OT - medium format camera

I've heard that Hasselblads have a little notch in the film carrier, which shows up on the developed negative so that you can tell if it was taken on a Hasselblad or not! But I don't know if it's true...

Chris

Ed, Speaking of sharpness and cheap cameras, my neighbors have an old, cheap 120 film size camera. Their aunt remembers seeing it used it in

1934. It has leatherette covering the outside. The 2 viewfinders are little frosted glass rectangles. The whole viewfinder system is 1 DCX lens, 1 mirror, and the frosted glass. The camera lens is also 1 DCX lens. It appeared to be the same one used in the viewfinders. The thing was a little dirty on the outside and the lenses were fogged with dirt. I took it apart carefully to clean the lenses and shutter. After all was clean and put together I bought a roll of film and took pictures of my neighbor and his wife (Dennis & Katy). I couldn't believe how sharp the pictures were! So much detail! The photos were taken on a bright sunny day. Since the pictures came out so well, and because the camera is so old, and because Katy likes old stuff, I bought the chemicals to convert the black and white pictures to sepia toned pictures. I think it just took two chemicals packets mixed with water. Katy loved the pictures and had them framed. She displays them together with the camera. Her aunt was thrilled to see pictures coming once again from the camera she remembers as a little girl. ERS

This is one thing I've seen before, and I always have to laugh at it. In 2 1/4 square, you have to get up into pretty big prints before you notice any difference from a Hassy to anything else.

Most of the photog buddies I have have seen the 8 X 10 I have hanging on the wall, and they know I borrowed a Hassy from my brother in law. They all assume it was shot with that, but the reality gives them a kick in the teeth. 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 Century Graphic with an f7.7 Kodak anastigmat stopped to f 32. 3 milkweed pods, full and fluffy, backlighted against a row of spruce, the background went completely black, the white almost the color of the paper. Razor sharp.

That would have been the perfect time to show it to him.

I have two Yashica 635, dual format, 120 or 35mm film. Both sharp, but the devil is in the details. Film wind knobs on both sides, and only a scribed mask in the VF for the 35mm format.

I knew one company photog that carried four Hassy bodies in a case along with the lenses and AS&R for them, he said that was to make sure he completed an assignment before all four of them quit. Hassy is VERY delicate, not the thing you wan't to be using on a camping trip.

Rich

Hey, I needed the work.

Big negatives are good. Bigger negatives are better -- until you get to 8 x

10, and the shallow depth-of-field starts to eat you up.

My ad agency (1982-85) had a Calumet 8 x 10. We shot a lot of photos for Casio Calculator Div. You've probably seen them, especially if you saw an

8-foot-high Casio Duratrans at a trade show or airport around that time. They were gorgeous. You could fall into them if you weren't careful.

I loved using that camera but it was an engineering job to shoot a photograph; color-compensating gelatine filters for reciprocity failure, color-by-color, and all that. Chasing one's tail a lot.

I always wanted a Horseman. I had a 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 Bush Pressman instead. That was a good field camera. You could kick it off a cliff without hurting it.

-- Ed Huntress

Man, that must have been very satisfying and gratifying. Yes, big negatives overcome a lot of little problems. I like shooting 2-1/4 x 2-3/4 negs and chromes with the roll-film back in my view and press cameras, but I don't have the time for much of it any more.

Ive got the D model Bush, 4x5. In the same cabinet as the Combat Graphic

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

It's funny how, without even trying, we packrat types tend to wind up with nice collections of things.

Those are good ones. My collection is not deep but it's pretty classic, although, as a theme collection, it's missing a Rollieflex mit Planar. The Yashicamat will have to fill in for it until I retire.

Funny aside: IMTS, I think maybe 1986 or thereabouts. I'm carrying my Nikon F as my second camera. Japanese machine-tool guys say, "Oh, Mr. Huntress, you collect antique cameras?" "No," I say. "I use them."

-- Ed Huntress

I once had a job for a historian in Michigan. The task was to make contact prints from glass plate negatives. maybe

300 of them so I set up a darkroom in my in-law's basement and went to work. Keep in mind that these were quite fragile and one of a kind images. You may see some of them in a book by my Historian friend from Battle Creek inhis book about the town that he knows and loves, entitled

Images of America, Battle Creek ISBN 0-7385-3305-x Arcadia publishing He is a prolific chronicler of the rich history of this city and a good friend of mine , I am proud to say..

Some photographers filed little notches into film carriers and/or cameras, so they could tell for sure which camera/carrier was used, mainly to track problems and solve them.

Joe Gwinn

Chuckle...indeed. Years ago, I did a stint as a semi pro photographer, was one of the instructors at the local ROP program.

Ive not shot a roll or sheet of film in over 8 yrs now. Still have a Mamiya C330F, a couple C220s and at least one C33, with all the bells and whistles. I got used to using TLRs, got the Hassy, but sold it in

2000 after the "Event"

Ive got a pristine Nikon S, black dial, with a couple lenses that Ive never shot a roll of film though (making a note to do just that) and a dozen or so other decent old cameras. My working 35mms were Canon A1s, (need to check batteries again) and some FTBs

I enjoyed photography way too much to have made a living at it..when it became work, I sorta lost interest to some degree. Gave most of the darkroom equipment away..long term loans to folks long moved away...shrug..still have some bits kicking around out in storage. The

2 4x5 Omega D enlargers and so forth. I kept thinking I was going to get back into it..then found other interests. Life keeps getting in the way. Like the several firearms. Ive got at least 4 Ive never fired. Just dont have the time anymore.

Damnit

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner