My first roll of film on my Hasselblad 500 C/M Camera

From my previous blog I explained that the Camera Museum in London provided me with a free roll of film when I purchased my Hasselblad camera from them.

The film they provided me with was the Ilford Delta 400 black and white film, which I had never used before.

I also explained in my previous blog that I didn’t have time to try out the camera in London and had to wait until I got back home to Brighton.

I was keen to try out the camera asap so the first photo I took was of one of my cats in my living room:

I balanced the camera on a foot stool to take this image and I was still getting used to the focusing screen so it’s the corner of the blanket which is really in focus. However, I still quite like the image and the way the corner of the blanket is nice and crisp. The exposure could be improved since my cat is really dark in this image.

The actual negative itself is marked and I’m not sure if that was because it was my first time loading film into the camera and perhaps I accidentally marked the beginning of the negative whilst loading since the rest of the negatives are absolutely fine.

I decided for the remainder of the film that I would go to Hove Cemetery since it’s nice and quiet there, which meant I could really concentrate and focus on how to use the Hasselblad.

I personally think it’s essential to use an external light meter when using the Hasselblad and I used one for most of the photos I took. I’m going to blog about the light meter I used separately.

When I took the camera outside and started to use it, I was extremely impressed by the bright viewfinder:

I’ve personally never owned a camera with an amazing viewfinder like this before. I also felt it really helped me in composing my shots.

Here are the photos I took:

This was the first time I had used an external light meter and I was extremely impressed with the results from using one.

I scanned all my images using an Epson V600 scanner and I didn’t have to ‘tweak’ any of the photos for the exposure.

For my first roll, I’m very happy with the results. I handheld the camera when taking the photos rather than using a tripod and I’m impressed with how crisp the images are. The lens is amazing.

I found the camera really easy to hold and use. It still felt fairly light to me and with the strap it just felt like I had a handbag over my shoulder.

I am so happy I purchased this camera, I definitely have no regrets and I’m really excited about shooting some more images with it. I can’t wait!

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