Is this becoming a Hasselblad forum?

guangong · Oct 5, 2023

As previously noted previous threads, despite the mechanical fragility of the shutter mechanism, the overall design of the early Hasselblads laid the foundation for the phenomenal success of the C models. Other camera makers could never do more than catch up, which does not mean that many didn’t have interesting features desired by some in preference to Hassy. Sometimes being first has some advantages.

guangong · Oct 5, 2023

neilt3 said:
Not another Hasselblad thread !?

@ OP , start some non-Hasselblad threads , Mamiya for example, and the percentage of Hasselblad threads will reduce .

FYI , my medium format gear is Bronica ETRSi, ETRS , SQ , SQ-A , SQ-Ai .
Several Mamiya TLRs, a C3 , C33 and C330 .
Kiev 88, Kiev 60 ( yes , I do like these too ) . Assorted TLRs, Minolta , Yashica , LOMO , and other random marque's.
Bellows 120 , Moscow 5 , Kodak , fixed types , Ensign Ful-Vue and others.
So plenty of other gear to talk about .

I've never owned a Hasselblad, or used one . I wouldn't turn one down if someone wanted to give me one ( PM me if you want to give your gear to me for free ) , but I doubt I'd buy one .
I'm not convinced they can do anything better than what I already own .
I think any improvements to my output to be made are on me , not my gear !

Well said!

Hassasin · Oct 5, 2023

Thread's title had it written all over it before even first response was landed. It would naturally become what most Hasselblad's threads have.

While I'm never going to bash Hasselblad in a general sense, and it is an excellent system with clear quirks and unclear lack of change over time, there were others who went leaps forward in design and manufacture. Sometimes it's good to be trend setter, often it eventually starts to show when sticking to old is more important than changing what needed improvement. At least Hasselblad did that with CFi lenses. And thank you Mr. Victor for the SWC and Flexbody.

If it were not for the Japanese car makers, there would still likely be a Cadillac Coupe de Ville in production today. In a way I wish it were.

Was this shot with a Hasselblad ?

Hassasin · Oct 5, 2023

Always in style

Hassasin · Oct 5, 2023

Sirius Glass · Oct 5, 2023

neilt3 said:
Not another Hasselblad thread !?

@ OP , start some non-Hasselblad threads , Mamiya for example, and the percentage of Hasselblad threads will reduce .

FYI , my medium format gear is Bronica ETRSi, ETRS , SQ , SQ-A , SQ-Ai .
Several Mamiya TLRs, a C3 , C33 and C330 .
Kiev 88, Kiev 60 ( yes , I do like these too ) . Assorted TLRs, Minolta , Yashica , LOMO , and other random marque's.
Bellows 120 , Moscow 5 , Kodak , fixed types , Ensign Ful-Vue and others.
So plenty of other gear to talk about .

I've never owned a Hasselblad, or used one . I wouldn't turn one down if someone wanted to give me one ( PM me if you want to give your gear to me for free ) , but I doubt I'd buy one .
I'm not convinced they can do anything better than what I already own .
I think any improvements to my output to be made are on me , not my gear !

As a sixteen year old I had wanted the Bronica S in the worst way. Time advances, products and situations change, so when I went to trade in my Mamiya C330 with three lenses for a Rollei SL66, parts, lenses and service were already much better for owning a Hasselblad over Rollei. I bought at the time that professional photographers were ditching all the film equipment and buying Hasselblad equipment with multiple lenses was much less expensive than buying the top of the line Nikon or Canon with an equivalent set of focal length lenses.

Sirius Glass · Oct 5, 2023

guangong said:
As previously noted previous threads, despite the mechanical fragility of the shutter mechanism, the overall design of the early Hasselblads laid the foundation for the phenomenal success of the C models. Other camera makers could never do more than catch up, which does not mean that many didn’t have interesting features desired by some in preference to Hassy. Sometimes being first has some advantages.

Hasselblad equipment is compatible back to 1957. The only other cameras that might be able to make similar claims are Practica or Exacta.

Sirius Glass · Oct 5, 2023

Hassasin said:
Thread's title had it written all over it before even first response was landed. It would naturally become what most Hasselblad's threads have.

While I'm never going to bash Hasselblad in a general sense, and it is an excellent system with clear quirks and unclear lack of change over time, there were others who went leaps forward in design and manufacture. Sometimes it's good to be trend setter, often it eventually starts to show when sticking to old is more important than changing what needed improvement. At least Hasselblad did that with CFi lenses. And thank you Mr. Victor for the SWC and Flexbody.

If it were not for the Japanese car makers, there would still likely be a Cadillac Coupe de Ville in production today. In a way I wish it were.

Was this shot with a Hasselblad ?

View attachment 350521

What about the ArcBody and XPAN?

BrianShaw · Oct 5, 2023

LOL... Proving the thesis of the thread to be true, Steve!

And regarding the Caddy pictures, they seem more like artist renditions than photos.

guangong · Oct 5, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Hasselblad equipment is compatible back to 1957. The only other cameras that might be able to make similar claims are Practica or Exacta.

