Testing out cameras and subsequently, croissants (because we always need a snack while traversing the city trying out cameras) has become a way of life for Meghan and I, as such a variety pass through the store. Everything from odd little ones to “higher end” sought after ones – we always find ourselves with an abundance of different cameras and curiosity about their performance.The after effects of Covid 19’s first out break have been greatly inhibiting my croissant intake… but not so much my shooting, the rain has been taking care of that… Finally though we’ve had some sunny days and I got lucky, a friend decided to loan me his auxiliary Hasselblad 500c 80mm f2.8 kit, I couldn’t pass up this great opportunity and finally decided to see what all the fuss is about.
My good friend JoAnn just so happens to live near by and her main shooter is a Hasselblad 500 c/m, so I finagled a lesson out of her! The sun cooperated and we were able to enjoy a warm evening of shooting on Granville Island. Using the camera was as wonderful as I always imagined and loading it was as persnickety as I always imagined! Again, as I say with all these sorts of cameras that demand ones full undivided attention when loading film, they really need to be your main shooter for a while so you can flawlessly commit their idiosyncrasies to memory. I found the camera to be fairly quick to shoot once it was loaded, and even when I shot double exposures it was straightforward. I see how having a few film backs loaded and ready would be worth the extra weight to carry around, I can’t see myself wanting to reload out on the street. Perhaps that would change if I got better at it. I found the same thing with my recent foyer into using a Leica M3 (which is pre Leicas’s easier “quick load’ system), I had loaded it several times in a row to get the hang of it without issue then, the other day it confused me out of nowhere. None of my Pentax or Nikon SLR’s have ever done that – but I’m a tad derpy so I think the simpler the better. That being said I’m not surprised these two have bested me, as they are both from the late 50’s and the SLR’s I’m using regularly are post 1970.
As far as comparing the Hasselblad to other high caliber medium format cameras, I’d say its size (the 500C / 80mm f2.8 combo at least) is nice because its competitors are monstrous, but then most of them are taking a 6×7 image, the Hasselblad is taking a 6×6 image. Better to just have one of each really….
JoAnn had Kodak DK50 given to her, so she tried it out on this roll, developing it for 6 minutes (diluted 1:1).
JoAnn and her Hasselblad, my helpful teacher…
Here are a few of my shots – including a double exposure…
