larry_m.

<p>Don't take the cleaning for granted, this is a high art unto itself. First put on some cotton gloves and with the lens on, clean the entire exterior of dust, lint, fingerprints, etc. Make it sparkling clean. Use q-tips with lens cleaning solution to get into the little crevices & canned air to blow specs of dirt away. This is important because you don't want any crud from the camera to get inside the camera when you do a general clean with the lens off. Use something like Deoxit with q-tips. Never apply solution directly to any camera surfaces, always put in on the q-tip or clean lint-free cloth. Use only gentle pressure and clean all of the electrical contacts, both in the battery compartment, the lens and where it connects in the body. The gold contacts are very fragile. Never use the eraser method from cave-man days, as it actually rubs off the gold coatings from the abrasives in it. Clean the battery contacts too. After that, make sure that all of the camera settings are in a neutral position and the lens is attached securely with the audible click. Make sure that all of the electrical contacts are in good shape and if any are worn out, this could be part of the problem. Try attaching a different lens on it just in case the other lens has issues. If all this fails, gently shake the camera to see if you can hear anything loose anywhere. Did you drop the camera recently, by any chance? A lot of the electric circuits are inside the camera body and if the camera was jarred or dropped, an electrical contact may have been broken inside somewhere. If your camera still won't go on, you may need a repair. I've had my G2 system for well over ten years and it still works like new. Now that's craftsmanship. Good luck with it. </p>

<p>Do any of you know of any alternatives for the Hasselblad Xpan 30mm external viewfinder? I need one and it appears that not only is the 30mm difficult to find, but the viewfinder by itself is nearly impossible to find. <br>

The angle of view is around 94º, or roughly the same as a 17mm lens on a regular 35mm camera (I think). Cropped down to the pano proportions of course. Maybe a generic 20º finder would work in a pinch, but it would be nice to have a viewfinder that is fairly accurate for composing purposes.<br>

What about any of the other panoramic viewfinders? I wonder who sells them and whether any would correspond to the Hassy 30mm lens?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance,<br>

Larry</p>

My M6 is the older 1986 version. I had the same problem with a dead meter. Dang. None of

the above suggestions worked and I was getting ready to send it in for a repair. On a whim, I

took the lens off, and the meter turned on, I could see one of the LEDs very brightly in the

viewfinder. I put the lens back on and off a few times, and the meter started working. Go

figure. I can only guess that the lens coupling has something to do with completing an

electrical circuit? There aren't any electrical contacts on the lens, so what gives? It has to be a

mechanical link. All I care about is that the meter started working again.

Please excuse my entusiasm. I am a new SL66 user that has the 40mm Distagon f/4 lens

included with the system. Wow! This is a really low distortion lens and the fact that it is

roughly the equivilancy of a 21mm on a 35mm camera is what blows me away. I was fully

expecting a lot of barrel distortion, and the fact that it is so minimized is what I find

astounding, especially with such an old lens. This one looks new and doen't even have the

HFT coating, yet still makes the most amazing impeccibly sharp images.

 

Does anyone know where I can find a lens hood for this lens?

 

Thanks!

Thanks for the clarification regarding the shift function, as I wasn't sure about it. Another

cool thing that I like about the SL66 in comparison to the Hassy system is the ability to use

the film backs in either 120 or 220 with the turn of a switch. No need to purchaase

separate 120 and 220 backs.

 

My SL66 came with the bracket, and it does indeed make it fast to use and to be able to

shoot, focus and advance the film all in a fast sequence. What the heck, it'll never be as

fast as a 35mm, but on the other hand, a 35mm still can't match the image quality from a

medium format camera. I can see why there would be die-hard SL66 fans after running

quite a few rolls through the camera. I am most impressed by the sharpness and contrast

of the chromes that I used as test film.

 

I was put in the SL66 camp quite by accident. I lost my Hassy system (long story, don't

need gory details), and traded for this SL66 system by happenstance. I thought the SL66

would serve as a source of cash for a Hasselblad purchase, but after shooting with it, I see

absolutely no need to sell it and go through the trouble of replacing the Hasselblad

system, as I am quite happy with the results.

