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Author Topic: Rest in peace V  (Read 15705 times)

wolfnowl

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2013, 10:38:32 pm »

One thing I thought that Hasselblad did really well with the V system was that (almost) any piece from any V camera would fit (almost) any V camera.  That changed a bit with the 200 series and F lenses, but if you look at cameras today, you can barely put a lens cap from one lens onto a different lens anymore!  I still think about picking up an old V sometimes, a couple of 120 backs, just for the hell of it.

Mike.
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Rob C

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #21 on: May 01, 2013, 04:37:31 am »

One thing I thought that Hasselblad did really well with the V system was that (almost) any piece from any V camera would fit (almost) any V camera.  That changed a bit with the 200 series and F lenses, but if you look at cameras today, you can barely put a lens cap from one lens onto a different lens anymore!  I still think about picking up an old V sometimes, a couple of 120 backs, just for the hell of it.

Mike.


Yes, the temptation is huge, but for me it's tempered by the thought that the photographic wholesaler I used closed down its operation here, and it seems the head office in Barcelona (ARPI) doesn't want to know about former clients out in the islands. That means that film and related supplies/services such as E6 become expensive caprices. Ironically, I still have an unopened pack of 120 Velvia sitting in the freezer, but that was originally bought for the short-lived Pentax 67 11.

One day, if I manage to sell this place and get back to civilization...

;-)

Rob C

design_freak

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #22 on: May 01, 2013, 05:46:14 am »

One thing I thought that Hasselblad did really well with the V system was that (almost) any piece from any V camera would fit (almost) any V camera.  That changed a bit with the 200 series and F lenses, but if you look at cameras today, you can barely put a lens cap from one lens onto a different lens anymore!  I still think about picking up an old V sometimes, a couple of 120 backs, just for the hell of it.

Mike.

In addition, it can be compared to an AK-47 rifle. Unbreakable, cheap to repair, reliable. Icon photographic equipment.
Where's successor? I hope that is not tuned Sony ...
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artobest

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #23 on: May 01, 2013, 07:12:25 am »

In addition, it can be compared to an AK-47 rifle.

Let's not.
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JV

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #24 on: May 01, 2013, 02:37:31 pm »

But I cannot remember the last time one of those purchases was to someone who had recently purchased their body new.

The pricing for a new one was pretty unrealistic as well in this day and age.  I looked into it once a few years ago and the price for the standard kit was somewhere around $8-10K.  The RZ67 at $3.5K is much more realistically priced.  Respect for Mamiya/Phase One for not throwing away their heritage.  Shame on Hasselblad for not doing what Leica did with the M, ie. building on the past to be successful in the present.
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Rob C

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2013, 02:46:46 pm »

The pricing for a new one was pretty unrealistic as well in this day and age.  I looked into it once a few years ago and the price for the standard kit was somewhere around $8-10K.  The RZ67 at $3.5K is much more realistically priced.  Respect for Mamiya/Phase One for not throwing away their heritage.  Shame on Hasselblad for not doing what Leica did with the M, ie. building on the past to be successful in the present.


I share your sentiment, but that ignores the fact that to make sense they'd have to have a 52mm x 52mm (if I remember 6x6 correctly!) sensor, and that would be problematic... little point in keeping the 500 body and cropping the sensor area. Leica had other makers fight the FF sensor battle first.

Also, price would probably have crippled sales.

As an expensive film curiosity it may have struggled on, but I suppose sales figures didn't indicate that was the trend for them.

Rob C

TMARK

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #26 on: May 01, 2013, 03:19:39 pm »

Where's successor? I hope that is not tuned Sony ...

Hy6/AFi, Rollei TLR, Leica M/S, maybe that Fuji folder, maybe the RZ if its still being made.  These cameras feel like real cameras, operate like real cameras.  What they have in common is manual usability and killer viewfinders.  I compared my D800e and F4 viewfinders, mainly to torture myself, and I was, again, shocked by how terrible the VF is.

I don't mean this as an afront to Nikon, Sony, Phase, Pentax, etc.   
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Rob C

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #27 on: May 01, 2013, 05:39:35 pm »

Hy6/AFi, Rollei TLR, Leica M/S, maybe that Fuji folder, maybe the RZ if its still being made.  These cameras feel like real cameras, operate like real cameras.  What they have in common is manual usability and killer viewfinders.  I compared my D800e and F4 viewfinders, mainly to torture myself, and I was, again, shocked by how terrible the VF is.

