ken davis

The workhorses of my Pentax gear are a K1000 and a ZX-5n. Both are lightweight and easy to handle. The K1000 is completely mechanical, so even if the battery dies you are still in business. The ZX-5n is my travel camera. Lightweight and easy to use but with some almost pro features built it, it's a fun camera to use. The Nikon N90 and the Canon EOS 1 are just too heavy for some of my excursions and I've found that the Pentax optics are just as prestine as these two heavyweights.

Ken

Thanks for the reponses. The reason why I posted, and the remarks about problems, comes from my reading the forums. There have been some replies about glass mounts having the problems of either the transparency sticking or melting to the glass when projected, and the Anti-Newton comment is in regard to how big of a problem are Newton Rings (the rainbows that show up) with glass mounts. I've read that the glass mounts with Anti-Newton glass cause the image to look dirty or unsharp when projected.

As for projection, this is the direction that I would like to go. I just wonder if I'll have to charge admission to the shows to pay for the projector :-) If any of you have suggestions on projection equipment or where to look that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for all of you who have responded.

I'd like to contribute here. I've done some tests on this, on a Hasselblad A12, a Rolliflex, and a Pentax 645 and on all cameras it seems to occur if you advance the film to rapidly. Don't advance the film too quickly or tough roughly and you should be fine. I've got three A12s and they all do the same thing if I crank it to hard or fast.

Just my $.02

Hi folks,

First of all, I know that there are a lot of threads on the subjects

listed above, but I've been looking through them for hours, and

thought, if it's ok with you, that I would try to build a summary

here.

I'm fairly new to medium format. I have been shooting 35mm and 4x5

for several years and last summer got a Hasselblad 500CM that I'm

crazy about. The problem I have now is several hundred images that I

am trying to catalog and share and I'm finding it's a lot different

than my previous experience.

The question that I have is whether or not to use slide mounts,

archival pages, presentation mounts, or other means for storing and

sharing transparencies. After reading the horror stories of dust,

Newton's rings, melted images, and the hassels of slide mounts I'm

scared to go that way. Yet, I'm unsatisfied with my current system

of storing everything in PrintFile sheets because of cleaning, fear

of dust, cutting, and all the pains that come from that. If I want

to share, everyone has to gather around the light table.

Can anyone guide me in the right direction for my next step?

Please forgive the long post, and thanks in advance to all of you for

your wonderful help.

Ken

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I guess I need to clarify something. I'm taking a 35mm with a 400/f5.6 as well. The Hassy is mostly for practice and some large sunrise shots and desert work. I don't think I could be fast enough with it otherwise :-)

I've been checking the site, and as of last week there were large numbers of sandhill cranes and ducks (over 6,000 cranes) but the snow geese aren't quite there yet. We're going back in December so I'll have another crack at it.

Thanks again for all the responses. To add to the question, does a 250 with a 1.4 mutar make sense for what I've described? Remember, I'm new to this!

Ken

Hi folks,

It's always amazed me the quality of responses on this forum. I am

going to be going to the Bosque del Apache reserve in New Mexico the

day after Thanksgiving. I have been there before and am familiar

with the place, and know of the spectacular ascension of birds at

sunrise. What I have never done is taken a camera. I intend on

taking my Hassleblad 500CM and want to rent some lenses so I am

hoping someone has some recommendations.

I am thinking of renting a 50mm Distagon, and probably a 150mm . I

have an 80mm T*. Any other ideas?

Also, I am taking some Provia 100, 400, and some Ektachrome VS.Any

other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Ken Davis

Hi folks,

It's always amazed me the quality of responses on this forum. I am

going to be going to the Bosque del Apache reserve in New Mexico the

day after Thanksgiving. I have been there before and am familiar

with the place, and know of the spectacular ascension of birds at

sunrise. What I have never done is taken a camera. I intend on

taking my Hassleblad 500CM and want to rent some lenses so I am

hoping someone has some recommendations.

I am thinking of renting a 50mm Distagon, and probably a 150mm . I

have an 80mm T*. Any other ideas?

