Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: gottahabet on April 14, 2006, 01:23:01 pm

Title: 1/2 steps on Hasselblad 500c/m w/ C lens?
Post by: gottahabet on April 14, 2006, 01:23:01 pm
Hi All,

I just bought my first Hasselblad and am learning how to use it.  I've got a manual for it, and I've also been reading H. Freytag's "The Hasselblad Way", but nowhere can I figure out how to do 1/2 stops on this baby.  Since I intend to shoot lots of chrome film, I'd like to be able to bracket in 1/2 stops.  I think I've got the hang of the coupled EV ring and using the lever to separate them, but it doesn't seem to go in 1/2's.
Can anyone help?  I've got a 500c/m from 1987 with a Zeiss C T* from the mid 70's.
Thank you!
Roel
Title: 1/2 steps on Hasselblad 500c/m w/ C lens?
Post by: D White on April 15, 2006, 01:55:17 pm
I have used Hasselblad for some time now and have 7 CF series lenses. To my knowledge, you can not set half shutter speeds but rather need to bracket in half stops. Many all mechanical shutters will not allow half speeds to be set--it will default to the closest full speed.
Title: 1/2 steps on Hasselblad 500c/m w/ C lens?
Post by: gottahabet on April 19, 2006, 11:54:59 pm
Quote
I have used Hasselblad for some time now and have 7 CF series lenses. To my knowledge, you can not set half shutter speeds but rather need to bracket in half stops. Many all mechanical shutters will not allow half speeds to be set--it will default to the closest full speed.
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Hi,
Thanks for your reply.  I was actually referring more to setting 1/2 stops on the apertures rather than shutter speed.  With my old 35mm film camera lenses, the aperture ring had stops in between the regular marked f-stops where you could set the aperture to rest right in between say, f8 and f11.  There was actually a noticeable "click" in between those stops, to denote a half stop.  Does this exist on the Zeiss lenses too?

Roel
Title: 1/2 steps on Hasselblad 500c/m w/ C lens?
Post by: bob mccarthy on April 20, 2006, 10:10:46 am
Quote
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.  I was actually referring more to setting 1/2 stops on the apertures rather than shutter speed.  With my old 35mm film camera lenses, the aperture ring had stops in between the regular marked f-stops where you could set the aperture to rest right in between say, f8 and f11.  There was actually a noticeable "click" in between those stops, to denote a half stop.  Does this exist on the Zeiss lenses too?

Roel
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It's been a long time (15 + years) since I owned a Blad. I remember it worked in EV units whereas the fstop and shutter speed were locked together. I remember pulling back a ring that uncoupled the speed/aperture and it could be set offset for half stops. Geeez I'm having trouble placing it all, but am confident that 1/2 stops were available.

Bob
Title: 1/2 steps on Hasselblad 500c/m w/ C lens?
Post by: Peter Jon White on April 22, 2006, 07:07:34 pm
Quote
It's been a long time (15 + years) since I owner a Blad. I remember it worked in EV units whereas the fstop and shutter speed were locked together. I remember pulling back a ring that uncoupled the speed/aperture and it could be set offset for half stops. Geeez I having trouble placing it all, but am confident that 1/2 stops were available.

Bob
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That's correct. The C lenses do offer half stops. You pull back gently on a little tab on the right side of the lens (at least it's on the right side of my SWC) and then you can adjust the aperture relative to the shutter speed in 1/2 stop increments. It's a bit slow to get used to. At least it was for me. You don't have completely independent control over shutter speeds and f stops.

You decide what your exposure needs to be in EV. Then you turn the aperture and shutter speed together, the shutter speed getting faster as the aperture closes down. Once you get used to it, it's a very nice system, since you can try different aperture settings and the shutter speed is automatically changed to maintain the same exposure. My only objection is that it would have been nice to be able to easily defeat the locked rings for bracketing exposure. Perhaps they did on the newer lenses? I have no idea as I only have the one 35 year old SWC.