Hasselblad 500 CM

joelhead · Apr 16, 2010

ok so I just bought a 500 CM and it should be here tomorrow. Was this a good choice over a Mamiya RB or RZ of the same era. I have used a Vlad before and I loved it. any issues i should know with these cameras. Im really excited about it though! :lol:

Vautrin · Apr 16, 2010

Where'd you buy it from?

c.cloudwalker · Apr 16, 2010

No issues except maybe with the specific camera. But there isn't much to them so there isn't much that can go wrong.

Now, whether or not it was a good choice, that really depends on what you want to do with it. I used mine in part for street shooting which I would probably not have done with an RB67. Too darn heavy.

Also, I love the square image. If you don't and you're going to crop most of them to a rectangle, you lose a good chunk of negative surface. The RB 67 gives you a larger rectangular neg and the 645 gives you the equivalent of the cropped Hassy neg but at a much lower cost.

But, even cropped, you get a bigger neg than you would with 35mm. Hope you fall in love with it.

joelhead · Apr 16, 2010

i bought on keh, I was an intern for an old school photographer here locally and he was using a 503 and i loved what he was doing. Im planing on doing street/portraits/landscapes with it. Im in love with the thing, i just got it today and its AMAZING! All i need now is a new prism view finder and a 220 back to it.

c.cloudwalker · Apr 16, 2010

Don't rush buying a prism finder, I barely used mine. Take your time discovering the camera, how it works, how you make it work for you...

Same with my 220 back but I'm sure most people didn't have the problems I had with my 220 film. I just wasn't any good at loading 220 on a developing reel.

Vautrin · Apr 17, 2010

You know it might make sense to take a look at where you're sourcing your film before you buy the 220 back.

I bought a 220 magazine for my RZ67 the same time I bought the camera. Thought of course I'd shoot a longer roll of film if possible.

Then I found out actually trying to find 220 film can be quite difficult. Manufacturers are trying to phase it out and I can't find a supplier over here in the Netherlands.

The other thing is you don't save much money shooting 220 -- I find the price of the film is about the same when you factor in more exposures.

In that way it's almost better to stick with 120

Vautrin · Apr 17, 2010

c.cloudwalker said:
Don't rush buying a prism finder, I barely used mine. Take your time discovering the camera, how it works, how you make it work for you...

You know the waist level viewfinder is an awesome way to compose a picture. I agree with cloudwalker -- get yourself a cheap lightmeter and shoot off maybe five or six rolls before you decide to invest in a prism finder

If you don't have a lightmeter or don't want to spend the cash I've found I can use my dSLR to get an exposure reading that works quite well...

Professional · Apr 26, 2010

I prefer Hasselbad 500 series over Mamiya RZ for weight and battery, RB is mechanical one same of Hassy, but the weight of Hasselblad is tempting, i will use it [501CM] more than my RZ67 II.

Sjixxxy · Apr 26, 2010

c.cloudwalker said:
Same with my 220 back but I'm sure most people didn't have the problems I had with my 220 film. I just wasn't any good at loading 220 on a developing reel.

Every time I've attempted to load 220 film by hand I ended up not missing it in black & white any more. Still got 100 rolls of it in color though. Let someone else deal with it. Works for me.

gphoto909 · May 20, 2011

I stared out with a 500CM. I now have a 501CM. in the process of upgrading I picked up a couple of Russian prisms. a non metered one and a newer one that has a meter, the latest metered prism. if you feel you would like to have a prism I can sell you one for$50.00.they work well. You are going to love your hasselblad.

Alex_Holland · May 22, 2011

Nice choice on the Hassy. Make art.

Professional · Jul 5, 2011

Sorry to say that, but i prefer my Mamiya RZ shots over my Hasselblad 501CM, looking at RZ WLF is WOW WOW WOW, it is like i am watching 3D TV, but the hassy one is crap, all my shots of RZ are sharp, but from Hasselblad are almost 70-85% nice sharp, so i feel my Hasselblad don't hold itself against RZ, the focus is awful, with RZ i can make the focus spot on always but not with the Hasselblad, so really i don't know why is that, i hope it is not because of that focusing screen, i have 2, one is Acute-D matte[recommended by many] and still both didn't cut off the focus as the RZ, once i went out with that heavy RZ and did shoot 5 films [4 colors and 1 B&W], all came out great except the Velvia one but were sharp and in focus, good that i didn't use Hasselblad 501, so i will give it one more time, if it didn't get me decent shots then i have to buy a prism or another Hasselblad 500 series.