New hasselblad but lil confused.

kb244 · Aug 25, 2007

I aquired a hasselblad 500C/M as shown here, I just developed my first test roll (Tmax 100). I am a tiny bit confused.

I mainly did a total of 4 shots or so (got a tad impatient, wanted to load up some Tri-X, besides the Tmax was a free roll). Only two of the frames showed up, what showed up fine were the ones I shot with natural light. I did two studio shots hooked up to some strobes, however I connected it to the PC sync via the body (Bad move?) I thought I did least one of the two via the PC sync on the lens (it was set on X).

What I am confused of is the PC sync on the side of the body. I managed to find and download a user manual for a 500C/M, however in the manual is no pictures of the PC sync on the body, so I am somewhat confused.

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 25, 2007

the sync on the body should work at X if you have the lens set to X...from the look of the shot you have posted here, your lens is set to M. As a general failsafe, though, use the sync post on the lens. The post in the body may not trigger properly.

kb244 · Aug 25, 2007

TheFlyingCamera said:
the sync on the body should work at X if you have the lens set to X...from the look of the shot you have posted here, your lens is set to M. As a general failsafe, though, use the sync post on the lens. The post in the body may not trigger properly.

No, the Sync is set to X because its empty below M, the button is under X. (That was the main thing I checked, and I even pushed the switch over to M after pulling down the safety then back to X just to make sure it was under X before firing).

kb244 · Aug 25, 2007

Course now i can't seem to get it back to m, just between V and X.

kb244 · Aug 26, 2007

from the looks of shooting two polaroid tests ( one all black, the other an image ) I guess the body PC sync is not syncing correctly but the lens is. (The only problem is the Pc socket on the lens is very small, so its very loose when putting a cable on it).

kb244 · Aug 26, 2007

In any case here is the first ambient/natural light shot I did on the 500C/M

eddym · Aug 26, 2007

Take the back off the camera, plug in the pc cord and turn on the flash. Set the lens to f2.8, point it at a wall and look through the back of the camera as you fire the shutter. If you see the flash when the lens opens, the synch is good. If you don't, it's set to M... or the x synch is off or not working.

I learned this the hard way with a Rollei TLR, after shooting a couple's 50th wedding anniversary. Ever since then, I have performed this test before shooting a job with any camera with flash.

kb244 · Aug 26, 2007

Yea X seems to be working on the lens, no firing at all on the body. Wondering what the second hole is on the body.

John Koehrer · Aug 26, 2007

The other hole is for a small hook Hasselblad used as a retiner for the PC cord.

Sirius Glass · Aug 27, 2007

You can find Hasselblad camera and lens manuals here => http://www.hasselbladhistorical.eu/HW/HWVSys.aspx

Steve

skahde · Aug 28, 2007

The PC-socket on the body is coupled to the rear baffles. As there is no backwards communication from the lens to the body (that's why you have to leave your finger on the trigger as long as a long-time exposure lasts) it never knows if the lens is set to X or M. As far as I remember, the PC-socket on the body of early 500CMs is only intended for use on microscopes, bellows aso. and Hasselblad advises against its use with shuttered lenses.

And for a reason: After opening the rear baffles, the body signals the lens to fire the shutter but doesn't know how long it will actually take untill the shutter is open and how long it will stay that way. Therefore, with long exposeure-times set on the lens synching via the body will propably work but with short exposure times where timing gets very critical (1/500th is 2 Milliseconds) and the flash may illuminate a closed shutter.

best

Stefan

New hasselblad but lil confused.

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