Thursday, January 27, 2011

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Hasselblad

I am so happy... One or two months ago my dad gave me one of his most precious toys to play around with: His Hasselblad FC/M 2000. Since I never tried medium format film before it was a very big and new thing to me... and that is also how the first results looked like: Shot by a newbie. Anyway, I tried and tried and spent a lot of money on films and development and in the end the last two attempts came out to be not that bad. To understand the camera itself it is important to know that it comes along with four parts: The lens, the body, the magazine and the viewfinder. The lens explains itself. The body consists of the shutter, the mirror and the rest of the mechanical stuff, while the magazine carries the film (either 6x6 or 6x7, etc). I am neither in the mood nor very good at explaining some technical details so I just leave this part out... besides there is one thing I would like to mention: The problems with the viewfinder. Due to my preference for classical stuff I like to use the viewfinder delivered with the camera where you look from the top into the camera and adjust the image like that:

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© Canan / 2010
   

Actually it looks very easy but I definitely can say: It isn't that at all. First you have to get used to the left/right-altering. The picture you see in that viewfinder shows on the right what in reality is on the left and other way round. That means if you move the camera to the right, in the viewfinder the picture moves to the left. Quite confusing if you ask me, especially when it comes to adjusting the horizontal axis. After you adjusted the photo like this you have to set the focus. It is very important to adjust it correctly, otherwise it just looks like crap. Unfortunately the big "screen" of the viewfinder doesn't help so much so what to do? There is a small slider on the upper side of the viewfinder. Pull it and the magnifying glass snaps out. Now you also can adjust the focus - and you will be very surprised how different the results are: Whilst you thought before your focus is correct, the magnifying glass proves you wrong. Well, after adjusting everything (the first times it takes quite a long time - Hasselblad is hardly made for snapshots) you need to shoot. But be careful: 1/60 seconds might be too long for a Hasselblad of this format due to the huge mirror inside. Rather take 1/125. Here are some of the last shots taken with this wonderful piece of photography:


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© Chris / 2011
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© Chris / 2011
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© Chris / 2011
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© Chris / 2011
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© Chris / 2011


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© Chris / 2011
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© Chris / 2011

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© Chris / 2010
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© Mert / 2010