Hasselblad 500 CM – First Thoughts After 5 Rolls

It took me all of one week to decide to get the Hasselblad 500 CM.  I’d had enough of not using my Oympus OM4-Ti and found it so hard to pick up when I’ve got a Leica MP and Nikon F3 sitting next to it.  Anyway, traded it in for an excellent condition Hasselblad 500CM and off I went.  It didn’t start very well, when I took out the film back to load some film in a few days later I discovered there was no film take up spool so had to venture over to the dark side to get one.

I bought this Hasselblad 500 CM from All Best Camera in Champagne Court.  I’ve bought a Voigtlander 21mm F4 in there before and they were the only shop that had a good condition one for a reasonable price.  I had a good short chat with David Chan a few days prior but he was quoting almost double the price, which I’ve found to be the case before.  (read this here about David Chan Company Film Camera Shop). Now to be fair, that could very well have been for the Hasselblad 503CW, which is quite a bit more, but not as much as David Chan was quoting.

I also got Japan Camera Hunter to find me one and he came back with a couple of excellent Hasselblad 500 CM options, but didn’t end up buying off him, it was about the same price, but because All Best Camera allowed me to trade in a couple of my film cameras, I thought this was the best way to go.  I have no idea how to check it, but it looks unused, the finder has a bit of shit in it, but that doesn’t affect image quality, and everything seems to work fine. (I’d have no idea if it didn’t). I may end up regretting not buying from Japan Camera Hunter because in general, his shit is good (I’m sure he’ll be wrapped to hear someone say “his shit is good!”). Anyway, it’s done, and I’m happy for now.

Oh yea, so went back to All Best Camera and he gave me the film takeup spool or whatever you call it, loaded some film and off I went to Peng Chau Island with my son.  Jesus, this thing is hard to use!  I’m used to zone focusing with my Leica MP and just snapping away, no need to focus usually, I just set it F8, 250 or 500 shutter speed and anything between about 5 and 15 feet is in focus.  I knew the Hasselblad 500 CM is a take your time camera, and that’s one of the reasons I bought it, but it’s going to get a bit of getting used to.

I shouldn’t say it’s hard to use, loading film is a piece of piss, getting everything setup is fine.  It’s when the time comes to frame your shot that it gets challenging.  Panning horizontally, everything is backwards, so you need to adjust your instincts. Imagine driving a car, and to turn right, you need to turn the steering wheel left. That’s exactly what it’s like.  You can get different view finders (they make a shitload apparently) to make it “normal”, but I like the challenge, so I’m going to stick with the one I have.

Let’s go back a bit, the feel of the Hasselblad 500 CM is wicked. I’m usually all about wanting something light, but I’ve burned through a Sony RX100, Leica D-Lux Type 109, a Contax T3 to finally, once in for all, confirm that despite the look and convenience of them, I really don’t like shooting with compact cameras.  I might try the Ricoh GRii though to make sure of this!  Anyway, when I first picked it up, it didn’t seem as heavy as I thought, and not that much heavier than a Nikon F3, which despite being designed by a former Ferrari designer, felt like a tank to me.  Apparently it’s almost double the weight, which lends itself to the fact I often have no clue what I’m saying!

Anyway, there’s no way around it, the Hasselblad 500 CM is a big bugger, but not unmanageable, although you can’t be lugging this around, or shooting it all day or you’ll have orangutan arms.  When you do get everything framed and fire the shutter, it’s like sex.  When you wind the film advance lever, it’s photographic orgasm time. If you like shooting film and enjoy film cameras, then you’ve got to try this.  I think I fucked around for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute trying to get the framing right and while it was frustrating at first, I must admit I rather enjoyed it.

I went through 4 rolls in a day, then shot the last one before taking the film in to get developed.  It’s all Portra 400. I also shot a roll of HP5 in Sham Shui Po, and even though you only get 12 shots a roll, I must say by the end of that roll, I was already starting to get the hang of it. I think it’s going to take me a few weeks to really get comfortable with the Hasselblad 500 CM but already I love it.

The Hasselblad 500 CM is not the best street photography camera and I’m not particular fond of taking pictures of strangers in a polluted, dirty city filled with grumpy people, but I must add, it’s actually quite stealth.  Maybe stealth is not the word.  People don’t know what the fuck you’ve got, or what you’re doing, because you don’t have to put the camera up to your eye. There are times when you need to, like when there’s no light and you need to shoot at 2.8 on the Zeiss 80mm lens and make sure you get the focus right, but mostly, I didn’t attract any attention because I was always looking down.

So in summary, I can’t wait to shoot with the Hasselblad 500 CM again.  I thought I’d get about a 10% hit rate, but while the photos I got from it aren’t going to win any awards or likes, they’re basically reasonably close to what I was trying to get in terms of where things are.  This is going to be a challenge but when I get it right, I can tell I’m going to get some wicked shots I can print up large and marvel at my snapshot!

I’m going to put a bunch more film through this before I give my final “review” on it, but in the meantime, send us any questions or comments you have about the Hasselblad 500 CM via email or ask us on twitter.