Square Space
Another itch scratched
For the time being, I’ve come to accept that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with photography just being for fun. It doesn’t need to have any serious purpose or objective. And that goes for gear too. If a certain piece of gear would be fun to use, or even just to own, and it isn’t overly financially irresponsible (financial responsibility is not really in my universe), well, why not.
And so…
Yep, finally. The inevitable conclusion. To be honest I was sold on these almost 20 years ago, when the proprietor of the sadly missed Photo Catena in Lugano convinced me to have a peep through the viewfinder of a then-new Hasselblad. It was a revelation. But, at the time, I owned an XPan, was struggling with an ArcBody that I didn’t really have a use for (back then…if only), and of course the bright shiny world of digital was taking off. So I resisted the temptation, although shortly afterwards I acquired a “Texas Leica” (Fuji GS67o III), last of the new stock. But that’s another story.
I’ve been virtual window-shopping V-Series Hasselblad’s for quite some time now, but, rationally, my X1DII in square crop already does everything they can do… doesn’t it? Well, yes, but it doesn’t shoot film, and it doesn’t quite give the 3D depth of those Zeiss lenses on true 6x6 format. I thought I wanted a 503cw, since those were the last word, but they are expensive and that, luckily, stopped me. Following a bit of revision, I realised that the only difference between a 503cw and a 501cm is that the 503 has extra features for flash photography. And I really, but really, do not do flash. Shortly after this, a very nice looking, very late model 501cm popped up on a Swiss auction site. And it was black, which inevitably as it goes against the flow, I prefer. So I put in the minimum bid, and to my surprise I won. The camera came with a very late model 80mm CFE lens, and I already owned a 150mm CFi lens which I use with the X1DII, so I was all set. I did manage to find a secondhand PME45 metered finder at a reputable Swiss dealer as well, so I added that.
(I have an aversion to non-Swiss sources for secondhand gear due to import duties and other charges, and complex and expensive processes for returns. So generally I wait to find stuff in Switzerland. A smaller market, but on the plus side, prices tend to be lower).
So far I’ve only put two rolls of film through it, one Portra 400, of course, and one Provia 100F (normally it would have be E100, but there was no way I was going to pass up a box of 5 rolls of Provia 100F for CHF 64 at FotoMedia). For the Portra I metered using my Ricoh GR3x. For the Provia, I used the PME45 meter, in either spot or centre-weighted mode. Generally this worked out ok, although I got a few trickier scenes wrong with the Provia. Generally my hit rate coming back to manual metering after a long absence was pretty acceptable.
Here are some samples:
Portra 400, 80mm CFE lens, camera scan, converted in Filmomat SmartConvert
Portra 400, 150mm CFi lens, camera scan, converted in Filmomat SmartConvert
Provia 100F, 80mm CFE lens, camera scan.
Provia 100F, 80mm CFE lens, camera scan.
I only remembered the mirror lock-up feature on the second set on Provia. Possibly the Portra shots may have suffered a little sharpness loss due to that.
So did I need a Hasselblad V-Series? Absolutely not. Does it take better pictures than my X1DII. Er, not really no. Different, yes. But it’s really fun to use as a change, it challenges me to see and to work in a different way, and it’s already turned out to be a conversation magnet.