 

I also have the metering prism, the one that looks like the chimney one. Do they make a

45 degree prism for this? I do prefer that one for mediuim format. I like the built-in

diopter, it is one is by far one of the better ones I've ever seen on ANY camera.

 

Thanks!

I am responding to Gary's response regarding the shift function. I have not used it yet, so

am

wonderiing if you or anyone else can clarify this. Here is a link that explains what I thought

this shift function could do with the SL66:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/canon/tilt-shift

 

The above link talks about shift lenses. Does the shift function on the SL66 work like a

shift lens as described in the link regarding minimizing distortions? On a 4x5 camera the

technique to eliminate distortion is to simply match the film plane to the subject being

photographed.

 

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the handgrip, which I will try.

Yes, you are nuts to travel with a hasselblad, and here are the reasons:

 

1. Film is going to be a huge nuisance for traveling. You are going to have to have it hand

checked at every security point along the way. The additive effect of airport xrays will start

to erode the quality of your film, and actually cause ghosting in extreme instances (a faint

shadow of your film projected onto other parts of your film).

 

2. While a Hassy is ergonomic and fairly fast, it is slow compared to shooting with a 35mm

film or digital camera with a motor drive. I travel a lot myself, and some shots require fast

action becasue the scene changes so quickly, especially if any people are involved, even

when you photograph things like ancient sites, there are people around.

 

3. One of the very wonderous parts of traveling is capturing the magical light at different

places. This means that with the tricky light you encounter, you need to be able to shoot a

series of bracketed exposures fairly quickly. This in itself means that you are already

halfway through one roll of film with just one set of brackets, have to stop and change

backs, etc. You will be changing backs endlessly, which means you shouldn't even have a

120 back. If you are hell bent on bringing this camera for traveling, at least change to a

645 220 back so you get 30 shots per back insead of the 12 shots per A12 back.

 

4. If image quality is your aim, you should consider something like a Canon 5D with the

higher quality L series of lenses. The L lenses are better than any other 35mm lens in both

the quality of the glass and lens components, both metal & electronic.

 

5. Armed with the above, you can shoot high quality images that are comparable to film. It

makes no sense not to shoot digital these days with the quality of the files and all other

support components. You don't even have to bring a laptop computer these days, as there

are numerous reliable portable hard drives with which to download your images each day.

I recently went on a trip to Egypt & shot around 8GB per day and downloaded each

memory card in a a matter of minutes each evening. Fast, easy, reliable, and very, very

high quality images resulted.

 

6. Shoot in the RAW file format & have fun! You will be able to shoot incredibly fast with

lots of brackets, yet be able to slow down easily and shoot in the style of a landscape

photographer with a tripod too.

I recently switched from Hasselblads to the Rollei SL66. One of the first things I noticed was that in order

to focus, you need to switch the load bearing hand from your left hand to your right hand. This seems

ackward to me, because with the Hasselblad I am used to just using my left hand to hold the camera body

and using my right hand to focus, fire the shutter and advance the film all in three fast motions. With the

SL66, one has to switch from holding the camera from your left hand to your right hand (since the

focusing knob is on the left side of the body). My question is how do you long-time SL66 users shoot

quickly? Is there a basic thing here that I don't know?

 

I haven't measured or weighed the two cameras side by side, but it seems to me that the SL66 is

significantly larger and heavier than the Hasselblad. On the other hand, as so many of you have pointed

out, the SL66 has an edge when it comes to the built in bellows and ability to tilt the lens. If you do a lot of

panoramic stitching this is a huge plus, as the slightest distortion is readily discernable. I really love the

impeccable sharpness that the SL66 offers, so there is no loss of quality with the lateral move from

Hasselblad.

 

Can anyone direct me to a reputable source for miscellaneous SL66 gear? I shoot mostly digital these days,

but use this SL66 for when I need fairly high resolution scans of film that my DSLR's can't offer.

Why reinvent the wheel, when our good friends at Omga have already done this for us

decades ago? Omega and other negative carriers already have anti-Newton glass that are

perfect for flatbed scanners. They have beveled glass and are a bit larger than the 55 negs,

which is another plus. However you will need to remove the glass from the negative carrier,

because the carrier and glass together will be to too thick, and therefore at the wrong

focusing point for your scanner.