LF lenses on a Hasselblad? Adapter? Helicoid?

[Early Riser]

Thanks for the reply.

A bellows is just too cumbersome for me to take on location.

If you search that *bay site with "hasselblad helicoid", you'll get several helical focusing mounts that fit the hasselblad, with a 65mm theaded, or smaller hole for a large format lens on the other end. I have one, which currently has a Imagon attached to it. You just have to select the correct length, and/or get some spacers.

I've seen those on eBay, they seem a little suspect as they indicate that the black interior coating may flake off if cleaned. How is the quality of them?

 

[Arklatexian]

I'm not aware of any... 500 series is very flexible for many things, but not for adapting lenses from other makers. It is likely easier with an F-series focal plane shutter model than with the classic leaf-shutter bodies. One would likely also have to use the bellows in order to focus a lens, even if you could get it attached.

The older Bronica S/D/Z cameras (not SQ or GS) are one of the better ones for adapting other lenses since the focusing system isn't part of the camera itself. I've looked into this route before but I've never experimented with it beyond research. I would imagine the RB67 has options as well.

This thread might be of interest to you:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I once owned a Hasselblad 1000F (focal plane shutter) and a bellows. I took a short extension tube apart, machined a piece to fit in the male section of the extension tube, cut a hole in it and mounted a 203mm Ektar with its synchro-Compur shutter in the hole. Shot a couple of rolls (B&W) and got some really nice negatives, All it took to shoot a picture was 1.Mount all parts of the contraption together including the camera. 2. Cock the shutter in the camera which lowered the mirror. 3. Open the shutter with the lens, open the aperture. 4. Focus on the subject, and if it was a human, tell it not to move. 5. Close the lens shutter and set the aperture to what ever the meter called for. 6. Being sure the front shutter is open, trip the rear (focal plane) shutter and make the exposure. It was always safer at this point to put the darkslide back in the magazine before setting up for the next shot. I think by now you can see why Viktor Hasselblad quit making the 1600F and the 1000F and came out with the much more practical 500C which led to everything since then.......Regards!

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Maybe I am dense. If you want big blow-ups and you want to use LF lenses in a compact format: Linhof Super Technika. If you insist on using roll film slap a Super Rollex on it and done.

... or get yourself thermal and light Mamiya 6 with its excellent set of 50,75 and 150mm lenses. It can easily replace a Hasselblad system for travel and is a whole lot easier to carry while giving you full-size 6x6 negatives, which I believe are sharper than Carl Zeiss negatives.

 

[Len Robertson]

To satisfy my curiosity, I mounted my older non-auto bellows onto a 500CM body, then held a 135mm Graflex Optar (about the only 135mm lens I own) against the front opening of the bellows. With the bellows fully collapsed there is too much extension to focus at infinity. Approximately 5 feet is the focusing distance. A different formula 135mm lens may have a different flange to film plane distance but it doesn't look likely that a 135mm will be usable at infinity, not without modifying the bellows.

I tried the same thing with a Hasselblad 55mm extension tube and again that was too much extension for infinity focus. I then stacked a 21mm and two 10mm tubes. This combination held the Optar an actual 47mm from the camera body. Infinity focus could be achieved by moving the lens slightly in front of this combination of tubes (maybe about 5mm forward from the tubes).

I thought this information might be useful to anyone trying one of the helicoids with a 135mm lens. It appears there are different versions of these available on eBay and some may have too much minimum extension to get infinity focus with a 135mm lens when the lens mounting adapter is taken into account.

Len

 

[itsdoable]

I've seen those on eBay, they seem a little suspect as they indicate that the black interior coating may flake off if cleaned. How is the quality of them?

Above is a 35mm~65mm helical focus tube with a hasselblad interface and a 52mm thread on the other end. I used a 52~40.5mm reducer, which was hand filed out to 41.6mm. This allows a Copal #1 shutter to be mounted, which the Imagon optical block was designed to use. You can easily mount any LF lens that was designed for a Copal #1 shutter. The Hasselblad flange distance is 74.9mm, so that, along with the focus helicoid, adapter ring, and copal shutter spacing (20mm), and the offset for the Imagon achromat block was just short of 130mm, which allowed this Imagon to focus just pass infinity (~120mm to the Copal shutter).

The Helicoid (as they call it) is well made, anodizes with a flat black paint layer on the inside - which has not flaked off on mine. I'm sure if I rubbed the inside painted surface, the flat paint would come off. There is a tiny amount of play, but pretty good for the price.

It works best on a 200/2000 series Hasselblad using the focal plane shutter, but of a 500 series, you would focus, close the Copal shutter, open the barn doors, trip the Copal shutter, close the barn doors - a very similar work flow to any large format photography. Since the OP was looking at using Large Format lenses, this is a possible solution. The only thing I might do different is get the focus tube with the 65mm thread (instead of the 52mm) which allows the larger Copal #3 shutters, and use the dedicated 65mm-copal shutter reducer instead of modifying/building your own.