Camera: Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera, Carl Zeiss f/2.8 80mm Planar lens.
Film: Kodak Gold 200 120
Scanned by Walkens House of Film, Melbourne, Australia

Someone came up with an innovative use for old skis.

The Hasselblad 500C/M is a large camera and is ideally suited for studio work on a tripod. However, for those with big hands it is no difficulty to shoot with outside, even without a tripod. The Hasselblad is a completely mechanical camera with no battery, autofocus or light meter. But that allows the photographer to take several readings of their own with an external meter.

Tags:   Luminosity7 Launceston Tasmania Australia Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera, Carl Zeiss f/2.8 80mm Planar lens. Colour Film Film camera Film photography Kodak Gold 200 Ben Lomond Ski-seat (Film) Medium format Hasselblad John's Photo Philosophy

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Camera: Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera, Carl Zeiss f/2.8 80mm Planar lens.
Film: Kodak Gold 200 120
Scanned by Walkens House of Film, Melbourne, Australia

This is the very first photograph taken with my Hasselblad 500C/M. We were on Ben Lomond in summertime and so all the ski clubs and lodges were closed. My experience with the Rolleiflex waist level viewfinder made this a breeze to frame. Although the image is reversed, the viewfinder in the Hasselblad is very bright and provided no difficulty getting the shot.

Tags:   Luminosity7 Launceston Tasmania Australia Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera, Carl Zeiss f/2.8 80mm Planar lens. Colour Film Film camera Film photography Kodak Gold 200 Ben Lomond Talaria Ski Club (Film) Medium format Hasselblad John's Photo Philosophy

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Body: 1986.
Lens: 1983
Back 1998
[Photographed with my Nikon D850.]

Let me introduce you to my “holy grail” camera: The Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera with the Carl Zeiss leaf shutter design f/2.8, 80mm Planar lens.
www.hasselblad.com/about/history/500-series/

As a fan of the Apollo missions to the Moon, I was always enthralled to know that these Hasselblads (with slight modifications) took all the great photographs we have seen from the surface of the moon. www.hasselblad.com/about/history/hasselblad-in-space/

Designed by Victor Hasselblad (1906-1978) in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1957, this modular camera has become the benchmark for medium format photography. Today, Hasselblad digital cameras continue the legacy of camera precision of engineering and clarity of vision. They are expensive for a very good reason.

The 500 series film cameras are very different from most other film cameras. By virtue of their modular nature (more about this in a moment) in 2006 Hasselblad introduced the very first digital back, that allowed it to be fitted to earlier models of the 500 series. Even today, though Hasselblad produce some of the best medium format digital cameras in the world, it is possible with the same camera to shoot both film and digital. Of course the drawback is that a digital back is way beyond my budget. But really, these cameras are best with film anyway.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the 1970 Hasselblad 500C/M is the minimalist Swedish modular design. The camera consists of four main parts: (1) The lens (which includes the leaf shutter); (2) The body with mirror and mirror-up option; (3) The waist-level viewfinder with ground glass (with an option for a prism viewfinder to be fitted); and (4) The film back or magazine.

Being able to have multiple film backs is perfect if you want to switch mid-film between colour or black and white. Just simply swap the back over. To illustrate the modular nature of this camera, my 500C/M consists of a body that was manufactured in 1986, a slightly older Zeiss lens from 1983, and currently a film back that dates from 1998. The Zeiss optics are top notch and all settings are achieved on the lens including manual focus. There is no built in light meter, but that is because the professionals (for whom this camera was made), preferred to do their own independent metering to get the best possible outcome. All in-built camera light meters tend to have their limits.

Thanks to a recommendation from Brett Rogers of Tasmania Film Photography www.flickr.com/photos/tasmania_film_photography/ I was able to purchase my camera from the trusted vintage camera dealer Peter Loy of London. www.peterloy.com/

I can't stress enough how important it is to buy vintage cameras (especially if expensive) from reputable dealers. Because of their age it is inevitable things will break, often because they have not been serviced in a while. You'll probably remember the problem I had with my Leica IIf which is now being repaired. You do need to factor in the costs of servicing when you buy.

But the pictures tell the story, so in coming days I’ll let you see some of the ones I took on Ben Lomond, Tasmania’s second highest mountain. I think you’ll agree that the combination of Kodak Gold 200 120 (6x6) film and the Hasselblad gives us exceptional quality prints. These could easily be blown up to a very large size without any loss of clarity at all. Given that I didn’t want to carry the extra weight of a tripod with me, all these photos I will show you were handheld. With a camera this size it is much easier to frame the composition on a tripod.

But don’t just take my word of praise for the 500C/M, here’s another review by Astrid Robertsson. I echo everything she says, right down to the sound the shutter makes.
Camera review: A love letter to my Hasselblad 500CM
emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/hasselblad-camera-rev...

Tags:   Luminosity7 Launceston Tasmania Australia Nikon D850 Colour Camera Film camera Hasselblad 500C/M Medium Format Film Camera Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad (1906-1978) My dream camera. John's Photo Philosophy

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As you already know, I have been enjoying the renaissance of film photography. One of the most exciting aspects of this is that so many great secondhand film cameras are available on the world market. And these film cameras come in all shapes and sizes from simple point and shoots (like the wonderful Olympus XA) to 35mm gems from Leica rangefinders to Nikon SLRs, and medium format legends like Rolleiflex (both TLR and SLR) and Hasselblad (the camera that went to the moon).

Japan is the preeminent market for secondhand cameras where it is estimated something like 300 million cameras are available. So film is not going away any time soon. The resurgence of film is such that Pentax last year launched the first new film camera (though their parent company has now stated this was a one off). The range of film stocks is getting bigger as well, with companies like Harman and Lomography introducing some new and exciting creative films. Kodak recently closed down production for a month so that they could double the size of their American production plant to meet demand.

