Another day of film shooting. Today I shot the Leica at the car show and my Hasselblad 500c around the yard. To fill the roll of the Hasselblad, I had some fun with the doll face that sits on my shelf. She somehow looks even creepier on film. All the cameras making the trip have had a final run-through and are ready.

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The sky on July 29, 2024 taken with an old Hasselblad 500c camera from 1971. I guess this would be time travel somehow.

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Playing with the Hasselblad, the 50-year-old lens with the brand new digital back is all used to get a slightly out-of-focus photo of the dog sticking his tongue out – it’s a great world we live in.

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The spot I bring all my cameras on our first date has been since 1992. This afternoon was different. I have four new cameras this year, two I have posted about, the Hasselblad 500c from 1971 and the Widelux Panoramic, both film cameras. This week, I added something different. A Hasselblad 907x with a CFV II 50C. Lots of numbers and letters that mean Hasselblad Meduim Format Digital camera. Unlike the other two, it is not old. It is of recent design, but…. it looks like the 500c from the 70s. As a matter of fact, the 907x connects with the 500c and lets me create a digital image with the old film body and retro lens. Today was the first time I played with it. I have some things to learn, but it is fun. Old in the front new in the back.

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The second of the new (to me) film cameras in my arsenal. A Hasselblad 500C medium format camera. There are many reasons to want one, the history, the sound, and its beauty.

The beauty is the design, the lines, the curves, and the simplicity. Even the serial number is artistic. Using the code 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 corresponding with the nine letters that spell V H P I C T U R E S (VH is for Victor Hasselblad), you can find out when your camera was made. Mine is serial number UV118703 – 1971. The body is uncomplicated, a black and chrome box, each part with a purpose, not a battery to be found. It is a work of art.

There are a few sounds. The winding, the opening of the viewer, the lens, and back attachment. The sound that is hard to describe is the shutter, clunk clunk, emphasis on the first clunk. I was familiar with the sound long before I had one. The first time you hear it, you stop. You know you heard something different. Wind the crank, push the stem, CLUNK clunk. It is addictive, a unique noise that those who know know. There are many videos celebrating the sounds.

The history, from Hendrix to the Moon and back again. Photographers Douglas Kirkland, Gerard Mankowitz, Sid Avery, Terry O’Neil, and Ansel Adams, photos you have seen and love have been taken with a Hasselblad. The Moon part was always cool to me, it was NASAs choice to send to space. The images we have seen taken on the Moon were taken with a Hasselblad.

Why I have one is as simple as the camera. I want to slow down, more with less. I am not ready to add it to the bag that goes on client jobs with me yet. The goal is maybe a roll at weddings. A Senior Portrait here and there, but ultimately I want to offer high-end headshots with it. For now, it is practiced one clunk clunk at a time.

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