The Hasselblad is arriving tomorrow...

jerrybro · Oct 9, 2020

When I bought my first MF, a Rolleicord, I adjusted to it very quickly and I when saw the first set of color prints I became a MF convert. 9 years ago I finally bought a Blad and found getting used to it took a little while. Part of it was the handling difference, another part was definitely the cost difference, I live in fear of breaking expensive stuff. Once I established a workflow things got better. One subtle difference, the focus throw on the Cord is much smaller than the Blad, so I often zone focused and used it as my walking around sniping camera. With the longer throw of the Blad and the brighter screen I spend a lot more time tweaking the focus when I probably don't need to.

Enjoy the camera, it is truly a well made instrument.

cayenne · Oct 9, 2020

Вormental said:
Just finished my first roll. I was relieved to confirm that it's a tough camera, nothing flimsy about it, and it doesn't need to be babied. One disappointing aspect is focusing. My camera came with the Acute Matte D #42217 (split-image with grid) screen and I'm struggling, hoping to improve with practice, but this made me realize how much I rely on microprism on my other SLRs... Should have gotten the #42215 instead.

Congrats on your new toy!!
Not long back I got my first, a 501CM.

I may be stating the obvious, but this one caught me (I am a bit of a noob to MF film shooting).

ON the Hassy lenses there is that side sliding lever/switch that will fully open the aperture or close it to your actual setting. Before focusing and having troubles...did you slide that switch to fully open the aperture?

This caught me a few times, as that with the aperture closed down I just could NOT get the split prism to work to let me focus, one side dark and couldn't get it to work.
I found that switch and Voila...I was able to use the spilt prism easily to focus.

And per another thread out there, it seems you can shoot with the switch in either position....so, I pretty much just leave it open at all times for quicker focusing and I know in my head what the DOF will look like, no need for the pre-view 99.999% of the time.

Good Luck!!

cayenne

etn · Oct 9, 2020

Вormental said:
@etn and it fits onto a V-body? Neat, I noticed those on eBay too. My plan is try to adjust. I absolutely adore shooting with a WLF, and have no problem focusing with my C330S, let's see if I can improve before ordering more equipment.

Yes, those were made for the V series. As a matter of fact Hasselblad supplied one with their CFV 50c backs version 1 - now with the v2 they just give a mask made of cheap cardboard. Well, this is the kind of measures you do to drop the price of a digital back from $20k to $6k.

GLS · Oct 9, 2020

etn said:
now with the v2 they just give a mask made of cheap cardboard

Wow, that's lame.

etn · Oct 9, 2020

GLS said:
Wow, that's lame.

Agree with you, but on the flip side of the coin they managed to drop the price of medium format digital by a considerable amount - this cannot be done without cutting corners. I think offering the screen as a (reasonably priced) option is OK. We can argue whether $260 is "reasonably priced". Doesn't seem too bad compared to some other Hasselblad accessories.

Вormental_old · Oct 9, 2020

cayenne said:
ON the Hassy lenses there is that side sliding lever/switch that will fully open the aperture or close it to your actual setting. Before focusing and having troubles...did you slide that switch to fully open the aperture?

Thanks! Yes, I never use DOF preview on any platform. To clarify: the image is insanely bright and crisp, much brighter than Mamiya C330s, but it's not easy to find the exact position of a focus ring where everything is the sharpest. @jerrybro is right: the lens I have has a very long focus throw, as I'm looking into the viewfinder I see a sharp image, I turn the focus ring half-inch and the image is still sharp. Basically I cannot see any changes as I make minor focus ring adjustments. I never found split-focus circle to work well on any SLR (maybe because I'm so used to rangefinders). A microprism ring is amazing with hair/eyelashes/fabrics/grass, frankly I'm quite surprised they aren't the only/standard way of manually-focusing SLRs.

One trick I'm relying on right now is to make very quick, substantial turns left-right under/over-focusing, getting the feel of where my fingers were during the "sharpest middle", and then quickly returning there, using just focus ring travel distance by the feel of the focus ring position. This is almost zone-focusing using the viewfinder to approximate the range. I'll develop the film tonight and see how well I did.

Sirius Glass · Oct 9, 2020

E*N*J*O*Y !!!

itsdoable · Oct 9, 2020

A Microprism screen was my

Вormental said:
Just finished my first roll. I was relieved to confirm that it's a tough camera, nothing flimsy about it, and it doesn't need to be babied. One disappointing aspect is focusing. My camera came with the Acute Matte D #42217 (split-image with grid) screen and I'm struggling, hoping to improve with practice, but this made me realize how much I rely on microprism on my other SLRs... Should have gotten the #42215 instead.

I've always had a preference for microprism screens too, having grown up shooting moving action on old film SLRs. Unfortunately, a lot of people find it easier to use a split image (simpler learning curve), and as a result, Hasselblad never made a MicroPrism only screen (although you could argue that the acute matte screen is covered in microprisms). The best you can get is the 42215, which has a microprism ring around the split image, and that one is $$$.