One young photographer who has never toyed with digital photography is Englishman, Bellamy Hunt. More than a decade ago he moved to Tokyo and now heads up Japan Camera Hunter. Apart from finding some of the most interesting cameras in the world and making them available for sale, he also leads tours of camera stores throughout Japan. www.japancamerahunter.com/about/

Film Camera Zen: A Guide to Finding the Perfect Film Camera (Chronicle Chroma, 2024) is his first book. So many great vintage cameras find their way into this book. It is organised alphabetically from Bronica to Zeiss [Such a pity he couldn't have included the Swiss cameras made by ALPA to begin this collection]. Most of the world's great camera makers are represented, including some very rare (and expensive models). But there are plenty of options here for people interested in affordable film cameras as well. You'll be able to find many of your favorites in here too.

To conclude the book, Bellamy includes some short notes about his favourite film stocks, which also includes the Japan Camera Hunter's own Streetpan 400 black and white film that started life as a surveillance film. www.japancamerahunter.com/2016/11/film-review-infrared-ph...
I have a roll of this film to shoot when I get home and will be able to show you some good samples (as long as I can get it through airport security without going through the x-ray machines).

There's a note on film developing, scanning and even some thoughts on the bright future of film photography. All in all a fun guide to the best that film offers the photographer today. We are truly spoiled for choice regardless of the size of our wallets.

If you are looking at getting into film photography this is a book you must have on your bookshelf. Even if you never shoot with one of these cameras it is nice to know something about them and the legends that made photography what it is today. Remember that digital has only been around commercially for 20 years, and chemical photography (including film) has been here since 1839. And it is not going away any time soon.

Over coming weeks I will introduce you to two of my "new" vintage cameras (both of which feature prominently in this book).

Tags:   Luminosity7 Launceston Tasmania Australia Cameras Film Film photography Film cameras Book Film Camera Zen Bellamy Hunt - Japan Camera Hunter John's Photo Philosophy

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* Since recently we've been looking at some of my infrared photographs, and many people have started following me since I first posted this video, I thought I would repost this one. With the exception of Gladstone Eyre's painting, all these photographs are taken in infrared.

I'm still in Melbourne, but will be returning to Launceston on Tuesday evening. Cheers, John.
*****************************************************************************

A Walk Through the Cataract Gorge with an Infrared Camera.

“fleeting, transient, transitory, ephemeral, evanescent, fading” – Synonyms for “fugitive light”.

Ubi amor, ibi oculus est. - I discovered this Latin quote as the title of chapter 8 in Sally Mann’s photographic memoir, “Hold Still” (Back Bay Books, 2015). It's translated simply as, “Where there is love, there is sight.”

The key to photography is not the best camera gear, a college degree, or even the quality of objects being photographed. The key to discovering the essence of the light in any given location is love.

Phenomenologists would argue that this signifies a subjective relationship with the subject, and the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (1878-1965) would call this an “I-Thou” interaction. Love of a location (not the same as thinking it is beautiful, I might add, because true love looks beyond the ephemeral beauty of a place) opens our inner eye to the possibilities the reflected light offers us as a photographer.

But what happens when that light is also invisible to the naked eye?

In the case of these photographs my simple point and shoot compact camera (Panasonic DMC-TZ40) converted for monochromatic infrared allows us to see part of the invisible light spectrum (above 720 nms). The physical properties appear essentially the same, but there is an undoubted strangeness to the quality of light. Living things all take on a white glow, water and skies are darkened. We have to look more intently because we are seeing into another dimension. The great British exponent of infrared photography, Sir Simon Marsden (1948-2012), loved it for this very reason – it revealed “ghosts”.

As this slide show progresses we are taken on a journey up the ancient Cataract Gorge, near Launceston, to a landscape that seems almost timeless. But then we do indeed come upon a ghost of sorts. The old Duck Reach hydroelectric power station. The very first of its kind anywhere in the world. Some of the old equipment is still there and infrared does indeed give us a sense of apparitions. This is the only real sign of human presence (apart from the Hoo Hoo Hut and the suspension bridge at the First Basin).

At 5.42 in this video we are brought right back by nature to the Latin phrase, Ubi amor, ibi oculus est. Pareidolia is an interesting phenomenon. We tend to create meaningful images out of random patterns. I’ll let you decide what you see here, but I can tell you that when I took the photograph of these rocks it was a clear as night from day that they were profiles of two rocks kissing each other. Perhaps there is an important message for us here.

This slideshow of infrared photographs is only half the story. The other half is the music. It is a powerful piece by the contemporary Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi entitled “Logos”. Now in ancient Greek philosophy the logos was the way the inner Truth of the cosmos revealed itself in nature. In Christian theology, the apostle John identified it with Christ, the Word of God coming into the world to reveal the Way, the Truth and the Life. So perhaps - just perhaps - the pareidoliac image here of the kissing rocks is a revelation that at the heart of this universe which seems so random, cold and distant, there is a beating heart of Love. That surely is better than the alternatives of hopelessness, meaninglessness, violence and nihilism.

MUSIC: “Logos” from the album Elements by Ludovico Einaudi (2015).
ludovicoeinaudi.com/

PHOTOGRAPHS: Infrared taken by the Panasonic DMC-TZ40, converted to monochromatic infrared.

Tags:   Luminosity7 Launceston Tasmania Australia Panasonic DMC-TZ40 Converted compact camera Infrared Video Slideshow Cataract Gorge Nature Landscape FUGITIVE LIGHT (Infrared Video) John's Photo Philosophy

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