Hasselblad – © John Neel
Kerrrrrchunk!
My old Hasselblad 500 C/M had an amazing feel. I loved the sharp and beautiful Zeiss Planar lens. The view of my subjects on its square ground glass was exciting to see.
I remember relying on my knowledge of light and my confidence in the camera to give me what I saw through the glass. I remember the overlapping sound of the Synchro-Compur shutter, and the mirror as they opened and closed in synchrony. I remember the sound as being very distinct Kerchunck! as it captured a slice of time and light. It was a marvelous camera!
A Hasselblad, like a Leica, in terms of quality, engineering and design feels like a photographer’s camera. It has a great feeling in the hands. It is fast and easy to use. The controls are where they need to be. Your fingers know where to go. The shutter has a unique design that keeps the equivalent exposures set at any position of aperture or shutter speed. The shape and the weight give it stability. The format allows you to see the world from the waist or the eye. This is a camera for making great images.
Kerrrrrchunck!
Facing some hard times a few years back, I had to sell many of my most prized cameras. At the time, my Leica M3 cameras and lenses and my Hasselblad equipment would bring the highest bids, so they went up for sale to cover some immediate debts.
While they were not digital, they were the best cameras I have ever owned. They were cameras that allowed me to capture amazing images of the things I loved to photograph. They were intuitive and they were fun to use! They were extraordinary mechanical wonders and I have missed them ever since.
Since those days, Hasselblad and Leica were both being collected by collectors and users and the prices went through the roof. I could not afford to pay the high prices that dealers were asking and was resigned to never owning one again.
I was recently given the beautiful Hasselblad above by my dear friend, documentarian and photographic colleague Carole Gallagher. Carole is the author of American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War: Carole Gallagher, a startling look at the effects of atomic fallout from the nuclear testing in the American West on those people who lived downwind. Carole’s beautiful black and white photographs taken of the victims and families who were affected by radioactive contamination are a dramatic account of their involuntary participation in the atomic age.
Having had to sell my own, this beautiful camera has rekindled my love for the old Hassey! I am forever grateful for this renewed opportunity to relive my past with this splendid gift.
Kerrrrrchunck! ………………..I love that sound!
I love the images it takes even more.
Read about great photographic techniques in my book Rethinking Digital Photography.
Rethinking Digital Photography – John Neel
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