Acute-Matte D 422xx screen with split image and micro prism focus aids. The brightest, best focusing screen this side of Bigfoot & Bubba, my M5 bodies.
 
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