In a humble attempt to tell a bit more about the Hasselblad SWC I have written a user review for those who have a deeper interest in this camera.
Hasselblad SWC specs:
- Fixed lens camera
- Planar Biogon 38mm/4.5 (with or without T* coating)
- Available in black or chrome depending on year of built
- Film backs Type C/A 12-24
- Optional Polaroid film back depending on camera model
Pro:
- No distortion
- Distributed weight factor
- Handling
- Film exchange on the fly
- Built quality
Con:
- Distortion
- No interchangeable lenses
- Poor viewfinder
- No focus adjustment
I own this camera for a couple of months now and finally have come to the point where I was able to take it out for some serious shooting and getting consistent development and scanning results that I am able to do a review about this camera.
While the handling of the camera is very easy, it has a bit of a learning curve if you are (fairly) new to a Hasselblad camera. Having only hold a 500 series for a blue Monday in the days that are forgotten and never able to touch my hands on this gem, I had to get used to a few handling routines.
First of all the film there was the issue of the film loading. Since there are so many film backs available it took me 3 rolls to waste before I found out that I was actually holding the older C back. Now that I have the hang of it I could likely load a film in the dark but it was a struggle to begin with. Important lesson; convince yourself of the back you are holding and follow the respective manual. (I did have the manual but it focussed on the A back giving you a lot of confusion.)
After playing with the exposure settings I found out that the uncoupling is a piece of cake, pushing the slider for it in such a position that you can independently select your aperture and shutter speed. Useful as most of the time the coupling will lead to an exposure value which you do not want for your situation. Sometimes I have the tendency the forget the handling and I noticed that the exposures are much forgiven; even having the most ridiculous setting will deliver a negative, amazing!
The shutter handling. Well, press down the button. That is true but one has to remember always to take out the dark slide first. The many times I thought my camera broke down on me are already countless! The shutter has a timer setting as well (T position) and this works well with the sliders on the left hand side of the lens. (Thanks, Morpheuse for helping me with this)
By now you start to wonder how it handles in the field, right? My photography mainly focuses on landscapes and cities and so far I have managed to shoot in both areas holding the SWC. The viewfinder really is something you wish not to rely on. Using it will draw you very fast to the conclusion that you can only see so much, including the top of the lens barrel. For accurate framing you need a separate focusing screen with a magnifier finder and that adds on top of the cost. I have not invested in it yet as I am not that concerned yet.
Focusing is simply not present. You need to use the distance scale and guess your working distance to the subject. For landscape shooting not a real disaster as you simply set the distance to infinity and everything will work out fine as the depth of field of this camera is enormous.
Even street shoot can follow this practice although I have now noticed that if your main subject is relatively close and you are working with an open aperture your subject will become out of focus. I now need to pay more attention to that. I have practised shooting in Little India, Klang and it is both surprising and amazing what this camera can do!
I have done ‘blind shooting’ most of the time where I just point the camera towards the subject and sometimes expose while looking the other way not to kill the surprise effect. At the same time it is surprisingly how well willing people are having their photograph taken, as the camera itself does not frightening at all and due to the fact that the camera rather looks old I believe people find it funny that photographers exist using this ‘piece of junk’, instead the most expensive digital camera available.
The handling is magnificent. I can easily shoot with a 1/30 of a second and get away with it. Likely this is due to the distributed weight factor of the camera. If hold correct according to the manual you can hardly go wrong with this camera.
In general this camera delivers an enormous depth of field range. Even while shooting with a large aperture it will kick in the depth of field from a few meters onwards. Those who purchase camera and lenses for their bokeh, stay away from the SWC as it is virtually impossible to create any.
One major advantage of this camera is the zero distortion but understand that you can go very wrong here. Although it is true that distortion does not occur, too many sources overrate this property as it will only apply if you level out your camera. A leveller however is built-in and can be seen in the rear view mirror of the viewfinder, how neat! Shooting blind makes it even easier as you can focus on it while holding your camera pointing it to your subject.
Realize that if the camera is not levelled, distortion kicks in similar as with any other wide angle lens.
The results. I have been shooting medium format (again) since late ’08 (I have a Rolleiflex GX on the side) and have my negatives developed for further scanning using the Canoscan 8800F. Although I was always very positive about the scan results, I noticed the amount of post processing work that was waiting for me after I had done so.
Most recently while starting using the SWC I noticed the re-release of the Kodak Ektar 100 film and since I have been using this film a lot in the past I was thrilled to get my hands on it. The results were a bit on the disappointing side as I noticed a lot of magenta cast whereas image samples on the Internet are much more vibrant and colour full then mine so I got instantly puzzled. Thanks to uploading the Little India shots and having some excellent feedback and pointers from member Behhl I started using Vuescan on my newly acquired iMac.