I don't mean this as an afront to Nikon, Sony, Phase, Pentax, etc.   


But it would be nice if it would listen, all the same.

;-)

Rob C

hasselbladfan

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #28 on: May 02, 2013, 02:06:58 am »

I guess I will forever remember unpacking my first Blad, a silver 500CM. It was in the 80s and since it was expensive, it took me months to decide (to do or not to do).

I believe I still have the box. I moved it xx times, but couldn't throw it away, even if I sold the camera ages ago.

Life can be beautiful.

I am not sure if my kids will have the same feeling with their xxth digital camera.

« Last Edit: May 02, 2013, 02:11:10 am by hasselbladfan »
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HarperPhotos

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #29 on: May 02, 2013, 02:30:23 am »

Hello,

My experience with the Hasselblad 500 was back in the ‘80 working on the Gold Coast of Australia and personally they where a dog.  My boss had one of there pieces of crap which he made me use on assignments. The view finder was like looking into a cave and 6x6 format was a pain in the ass cause you had to mentally figure how the image was going to be cropped for magazine work at the same time tiring to focus it with its crap focusing screen. My first medium camera I bought in Australia was a Kowa Super 66 system which was 6x6 I know but I was young and just getting started. The Kowa was far more user friendly than any Hasselblad and a 1/3 of the price. Non of my clients in Australia could tell the difference.

When I move back to New Zealand I went for the RZ system and never looked back till May of last year when the Nikon D800E camera out and now the old girl is on EBay.

As I have away said the only usefully thing for a Hasselblad is a paper weight.

Ciao

Simon
« Last Edit: May 02, 2013, 02:34:09 am by HarperPhotos »
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Rob C

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #30 on: May 02, 2013, 03:50:43 am »

Hello,

My experience with the Hasselblad 500 was back in the ‘80 working on the Gold Coast of Australia and personally they where a dog.  My boss had one of there pieces of crap which he made me use on assignments. The view finder was like looking into a cave and 6x6 format was a pain in the ass cause you had to mentally figure how the image was going to be cropped for magazine work at the same time tiring to focus it with its crap focusing screen. My first medium camera I bought in Australia was a Kowa Super 66 system which was 6x6 I know but I was young and just getting started. The Kowa was far more user friendly than any Hasselblad and a 1/3 of the price. Non of my clients in Australia could tell the difference.

When I move back to New Zealand I went for the RZ system and never looked back till May of last year when the Nikon D800E camera out and now the old girl is on EBay.

As I have away said the only usefully thing for a Hasselblad is a paper weight.

Ciao

Simon



Obviously the format didn't suit you; I used two 'blads and several Nikons all the best years of my life and my mistake was selling off the 6x6 to go a variety of 6x7s...

Democracy of choice, thank goodness.

Rob C

torger

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #31 on: May 02, 2013, 05:59:33 am »

a 56x56mm CFV back had been cool. I think it's a little boring that digital medium format came to be the smallest MF film format there was and crops of that. But it's probably the rational way to go.
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eronald

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #32 on: May 02, 2013, 06:48:19 am »

a 56x56mm CFV back had been cool. I think it's a little boring that digital medium format came to be the smallest MF film format there was and crops of that. But it's probably the rational way to go.

There are so many of these bodies out there - wait a few years and there will be a digital back cottage industry around them like Polaroid and the impossible project.

Edmund
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TMARK

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #33 on: May 02, 2013, 12:19:36 pm »

Hello,

My experience with the Hasselblad 500 was back in the ‘80 working on the Gold Coast of Australia and personally they where a dog.  My boss had one of there pieces of crap which he made me use on assignments. The view finder was like looking into a cave and 6x6 format was a pain in the ass cause you had to mentally figure how the image was going to be cropped for magazine work at the same time tiring to focus it with its crap focusing screen. My first medium camera I bought in Australia was a Kowa Super 66 system which was 6x6 I know but I was young and just getting started. The Kowa was far more user friendly than any Hasselblad and a 1/3 of the price. Non of my clients in Australia could tell the difference.

When I move back to New Zealand I went for the RZ system and never looked back till May of last year when the Nikon D800E camera out and now the old girl is on EBay.

As I have away said the only usefully thing for a Hasselblad is a paper weight.

