This month most newbie question, Hasselblad 503CW

[Helinophoto]

Hi

Just purchased a Hasselblad 503CW and I was wondering if anyone here could be so kind as to answer me this:

- When you're out shooting and you've shot your 12 frames, do you then rewind your film, take it out and replace it with a fresh roll? Or do I need to open/remove the film in the dark-room? Or do you _not_ rewind at all, but take out the takeup-spool and store that before processing?

I know this is probably a stupid question (and it is), but Internet searches yielded no hits (hard to find a search term that match the question), and it is probably so basic that no one has ever asked the question.

I am very familiar with 135mm film and cameras (canon, leica), but medium format and Hasselblad is un-charted territory for a happy amateur like me.

Thank you.

 

[Roger Cole]

I don't know the Hassie but in general you can unload 120 film in daylight. I unload and reload my Yashicamat all the time and never have had a fogging issue. This looks sort of dangerous to those used to 35mm with its cartridges sealed with light traps and even to sheet film shooters (I went from 35mm straight to 4x5 skipping MF until more than a decade later) used to film holders and darkslides, since it's hard at first to trust the backing paper and the film is just sort of loose. But you'll see as soon as you remove the paper to develop the film (assuming you do it yourself) that there's lots of opaque paper leader before and after the film.

Even if you don't do your own darkroom work you might find a very cheap or very old roll to sacrifice to see how it all works. Then it makes more sense.

 

[Helinophoto]

Thank you! =D

Yes, I plan to develop the films myself, (I even scraped some Kodak Plus-x 120 film down from eBay for this very purpose).
Indeed, I've just seen a couple of youtub clips where they show how to load the hasselblad and the 120 rolls indeed looks like any light would yield disaster

Thank you for clearing things up a bit for me, right now, things are pretty teorethical, going to be good to get some hands-on experience =)

 

[Rick A]

After the last shot you continue to wind for a few revolutions to make certain the film is wound completely onto the take-up spool. You should be able to feel when resistance stops. You then remove that and secure the end strip to keep it from unwinding. When you are ready to load a new roll of film, move the empty spool to the take-up side and place a fresh roll in the feed side, and start all over again. You do not rewind 120 or 220 film as you do with 35mm.

 

[chioque]

As what Rick says, I rewind the film until I don't feel any resistance with the crank, and continue with one or two more revolutions, just to be on the safe side. Then you can open the back in light. But I suggest in shaded area to do that, not in direct sun-lit area

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Just to clarify, you don't RE wind at all. You are continuing to wind the film in the same direction as when you shot it until you feel no resistance.

 

[Barrie B.]

H/Blad film winding .

After you expose the 12 th. frame the 'wind-on' (Knob or crank) will not go on past No. 12 so yo then have to wind on with the 'magazine winder' - it will be tight and then go slack , then you can open up and remove the film, seal it down with the little paper flap .
Then you change-over the empty plastic spool to the other side and load up your next film .
...................... Cheers Barrie B.

 

[Helinophoto]

Allright, thanks all, going to be fun to try out, going to shoot some cheap Fomapan in the beginning as I am learning.

Fun to be the only guy my age (37) in my area, moving away from digital and into film and medium format
I don't have any old-timers around to help me either, so the Internet is my base for knowledge, so your answers are gold ^^

 

[MattKing]

It is not a stupid question at all!

Although it does bring home to me how much I actually learned from my first camera - a Brownie Starmite which took 127 film:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/captkodak/271877075/in/pool-46195334@N00/lightbox/

 

[Katie]

Allright, thanks all, going to be fun to try out, going to shoot some cheap Fomapan in the beginning as I am learning.

Fun to be the only guy my age (37) in my area, moving away from digital and into film and medium format
I don't have any old-timers around to help me either, so the Internet is my base for knowledge, so your answers are gold ^^

You and me both. But I'm a girl. Same age ... and I get asked all the time ~ WHY film?

 

[C.Kline]

You're really going to fall in love with that camera (if you haven't already).

 

[Sirius Glass]

Here is a loading video for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op6hDyMmkqA

After the twelfth exposure keep winding for a while, you can open in daylight, but in the shade or subdued light is better.

Fell free to ask all the questions you want.

Steve

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Elect-Ron-ic.

 

[jbbooks]

Things that you might find useful:

A couple of copies of Ernst Wildi's Hasselblad manuals. I would particularly recommend the 2nd edition for the older stuff and the 6th edition to include the later stuff, like your camera. abebooks.com, is a good place to look for them,

and

Dead Link Removed

the PDF file is from the Hasselblad site. I think the link will work, even if you are not signed in as a user. Either way, it is worth your time to register as a user.

If you do go to their site, to register as a user, you do not have to actually register a product; when you get to that page, just click on "continue" to finish the registration. That will give you access to all of the manuals they have available when you go to "support" and select "manuals" and,then, from that menu, "V System".

 

[Helinophoto]

Thanks for the youtube link, I did indeed saw something similar the other day, but the one you posted was better ^^
- One question though, I see that he winds the back until the frame counter says "1" in the end, at the same time he mentioned that the procedure was excactly the same, even if you didn't have a dark slide in place....but wouldn't that procedure expose the first frame to light?
Lets say you don't have a dark slide, would you do the cranking on the back to "1" after you'd attached the back to your camera?

Thanks for the link to the Hasselblad site, good to know that they have the pdf-versions online, because I am unsure if I get the camera with the instructions (comes in the original package though).

Can't wait, going to be fun, gonna go out and shoot some EFKE IR film today, the challenge will take my mind of the slow-moving postal truck =)

Katie: Indeed, it's is so hard/impossible to try and explain to people why film (and especially medium format and large format) is better than digital and/or why it is different....and why I like to use it more than digital.

Checked your blog and your selection, awesome work, you should just point them to your blog and say "See? That's why" =)

Regards

 

[MattKing]

Thanks for the youtube link, I did indeed saw something similar the other day, but the one you posted was better ^^
- One question though, I see that he winds the back until the frame counter says "1" in the end, at the same time he mentioned that the procedure was excactly the same, even if you didn't have a dark slide in place....but wouldn't that procedure expose the first frame to light?
Lets say you don't have a dark slide, would you do the cranking on the back to "1" after you'd attached the back to your camera?

The frame counters work slightly differently on different versions of the Hasselblad backs, but for any back where you need to wind the back to "1", all you are doing is re-setting the counter to the beginning.

For any 120 film camera, when the film has been wound entirely to the take-up side, it is entirely covered with the backing paper, so winding it further just causes the entire package (spool, film and backing paper together) to spin inside of the back/magazine.

Even if you were to somehow uncover one end of the film at that stage, it would be the last shots that would be vulnerable to light, not the first

 

[Helinophoto]

Ah...!
I understand, well, thank you for clearing that up.

Camera arrives tomorrow probably, I know what I'll be doing this weekend =D

Regards