Hasselblad SWC specs:
- Fixed lens camera
- Planar Biogon 38mm/4.5 (with or without T* coating)
- Available in black or chrome depending on year of built
- Film backs Type C/A 12-24
- Optional Polaroid film back depending on camera model
Pro:
- No distortion
- Distributed weight factor
- Handling
- Film exchange on the fly
- Built quality
Con:
- Distortion
- No interchangeable lenses
- Poor viewfinder
- No focus adjustment
I own this camera for a couple of months now and finally have come to the point where I was able to take it out for some serious shooting and getting consistent development and scanning results that I am able to do a review about this camera.
While the handling of the camera is very easy, it has a bit of a learning curve if you are (fairly) new to a Hasselblad camera. Having only hold a 500 series for a blue Monday in the days that are forgotten and never able to touch my hands on this gem, I had to get used to a few handling routines.
First of all the film there was the issue of the film loading. Since there are so many film backs available it took me 3 rolls to waste before I found out that I was actually holding the older C back. Now that I have the hang of it I could likely load a film in the dark but it was a struggle to begin with. Important lesson; convince yourself of the back you are holding and follow the respective manual. (I did have the manual but it focussed on the A back giving you a lot of confusion.)
After playing with the exposure settings I found out that the uncoupling is a piece of cake, pushing the slider for it in such a position that you can independently select your aperture and shutter speed. Useful as most of the time the coupling will lead to an exposure value which you do not want for your situation. Sometimes I have the tendency the forget the handling and I noticed that the exposures are much forgiven; even having the most ridiculous setting will deliver a negative, amazing!
The shutter handling. Well, press down the button. That is true but one has to remember always to take out the dark slide first. The many times I thought my camera broke down on me are already countless! The shutter has a timer setting as well (T position) and this works well with the sliders on the left hand side of the lens. (Thanks, Morpheuse for helping me with this)
By now you start to wonder how it handles in the field, right? My photography mainly focuses on landscapes and cities and so far I have managed to shoot in both areas holding the SWC. The viewfinder really is something you wish not to rely on. Using it will draw you very fast to the conclusion that you can only see so much, including the top of the lens barrel. For accurate framing you need a separate focusing screen with a magnifier finder and that adds on top of the cost. I have not invested in it yet as I am not that concerned yet.
Focusing is simply not present. You need to use the distance scale and guess your working distance to the subject. For landscape shooting not a real disaster as you simply set the distance to infinity and everything will work out fine as the depth of field of this camera is enormous.
Even street shoot can follow this practice although I have now noticed that if your main subject is relatively close and you are working with an open aperture your subject will become out of focus. I now need to pay more attention to that. I have practised shooting in Little India, Klang and it is both surprising and amazing what this camera can do!
I have done ‘blind shooting’ most of the time where I just point the camera towards the subject and sometimes expose while looking the other way not to kill the surprise effect. At the same time it is surprisingly how well willing people are having their photograph taken, as the camera itself does not frightening at all and due to the fact that the camera rather looks old I believe people find it funny that photographers exist using this ‘piece of junk’, instead the most expensive digital camera available.
The handling is magnificent. I can easily shoot with a 1/30 of a second and get away with it. Likely this is due to the distributed weight factor of the camera. If hold correct according to the manual you can hardly go wrong with this camera.
In general this camera delivers an enormous depth of field range. Even while shooting with a large aperture it will kick in the depth of field from a few meters onwards. Those who purchase camera and lenses for their bokeh, stay away from the SWC as it is virtually impossible to create any.
One major advantage of this camera is the zero distortion but understand that you can go very wrong here. Although it is true that distortion does not occur, too many sources overrate this property as it will only apply if you level out your camera. A leveller however is built-in and can be seen in the rear view mirror of the viewfinder, how neat! Shooting blind makes it even easier as you can focus on it while holding your camera pointing it to your subject.
Realize that if the camera is not levelled, distortion kicks in similar as with any other wide angle lens.
The results. I have been shooting medium format (again) since late ’08 (I have a Rolleiflex GX on the side) and have my negatives developed for further scanning using the Canoscan 8800F. Although I was always very positive about the scan results, I noticed the amount of post processing work that was waiting for me after I had done so.
Most recently while starting using the SWC I noticed the re-release of the Kodak Ektar 100 film and since I have been using this film a lot in the past I was thrilled to get my hands on it. The results were a bit on the disappointing side as I noticed a lot of magenta cast whereas image samples on the Internet are much more vibrant and colour full then mine so I got instantly puzzled. Thanks to uploading the Little India shots and having some excellent feedback and pointers from member Behhl I started using Vuescan on my newly acquired iMac.
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