Some basic Hasselblad questions

Favoring Hasselblad as my first MF but want to clarify a few things:

1. Are the various prisms easy enough to fit to the camera? (I'm tending towards PME-3 but that could change) ... Are they secure enough to leave attached to the camera in a pack when hiking?

2. I don't need flash metering (available light only) or winder, but the gliding mirror system (to avoid vignetting issues) sounds worthwhile. Am I right in assuming that the 503 CW was the first model with that feature?

3. Are there features missing from the 503 CW that people think are valuable?

4. What model was the first to come standard with the Acute Matte screen?
Are there variations of Acute Matte? Which is best?

Cheers and thanks

1. Very easy to fit to the camera. Remove back slide in viewfinder. Reinstall back. I leave mine on all the time.
2.gliding mirrors are on the 503CW, 501CM, all 200 and 2000 models and the 500elx, 553elx and 555eld. The 501CM and 2000 models do not have flash metering. 501CM is your best choice.
3. Can't think of any missing features.
4. Not sure which model first came with Acute-Matte screen. Doesn't really matter as screens can easily be switched. The Acute-Mat has a rather transparent crosshair in the middle of the screen. Easy to detect. Acute-Mat D also has 2 small notches in the screens frame. There are variations that include split image rangefinders and grid screens.

I leave the PME on the camera all the time. Not a problem in a pack.

The gliding mirrors are not a big deal. I do not have it on my 503 CX and that is not a problem. See: http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Hasselblad500.html~mainFrame

Acute Mat D screens come with the CX and newer.

Steve

The 2000 FC was the first with the bigger mirror, back in 1977. All later 2000-series models have it as well.

Next in line to get the bigger mirror was the 500 ELX in 1984. Again, all later EL(...)-line models have the bigger mirror.

The 503 CW was the first in the C-line that got the bigger mirror, in 1996.
Though already 19 years after it first appeared in the 2000 FC, 12 years after the EL(...)-models got it too, it was presented as if it was a new feature when the 503 CW appeared.
Yet it and the 501 CM which appeared one year later were not the first, but the last in line to get it.

In the C-line only the 503 CW and 501 CM have it.
When looking for a 501, don't confuse the 501 CM with the 501 C (no "M"). The 501 C does not have the larger mirror.




Acute Matte screens was one of the changes (one other was Palpas internal coating) that made the 3rd generation, so were introduced in the 503 CX, 553 ELX and 2003 FCW in 1988.

Since screens are freely interchangeable, many earlier cameras have an Acute Matte screen inside, while there is no guarantee that 3rd generation and later bodies do not have an older screen. So make sure when buying used.

Thanks Dent, Steve and Q.G.
I appreciate the assistance.
Cheers
Greg

Q.G. said:

In the C-line only the 503 CW and 501 CM have it.
When looking for a 501, don't confuse the 501 CM with the 501 C (no "M"). The 501 C does not have the larger mirror.

Click to expand...

The larger mirror is also retractable - it slides back before it comes up when you press the shutter release to provide clearance with longer lenses. This allows you to see the entire image when using longer lenses. On my 503 Cxi, which does not have this feature, there is slight vignetting of the ground glass image with the 150mm Sonnar (at the top) and severe vignetting with the 250mm Sonnar. That larger, retractable mirror would be a "must have" if I were buying a Hasselblad today.

You're absolutley right, of course, about the mirror moving to the rear while/before swinging up.

Yet a slight correction to what you wrote:
The clearance was needed, not for longer lenses (no part of the longer lenses comes close to the mirror), but for the 80 mm.
That lens alone, or rather its rear lens sticking into the body just that bit too far, was responsible for the too short mirror.



I do agree that it is very nice to have a mirror that is large enough for all lenses.
Yet i have 'made do' with the viewfinder vignetting for a long time, and it is something you get used to and learn to allow for.
So if anyone looking for a Hasselblad can afford/find one with the larger mirror, do get it. Else, don't worry about it. The ones with shorter mirror are very usable too.