Ciao

Simon

This was similar to my first V experience.  I went RZ, if for no other reason than for the 6x7 rotating back, and of course price.  But then a friend, in 1998 or 1999, had a 503cx with Accu D screen, a PM45 finder and a A16V back (vertical 645) and carried it in her purse.  It was a very different experience to the old 500 I was forced to learn and use, and so much smaller and lighter than the RZ.  later I worked with and for her lighting sets and assisting on her first big beauty campaigns, and she used 503cw's with Sinar 54m backs.  Really wonderful experience for shooting set piece beauty/cosmetics.  Subjects are less intimidated by the little 500.  They are very interested in the camera itself.
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amsp

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #34 on: May 02, 2013, 01:36:42 pm »

This was similar to my first V experience.  I went RZ, if for no other reason than for the 6x7 rotating back, and of course price.  But then a friend, in 1998 or 1999, had a 503cx with Accu D screen, a PM45 finder and a A16V back (vertical 645) and carried it in her purse.  It was a very different experience to the old 500 I was forced to learn and use, and so much smaller and lighter than the RZ.  later I worked with and for her lighting sets and assisting on her first big beauty campaigns, and she used 503cw's with Sinar 54m backs.  Really wonderful experience for shooting set piece beauty/cosmetics.  Subjects are less intimidated by the little 500.  They are very interested in the camera itself.

If the V shot 6x7 and had a rotating back I don't think I'd ever look at another camera again.
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TMARK

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #35 on: May 02, 2013, 02:51:07 pm »

If the V shot 6x7 and had a rotating back I don't think I'd ever look at another camera again.

Absolutely.
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Paul Ozzello

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #36 on: May 02, 2013, 02:56:00 pm »

Hello,

My experience with the Hasselblad 500 was back in the ‘80 working on the Gold Coast of Australia and personally they where a dog.  My boss had one of there pieces of crap which he made me use on assignments.


Between a mamiya RZ and a blad the RZ is clearly the dog. If the blad was such a piece of crap I doubt NASA would have taken it to the moon.


 The view finder was like looking into a cave and 6x6 format was a pain in the ass cause you had to mentally figure how the image was going to be cropped for magazine work at the same time tiring to focus it with its crap focusing screen.

There's more to photography than just magazine work, and for some there is no better format than the square.


As I have away said the only usefully thing for a Hasselblad is a paper weight.


Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but more realistically in 1-2 years when your D800 is yesterdays news and not even worth using as a paperweight photographers around the world will still be taking pictures with their Hasselblads.

TMARK

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #37 on: May 02, 2013, 03:53:55 pm »

Between a mamiya RZ and a blad the RZ is clearly the dog. If the blad was such a piece of crap I doubt NASA would have taken it to the moon.

There's more to photography than just magazine work, and for some there is no better format than the square.

Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but more realistically in 1-2 years when your D800 is yesterdays news and not even worth using as a paperweight photographers around the world will still be taking pictures with their Hasselblads.

I think this is a bit unfair.  I like the V, in fact I love the V, I have two, but the RZ is an incredible camera and not a dog at all.  I made my career on that camera.  The VF is second to none.  The reliable electronics just work and work, the modularity is incredible as are the lenses.  As to the square, I dig it but the V is/was a commercial tool above all else, and commercial work is mostly un-square.  The A16V back handled this well, but the big RZ negative put it in a different league, closer to 4x5 quality.  As to the D800, it will not be a paperweight in a few years unless you want it to be.  There are so few things that need improvement with the D800 that there is no reason to not use it far into the future.  My only complaint is with the finder.
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Misirlou

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #38 on: May 02, 2013, 04:07:00 pm »

I went from a Mamiya Press, to a couple of RB67s, and finally Hassy 500s of several varieties. I can't speak to commercial shooting, but the Hassy's were excellent for fine art work, and that's why they're all I have left of my MF equipment. Other than my two Rollei TLRs, that is.

Many of the finder issues were easily fixable by going to the later model screens, and/or adding a prism finder.

But, having said all that, what I really want is a square format digital TLR. Perhaps with a huge Foveon sensor. And a Schneider lens.
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Lacunapratum

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Re: Rest in peace V
« Reply #39 on: May 02, 2013, 06:48:37 pm »

I was always amazed how long the V system lasted, as it was so antiquated compared to everything else.  Even 10-15 years ago, I found the Pentax 645, the Rollei 6008i, and the Fuji 680 systems vastly superior, while Hasselblad appeared to be frozen in time.  Hasselblad had excellent marketing skills, and they got more mileage out of the Zeiss aura than anybody else.  In their time, the Superachromat and the UV Sonnar were some unique lenses, but otherwise I was never able to see the point. 
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