Kiev 88 with digital back

[RezaLoghme]

I think anyone who buys a 907x is essentially buying a Hasselblad with a digital back and a medium format sensor to use the new lens lineup, and that can be paired with the old 500 C/M or 203 that's gathering dust in the attic. I think few people would buy the CFV system and still spend $7,000 to get their old lenses.

I don't think there are any shops in Italy that rent that camera; in any case, I'd also have to rent (or borrow) an analog Hasselblad to test it out. Too risky. I might just like it.

If the "risk" is that you might just like it, get a 907 and a 500CM, sell a kidney and your grandmother.Life is really too short to spend time on meddling with stuff, unless you love the tinkering more than actually using the camera.

Ask yourself: If you'd own the 907l, would you ever think "If I had only bought a Kiev?".

 

[B.S.Kumar]

When I wrote "barrel lenses" I meant vintage brass lenses that do not have a shutter mechanism or a focusing helicoid, but do have an aperture control mechanism.

1. The native Kiev lenses are also barrel lenses except that they have a focusing mechanism. If you want faster shutter speeds, you might be able to mount a Copal, Compur or Prontor 3, Shanel 5A or the larger Acme and Ilex shutters in front of the lens. You will of course have to ensure that there is no vignetting. The digital back is connected to this shutter.

It may be possible to mount lenses from other SLR cameras, as long as they can focus at infinity (or at portrait distances, if that is your priority).

2. Barrel lenses as used with large format cameras pose the additional challenge of focusing.

This can be done by mounting the lens in a helicoid like the Pentax 67 Helicoid Extension Tube. This will naturally add some extension, so you would be limited to using lenses longer than 105mm or so.

Again, if you can live with the 1/30 sync speed there's no need to do anything else. For faster speeds a front mounted shutter may be possible.

3. Using regular large format lenses mounted in shutters is straightforward. Mount the lens in a body cap, which in turn mounts in a focusing helicoid (like the Pentax) and connect its shutter to the digital back. Again, you are limited to 105mm and longer lenses.

In all these cases, you would keep the shutter on the camera body open at 1 second, B or T and trigger the back with the connection on the external shutter.

Shutters like the Sinar Copal and Packard would minimize vignetting, but they are very large.

Using Sinarbacks is certainly not as convenient as using a modern CFV100 back, but is certainly far, far cheaper. Sometimes cost is an insurmountable problem... There are still many commercial photographers still using them and making money.

Kumar

 

[Kievmarc]

If the "risk" is that you might just like it, get a 907 and a 500CM, sell a kidney and your grandmother.Life is really too short to spend time on meddling with stuff, unless you love the tinkering more than actually using the camera.

Ask yourself: If you'd own the 907l, would you ever think "If I had only bought a Kiev?".

Unfortunatly I run out of grandmothers, last one sold for when I bought my used car

Probably no, except for the idea of the analogic object.

 

[RezaLoghme]

I dont want to spoil the fun of your project but this looks as if they offer a V body + digital back to rent.

Exit Rental - Cameras Hasselblad

CAMERAS HASSELBLAD HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ2 50MP HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ3 80MP HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ3 100MP HASSELBLAD H5D 60MP HASSELBLAD X1D 50C HASSELBLAD 503/553 + IQ 50MP

exitrental.eu

I found 2 other vendors based in Italy, offering Hasselblads to rent, on first page of Google results.

 

[flavio81]

However, it's also true that these defects are due more to a lack of final quality control and maintenance than to design (they copied the Hasselblad 1000F after all).

The Hasselblad 1000F wasn't a reliable camera as well. They abandoned the focal plane shutter and decided using a reliable leaf shutter was a better choice, and thus the 500C was born and the rest is history.

The soviet cameras (Salyut, Kiev 80/88) are inheriting the reliability problems of the 1000F.

That being said, there are people who report very good reliability with them. But they're not the norm.

The back's light tightness (or lack of it) could be due to the camera body or the back

Light fog problems in the back are almost always caused by a worn seal between the dark slide and the back. Something easy to repair.

Maybe also the experties of @flavio81 can help with this thread

Thanks for the quote, however i'm not sure how to help.

What I see here is that you are trying to fit a digital back on a Kiev 88 or similar body.

This would mean that you would use a smaller sensor than 6x6 on a 6x6 camera.

Anyways, if you're doing that, the only advantage I see is to use the wide array of (VERY CHEAP) soviet lenses available for that mount.

But on the other hand I read here that you are planinng to mount large format camera lenses with leaf shutters. In that case, using a Kiev 88 doesn't make sense at all, just adapt a digital back to a large format camera and call it a day.

Finally, I never liked the idea of old medium format lenses on digital backs. The sensor size of what the industry has the nerve to call "MEDIUM FORMAT DIGITAL" is tiny compared to true medium forma. I think the biggest sensor available nearly reaches 645 format. That is a joke.

If you want to digitally get closer to medium format results i would recommend Pentax 6x7 lenses on a Fuji GFX "medium" format digital using a Kipon focal reducer. In that way the laughably tiny sensor size of the Fuji is optically compensated for.

Still, i'm a film shooter first and foremost.

 

[RezaLoghme]

I dont want to spoil the fun of your project but this looks as if they offer a V body + digital back to rent.

Exit Rental - Cameras Hasselblad

CAMERAS HASSELBLAD HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ2 50MP HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ3 80MP HASSELBLAD H5X + IQ3 100MP HASSELBLAD H5D 60MP HASSELBLAD X1D 50C HASSELBLAD 503/553 + IQ 50MP

exitrental.eu

I found 2 other vendors based in Italy, offering Hasselblads to rent, on first page of Google results.

@Kievmarc did you have a chance to speak to the vendors about renting the digi back + body?