Also, I am taking some Provia 100, 400, and some Ektachrome VS.Any

other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Ken Davis

I agree with several posts here. KEH is my number one stop. Prices are good and service is oustanding. Always recieve items better than advertised. B&H is second choice, usually for accessories and film, but will consider them in the future. I find their site frustratingly slow, but they're honest and reliable. Calumet isn't bad, but havent' used them much. I've had issues in the past with Adorama with slow shipping and lost orders, but they came through in the end. Just remember you usually get what you pay for, and those deals too good to be true usually are.

Better luck next time,

Ken

Mick-

I am new to Hassy photography, and with the help of this forum, I am having tremendous success. One piece of advice was to go to manualsrus.com, which charged $10 for a roughly scanned PDF of the book. Uhg... The better piece of advice, Ernst Wildi's "The Hasselblad Manual" provided considerably more information not only on my 500c/m but on accessories, other models, and some really helpful advice not only on general photography but on things specific to the Hasselblad. $45 bucks well spent.

Good Luck,

Ken

Hi Folks,

I think that's what it's called. There's a little hinged device on

the back that allows you to save film speed information. Mine is

sticking out, and seems to be either missing a piece or there's

something wrong with it. Repair shop wants $80 just to look at it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Ken

I want to thank all of you for replying to my request. I will respond to each of your independently, but wanted to summarize some things in hopes that it helps this forum.

It seems to me the most engaging discussion comes from jamming the camera when removing the lens in a shutter-released state. I found this out the hard way in Italy right after I bought the camera. I took it back to the guy and he fixed it without telling me the problem. Well, he may have, but I don't speak Italian.

I have found that the older style backs, with the view hole in the back, can also jam if you don't work them correctly. Turning the take up spool counter clockwise cost me $120 to repair only to learn later that this is a feature of these older backs. I no longer go to that repair center.

This was other well recieved advice - to have the equipment serviced now and regularly. I will faithfully do this.

As for accessories besides the unjamming tool, the book by Ernst Wildi is very highly regarded and ordered from Amazon. Thanks for this information. Other accessories were mentioned including a PM5 prism, which I think will be helpful as I like to take landscapes from an elevated or at least eye-level position.

The flash discussion was very helpful, as well as the discussion of extension tubes. I love macro work and as soon as I have some of my images digitized I will get them on the forum. Several friends not of this forum recommended using close up lenses, but I prefer the cleanness of the original Zeiss lens with a bellows or extension tube. Most of my flash work is probably going to be studio stuff into which I am integrating this new camera. The Polaroid back is probably my next acquisition, and there will be a separate post on that.

There are still some mysteries, and I will post those as separate threads as per Dick Roadnight's advice. Hope you're not groaning at this post! :-)

On a final note, I was amazed at the overwhelming support and friendship given by this forum. I will have additional questions in the future that I will post separately to keep the posts from being so verbose (like this one :-) I just wanted to say thanks and I hope that I contribute as well in the future.

You folks rock!

Ken

Hello Folks,

First of all, Thanks Andrew for maintaining this very useful forum

and to all for posting. I have read through the posts and learned so

many useful bits of information. I hope I can contribute same in the

future. That said, please forgive this rather lengthy post :-)

I recently acquired a Hasselblad 500C/M with 2.8/80mm T* lens and two

backs in Italy and love it. However, I am finding that I am quite

limited on my knowledge of this camera and its accessories and I am

hoping that I can get some help.

I am looking for any guides or books that the forum recommends as

well as tips and tricks specifically on using flash, both on camera

and studio lighting, polariod backs, shutter releases, and grips. It

seems the only thing available for this camera is this funky pistol

grip which seems kind of strange.

I mostly intend on using the camera for studio work, not portraiture

so much as stills, as well as landscape and travel. I do know that I

will eventually need to get into a 35-50mm range lens and a 120-150

as well, but those will have to wait until the stock market comes

back up. For now, I am trying to build up a useful collection of

those "Hasselblad Essentials" so I can get the most out of the camera.

Again, sorry for the long post. I am well seasoned in 35mm and 4x5

stuff, but this camera has mysteries I haven't been able to solve.

Any help from you seasoned veterans is greatly appreciated!

Ken Davis