Pistol grip opinions

[Grim Tuesday]

I've really been enjoying the ergonomics of my Pentax 6x7 for eye-level shooting (especially with the meter!) and it's made me want to use the prism more often on my Hassy. But I don't really find the ergonomics to be very compelling with my big meter prism on there. I was thinking about buying a pistol grip, but I'm not sure if that will improve it at all or just make it worse. Has anyone tried one and could share their thoughts on it?

 

[Greg Kriss]

Side OEM wooden handle works great but adds a lot of bulk to the camera. I have tried a modified vintage Nikon pistol grip grip and found the Pentax to be too top heavy and not all that well balanced in hand. Also tried an adapted double handle Hasselblad grip. Liked it the most but was just too bulky to use in the field, and whenever you took one hand off one of the handles to do anything the whole thing was hard to hold using just one hand on one of the handles. I finally ended up fabricating a bracket the screwed into the bottom of the camera and went up to the side of the camera allowing the camera to ride horizontally in front of me with the strap around the back of my neck. Took me three tries to fabricate that bracket using a small Milling machine from Micro-Mark. In practice having the "heavy" 67 hanging from my neck wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Always hated the camera strap attachments being on one side of the body... not sure what Pentax was thinking.

 

[AgX]

Greg, the OP does not want an pistol grip for his Pentax (which he finds ergonomically pleasing), but for his Hasselblad.

 

[cjbecker]

Ive never used the pistol grip for a blad, but I have the ergo side grip with built in shutter release, when using a 45 prism it makes for a very nice and fast camera to use. Not sure how it would be with a 90 degree prism tho, seams like it would be at a bad angle for 90 degree use.

 

[AnselMortensen]

I shot four rolls of 120 through my 500C/M with an eye-level prism yesterday.
I was shooting almost straight down, and it was awkward.
If I would have had a pistol grip, it would have been a different kind of awkward.
For standard eye-level prism shooting, a pistol grip might be convenient, depending on which hand and which eye is dominant.
Maybe do a Google search for "Linhof 220"?

 

[Alex Varas]

I have used the pistol grip and the 90 degrees prism with a 500cm and the 80mm Planar.
Of course it was heavier because of the prism but comfortable with the pistol, it felt fine for me, without the pistol the handling is worse.
Edit: I would add a wrist strap for security reasons.

 

[Neil Grant]

Greg, the OP does not want an pistol grip for his Pentax (which he finds ergonomically pleasing), but for his Hasselblad.

... it's still useful opinion for newbie P 6x7 users, even those that consider rear-mounted gelatins for the 45mm lens.

 

[bdial]

I had the bottom mount pistol grip for the first Hasselblad I had several years ago, and found it easy to work with. I used it with a 45 degree prism.

 

[John Koehrer]

The 45 degree prism i& grip s much more comfy than the 90. Try holding the camera at eye level with the camera resting on the edge of your
hand as if you were using it. I think you're going to find your wrist bending uncomfortably.

Well, it is an opinion......