The rabbit hole of Hassleblad

[mweintraub]

I have all three formats... but different cameras. Mamiya 645 Pro, Bronica SQ-A, and Mamiya RZ67 (among others in those formats), but they all have their place.

OP, maybe sell the 645AF, get a 6x6 (hassy, if you want) and if you miss 645, get a back for that camera or get a cheaper Mamiya 645 Pro.

 

[nathantw]

FWIW, I've been using a 553ELX since 1993 and various other lenses. Love the camera and lenses. It is definitely a little heavy because of the motor, but nothing that held me back. I carried it to Hawaii, to Washington parks, to long, uphill hikes up Yosemite. The results were always great. I added a 500c/m a few years later as a backup and though I rarely used it the camera was a joy to use also. The advice people gave you about buying a used EL/ELX was good because it'll give you a working motorized camera at a very cheap price. However, I'd go for the ELX because it uses AA batteries instead of having to modify it to use a 9v battery as you would the EL. If you go the non-motor version the 503CW was the last model Hasselblad made, but you could buy a motor drive and it had OTF metering for flash. Handy at times.

Used lenses couldn't be cheaper nowadays. Lenses that used to cost $2800 in 1994 are now $750 or cheaper. I started with a 120mm Makro Planar for a few years then added a 60mm. There it stayed until a few years ago when prices were cheap when the 180mm and 80mm (normally the first lens to buy, go figure) were purchased. The last one for my puzzle is the 40mm which I briefly had and loved it.

As was mentioned before the cameras can be really heavy when you start adding a prism, film back and lens. However, it's not any heavier than a modern camera with a wide aperture zoom lens attached.

Good luck!

 

[Nokton48]

..until Hasselblad could not offer a square digital sensor!

What about the original CFV digital back? That is square.

 

[ac12]

IMHO, the lens to start with depends on what you shoot.
If you normally shoot with short tele, then get the 150 or 180.
If you normally shoot with a "normal" lens, then get the the 80.
If you normally shoot with a short wide lens, then get the 60.

BTW, the "standard" 3-lens kit is 50,80,150.
I personally was going to go 40,80,180 to get a wider spread.
- But the 40 was significantly more $$$ than the 50, enough to not cost justify the difference. Plus the 40 was larger and heavier than the 50.
- Similarly, the 180 was more $$$ than the 150, or maybe it was that I could find cheaper 150s than 180s.
So in the end, I ended up with the standard 50,80,150 kit.

Personally, I would keep your other film format cameras. You would probably loose $$$ in the sale of it.
Several years ago I bought a 500CM + A12 back + 80CF lens for less than I paid for my Nikon D70 in 2004. That felt both good (I could finally afford to buy a Hasselblad, in the past it used to be an "only in your dreams" camera) and bad (the used price of a fine camera had dropped so far down).
As others have also said, each camera system brings a different feel of operation to the table, and based on what you are shooting, one could be better than the other for that task.

 

[Richard Man]

I will be getting either a 501CM or a 203FE at some point. I am thinking that for the wide, I would just take the SWC/M along

 

[Sirius Glass]

I prefer SWC, 50mm, 80mm, 150mm and 250mm OR SWC, 50mm, 100mm, 150mm and 250mm.