So I learned to use the matte part of the screen, which is almost as good, and works at any aperture (split & mirco are optimized for certain apertures). My main screen is the 42170 (same as your), and I mostly use the matte area around the split image, and only really use the split when there is a lot of time to focus and compose.

Sirius Glass · Oct 9, 2020

I switched from the micro prism to cross hairs. Longer lenses or lenses with larger f/stop numbers made it hard to use the micro prism.

itsdoable · Oct 9, 2020

Вormental said:
...I'm looking into the viewfinder I see a sharp image, I turn the focus ring half-inch and the image is still sharp. Basically I cannot see any changes as I make minor focus ring adjustments....

The Acute Matte screen is composed of micro prisms (more micro than the focus aid version), and as a result, shows a slight areal image right near the focus point. The trick to getting correct focus is to ensure that the scribed lines on the screen are in the same sharp focus to your eyes as the image. With an areal image, the eyes can adjust focus onto it even if it is not focused on the screen. But if your eyes do that, the scrided lines on the screen will be out of focus to your eyes, as they are focused elsewhere. The other trick is to move your head from side to side, if the areal image is not coincident with the screen's scribed lines, they will show some differential motion - this is how photomicrography screens work.

The "Acute matte D" screens solved this problem by using lenslets instead of microprisms.

Вormental_old · Oct 9, 2020

@itsdoable that's helpful, thanks. Another thing I'm noticing is that my other cameras (Fuji, Leica, Nikon) have -1 diopters in their viewfinders, but my WLF finders (Hasselbland and Mamiya) appear to be 0. I found some diopters for Hasselblad WLF on eBay, but their descriptions say for the newer type WLF but I have no idea if I have a "newer" type. The manual shows how to replace the magnifier lens, but doesn't mention any other WLF types.

John Will · Oct 9, 2020

Вormental said:
@itsdoable that's helpful, thanks. Another thing I'm noticing is that my other cameras (Fuji, Leica, Nikon) have -1 diopters in their viewfinders, but my WLF finders (Hasselbland and Mamiya) appear to be 0. I found some diopters for Hasselblad WLF on eBay, but their descriptions say for the newer type WLF but I have no idea if I have a "newer" type. The manual shows how to replace the magnifier lens, but doesn't mention any other WLF types.

The 'new' type WLF was introduced in 1986, prior to that the finder had no practical method for different correction lenses. Old finders have a button release which you move to the side and later versions just lift up.

Вormental_old · Oct 9, 2020

Woo! I have the "newer" type then

John Will · Oct 10, 2020

Вormental said:
Woo! I have the "newer" type then

Excellent!

You have to be very careful purchasing used Hasselblads, many sellers replace later items (viewfinders,film backs, focus screens etc) with older versions and sell the later items separately. Of course the later items attract larger prices.

Вormental_old · Oct 11, 2020

Ok, I have developed and scanned my first Hasselblad roll. The good news is that I do not see any light leaks and the exposures are perfect. The bad news is that I only have 2 reasonably sharp photos out of 12. The other ten are:

6 back-focused, some by a mile
2 front-focused, I am assuming this, as nothing is in focus and the blurriness doesn't look like a shake blur
2 shake blur, despite not using shutter speeds slower than 1/125s

Basically, my difficulties with focus predictably resulted in terrible results.

Compared to my other MF gear this system is the hardest for a novice to shoot well with, by far. Surprisingly, the difficulty of getting great results is directly proportional to price of my equipment. Easiest to hardest:

Mamiya C330s. ($) Easy to focus, cheap, shot after shot I've been getting amazing results from this lovely box since day one. By far the best for handheld operation, easily workable at 1/60s.
Mamiya 645 Pro TL. ($$) Consistent metering, foolproof operation, dead-easy to focus manually. 1/60s handheld is not impossible.
Fuji GF670. ($$$) Temperamental rangefinder. Super portable and the lens is out of this world. Tricky to focus accurately, susceptible to shake blur.
Hasselblad 503cx. ($$$$) Leica quality in MF. Very hard to focus accurately, susceptible to shake blur, finicky lens/back operation.

I really hope it's my technique and not some kind of focusing screen misalignment... I must admit though, that I've made some progress seeing focus better with this Acute Matte screen and I expect my 2nd roll to be better.

The 60mm CF f/3.5 lens is pretty sweet. It's DOF is shallower than I expected, the bokeh is creamy and I absolutely love how it holds the contrast when shooting backlit subjects.

Hoping to tame the beast soon, keeping fingers crossed!

Deleted member 88956 · Oct 11, 2020

etn said:
Agree with you, but on the flip side of the coin they managed to drop the price of medium format digital by a considerable amount - this cannot be done without cutting corners. I think offering the screen as a (reasonably priced) option is OK. We can argue whether $260 is "reasonably priced". Doesn't seem too bad compared to some other Hasselblad accessories.

That "adjustment" made insignificant difference to the total price to make the whole thing. But I heard Aston Martin is looking into using cardboard too, so it must the new low all around.

GLS · Oct 11, 2020

Вormental said:
Hasselblad 503cx. Very hard to focus accurately, susceptible to shake blur

I haven't found this to be the case at all. Since getting my 501CM I have probably put 100 rolls through it, most of which were shot hand held with lenses up to 180mm. I could count on one hand the total number of such shots where I have missed focus or induced shake blur into the frame.

I'm not trying to brag, just offering a different perspective and user experience. Keep practicing and I'm sure you will improve your keeper rate.

etn · Oct 11, 2020

Вormental said:
Ok, I have developed and scanned my first Hasselblad roll. The good news is that I do not see any light leaks and the exposures are perfect. The bad news is that I only have 2 reasonably sharp photos out of 12.

I am sorry to hear that and imagine how frustrating it could be! Other Hassy users on this forum (including myself) do not experience the issues you describe therefore I fear something might be wrong here.

Do you have a possibility to have your body (and possibly lens and back) checked for alignment?
Before that, a possible test with your 2nd roll could be to check the accuracy of the split image against a vertical line.
If you do not already do so, maybe try to use the split image for every single picture?

1/125th should be fine with the 60mm lens, here again I do not have a problem despite not being particularly careful about holding the camera steady (>90% of my pictures are hand held.)

Hope this helps, good luck,

Etienne

warden · Oct 11, 2020

It’s interesting that your results include front focusing and also back focusing. If it was one or the other I might think that something is wrong with the camera but maybe not? When I get a new camera I like to put it on a tripod and do a roll of focus experiments at an open aperture just to make sure everything is working properly.

BrianShaw · Oct 11, 2020

Before you get too frustrated or throw in the towel, put that bad-boy on a tripod and try just one more roll of film.

btaylor · Oct 11, 2020

jawarden said:
It’s interesting that your results include front focusing and also back focusing. If it was one or the other I might think that something is wrong with the camera but maybe not? When I get a new camera I like to put it on a tripod and do a roll of focus experiments at an open aperture just to make sure everything is working properly.

+1. Take out as many variables as possible. I have a focus / grayscale target I use at 9 ft from the film plane measured with a tape measure. Then you can check that everything agrees: viewfinder- lens scale- film plane.
I hope you are only dealing with user error! I bought a 501c/m that required a trip to Mr Odess to get straightened out.

Вormental_old · Oct 11, 2020

I should have mentioned that half of the shots were made on a tripod. Yes, it solves the shake blur but doesn't really help with focusing. I am not that worried about handholding, as this is a technique issue: the manual recommends holding the camera and triggering the shutter with the left hand and focus with the right hand. This is quite unusual / unnatural for me, but I'm sticking to the recommended technique expecting to get better.

All of the shots were portraits and I couldn't use the split-image circle effectively.

GLS · Oct 11, 2020

Вormental said:
the manual recommends holding the camera and triggering the shutter with the left hand and focus with the right hand. This is quite unusual / unnatural for me, but I'm sticking to the recommended technique expecting to get better.

FWIW, I don't follow the manual's recommendation as I also found it very unnatural. I think those guidelines were written with the assumption that waist level shooting would be used, whereas I always shoot at eye level with a 45 degree prism. I support the camera underneath with both hands, focus with the left, and release the shutter with the right index finger. If shooting at slower speeds I will also make sure to brace the lens hood underneath near the end with my left fingers, forming a kind of inverted tripod with the left hand, take as stable a stance as I can and also make sure to squeeze the shutter during a slow, controlled exhalation. All of these techniques make a difference.

In terms of focusing with the split image for portraits, I've always just used the edge of the subject's iris as the alignment point.

Вormental_old · Oct 11, 2020

GLS said:
I support the camera underneath with both hands, focus with the left, and release the shutter with the right index finger.

Yes! This is how I work my Mamiya 645 Pro, which basically shares the same ergonomics with the 503cx, but Mamiya lenses have a much shorter focus throw, and require noticeably less force to turn a focus ring, so this works well. With this Hassy I feel the need to allocate a full arm to the focus operation as it requires more turning and the ring is much stiffer (something I hear is normal/expected of Zeiss CF lenses).

BrianShaw · Oct 11, 2020

Вormental said:
I should have mentioned that half of the shots were made on a tripod. Yes, it solves the shake blur but doesn't really help with focusing.

Did you use the focusing magnifier, or forget to mention that also?

and how’s your vision? I’ve been having increasing difficulty focusing as cataracts progress... and every time my bifocal prescription changes.

The Hasselblad is arriving tomorrow...

Deleted member 88956

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