Backs, finders, tripod adapters are compatible, but not lenses. I had to wait until arrival of 2000FCM to again use Zeiss Olympic Sonnars, Leitz, and Killfit lenses on Hasselblad. Required making a whole new set of adapters. Couldn’t afford Hassy C and lenses until onslaught of digital brought prices down.
Some younger folks on photrio have no idea how costly cameras and lenses once were.

Jeremy Mudd · Oct 6, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Hasselblad equipment is compatible back to 1957. The only other cameras that might be able to make similar claims are Practica or Exacta.

Not medium format, but Nikon F-Mount get's fairly close to that with it being first introduced in 1959.

Jeremy

(I'm pretending the Z mount stuff doesn't exist, but the reality no one is making new lenses for the F mount standard anymore, so...............)

benveniste · Oct 6, 2023

So why start another 'blad thread instead of starting a Kiev thread?

Hassasin · Oct 6, 2023

BrianShaw said:
And regarding the Caddy pictures, they seem more like artist renditions than photos.

Not the one I asked what camera took it. The rest was clear nostalgia.

chuckroast · Oct 20, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Hasselblad equipment is compatible back to 1957. The only other cameras that might be able to make similar claims are Practica or Exacta.

And Leica and Nikon ...

Sirius Glass · Oct 20, 2023

chuckroast said:
And Leica and Nikon ...

But in 1957, Hasselblad was the only camera system. The best the rest had was a camera with a set of lenses. Neither Leica nor Nikon had changeable film backs.

MarkS · Oct 21, 2023

The 1979 Cadillac ad was likely shot on 8x10 transparency film and retouched as necessary. The older ads are certainly illustrations- note how the 1946(?) ad is stretched a bit to emphasize the car's length. hose illustrations might have began life as photographs- if so certainly made with large format cameras.

As for Hasselblads- they are top-quality cameras with a high reputation, and there are a large number of them still in use (and being collected). So statistically there should be plenty of posts about them.

You don't see many posts about the Graflex Norita, say, because few were sold and fewer survive. So it goes.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 21, 2023

I tried Hasselblad, but preferred Mamiya, especially the RB67. It's been my main medium format camera since 1992.

Philippe-Georges · Oct 21, 2023

An other reason to like the Hasselblad is the design. It was originally designed by Sixten Sason who designed the wonderful SAAB 93, -95, -96, -99 and the Husqvarna Silverpilen motorbike.
By this Swedish cars and cameras are somewhat connected for real...

BTW, that's why I don't like that much the CF series lenses, we call them the "Japan Look"...

Hassasin · Oct 21, 2023

Philippe-Georges said:
An other reason to like the Hasselblad is the design. It was originally designed by Sixten Sason who designed the wonderful SAAB 93, -95, -96, -99 and the Husqvarna Silverpilen motorbike.
By this Swedish cars and cameras are somewhat connected for real...

BTW, that's why I don't like that much the CF series lenses, we call them the "Japan Look"...

Completely agree, CF lenses took away that classic Hass look. Main reason why I'm looking for a kit just so I can enjoy what it once meant to have a Hass. 1000F is still on my list, but the 500C is not far behind. Silver Planar 80 does it, everything after that became just a tool to take photos.

Philippe-Georges · Oct 21, 2023

Hassasin said:
Completely agree, CF lenses took away that classic Hass look. Main reason why I'm looking for a kit just so I can enjoy what it once meant to have a Hass. 1000F is still on my list, but the 500C is not far behind. Silver Planar 80 does it, everything after that became just a tool to take photos.

Nokton48 · Oct 21, 2023

CFV16 500CM 250 C T Star Sonnar EI 200 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Handheld 500C/M CFV16 Digital Back 250mm f5.6 black C T* Zeiss Sonnar, EI 200 Metered with the Olde CDS Meter Prism, set the EV on the lens, this is the result. Lazy Dan

chuckroast · Oct 21, 2023

We need an anti-thread in which we discuss how HB has sold their corporate soul to the devil as evidenced by their failure to keep making V bodies (who wouldn't want a 520C//M??) and CFx lenses. Also ... they are evil for bowing to the gods of pixeltwiddling. Who's game?

BrianShaw · Oct 21, 2023

chuckroast said:
We need an anti-thread in which we discuss how HB has sold their corporate soul to the devil as evidenced by their failure to keep making V bodies (who wouldn't want a 520C//M??) and CFx lenses. Also ... they are evil for bowing to the gods of pixeltwiddling. Who's game?

Start one… it’s a valid opinion and should be a very interesting discussion. But please make it about abandoning a longtime product line rather than AvD. That would simply be trolling.

Hassasin · Oct 21, 2023

Philippe-Georges said:
View attachment 351520

I am envious.

chuckroast · Oct 21, 2023

BrianShaw said:
Start one… it’s a valid opinion and should be a very interesting discussion. But please make it about abandoning a longtime product line rather than AvD. That would simply be trolling.

I was actually being silly. I think all fanboi threads are sort of ... not productive. I'm more interested in seeing people's work, understanding technique, and so forth than I am having glass debates

In my multi-decade photographic journey, I have shot with cameras from Kodak, Nikon, Ricoh, Olympus, Sears, many different Mamiyas, Graflex, Yashica, Calumet, Wisner, and, yes, Hasselblad. I have been able to make highly satisfying images with them all. None of them made me better- or worse. I made me better- or worse...

Is this becoming a Hasselblad forum?

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency