Hasselback Portrait – the Hasselblad Instax Back

Yesterday I discovered via an online Hasselblad group I belong to, that a company called Escura had launched a campaign for an instax photo back that is compatible with the Hasselblad V-system cameras.

I was first aware of the company Escura when they launched their first Kickstarter campaign in 2018 for a 60s style Instant Camera (the Escura Instant60s). Whilst I found the camera interesting, I never backed it due to already owning my Leica Sofort Instant camera.

The new instant back they have designed for the Hasselblad will allow you to shoot Fuji Instax Mini instant formats which, they claim will help give complete control over exposure and framing allowed by the Hasselblad system.

For anybody that knows about Hasselblad and instant photo options currently on offer, there is a Polaroid film back that can be purchased second hand quite cheaply. When I first purchased my Hasselblad I nearly purchased a Polaroid back for around £60. However, the reason I didn’t in the end, was because the only film that these backs are compatible with is the Fuji FP 100-C which has since been discontinued.

I’m aware that a company called Supersense recently released an alternative Packfilm for the Polaroid 100 type back but, it is very expensive to purchase (around £24 for 6 x photos) in comparison to the Fuji Instax mini film (around £10 for 10 x photos) so I’m still in two minds about purchasing a vintage Polaroid back.

Since the Escura back will be compatible with the cheaper Fuji Instax mini film I was extremely excited about this new product!

They met their funding target within a couple of hours of the Kickstarter launch which, was great for them. Initially I thought I may back this Kickstarter Campaign immediately too but when I saw that the first early bird price was going to cost me approximately £171.00 (including postage to the UK), I thought I’d better do some further research before taking the plunge and backing it.

Thankfully there are a couple of YouTube videos that have been posted by photography bloggers who received a prototype of the product to test.

I eagerly watched both videos and was impressed with the photo images being produced. At this point I thought the whole process of having to put in a new viewfinder attachment before I could take a photo with the back may slightly annoy me if I’m out and about taking photos as I would most likely want to regularly change between the normal 120 film back and this one.

What I also noticed when watching the YouTube videos was that all photos were taken fairly close up (mainly of people and some pets) and I couldn’t see any landscape type photos.

Thankfully upon reading the comments that people had posted on one of the YouTube videos, I noticed that somebody had asked if the instax film back can be shot at infinity and the answer was NO.

Upon looking at the Kickstarter campaign again, the penny finally dropped that the word ‘Portrait’ is noted in the title of the product. This therefore meant that the instax back is only really designed for portrait photography work and general close up shots.

For me, I don’t tend to shoot portraits often on my Hasselblad. I tend to use mine more for landscape work and the majority of the time I shoot at infinity.

I knew immediately that I could not justify the £171.00 cost for an instant back that I would rarely use.

I certainly wouldn’t take this camera out with me for social events to try and justify using the instant back since it’s too big plus, I have my gorgeous Leica Sofort instax camera which does a great job for parties anyway and has a built in flash.

I’m hoping that in the future there may be another instant back design for the Hasselblad that will work for infinity shots too as that would be something I would be very tempted to purchase.

I also noticed that some people had asked on various social platforms why they hadn’t designed a back for the Instax Square film since the Hasselblad is a 6×6 camera. Escura’s response was that the Instax mini is more popular than the square and mini size is apparently perfect for Portrait. Also Escura said that there is no Black and White square instax film and the cost of the back would be more expensive to purchase if they designed a square one.

Here is a video of the Kickstarter campaign for anybody who may be interested in purchasing one:

They plan to ship the first batch in July 2020 so the wait won’t be too long for anybody wanting to purchase this.

Why my Leica Sofort is my current daily camera

Back in 2018 I upgraded my instant camera to a Leica Sofort camera.

Prior to this purchase I had been using a Polaroid Snap camera for a couple of years.

I had used the Polaroid Snap camera quite a lot, especially when out at parties but I’d always been disappointed with the photo quality because it was printed on zinc paper.

I had always preferred the quality of the fuji instax mini film which I had seen from friends who had taken photos using this film.

However, I really didn’t like the design of the fuji instant cameras so never got round to buying one.

This all changed when Leica released their line of Sofort instant cameras which also uses the fuji mini instax film.

I really felt they had got the design perfect for what I wanted in a modern instant camera.

I instantly fell in love with the Orange design and knew that this was the time to upgrade.

Having the ‘Leica’ branding on it meant that this came at a higher price compared to the other fuji instant cameras on the market.

I decided for me, it would be a worthwhile purchase and I can say over a year on since owning the camera, I still absolutely love it and use it lots!

I’ve found it’s actually become one of my every day camera’s.

There are several reasons for this.

First of all, I love the fact the the photo is instant and I especially love it at parties when I take photos and give the instant photo to that person I took the photo of.

I also love using it during the day when I’m out and about, on walks to work etc as I can instantly take a photo and put it in my photo journal.

I tend to keep a daily photo journal for creative inspiration and I love writing/sketching in it everyday and adding photos:

The Leica Sofort is perfect for this. It also has a built in flash so it doesn’t matter whether I’m indoors or outdoors, I can take pretty decent photos regardless.

I love how fuji film also have different colour borders on their films they now sell rather than just plain white and I regularly purchase these film packs which can be picked up quite cheaply on places like eBay.

Whilst I appreciate the photo quality isn’t the best in comparison to the size of fuji square/wide or Polaroids, for me it is the perfect size for my photo journal and for giving to people at parties so they can just pop it in their bag or pocket.

I also have fuji instax albums to put other photos in such as when I go away on holiday and take photos. The ones below are from a botanical garden I visited in a trip to Singapore last year:

I’ve also used these albums as gifts for people at their parties when I’ve taken a load of photos then put them all into an album for them at the end of the night.

Whilst I love Polaroid film and my Polaroid camera’s, the downside is the cost of the Polaroid film. I’m paying over a pound more for each photo and Polaroid film in my experience can be a bit temperamental so I’m not guaranteed a great quality photo every time I use it.

With fuji film, the consistency of the film is very good so I’m pretty much guaranteed a decent photo every time.

I also love the long battery life on my Leica Sofort. It can be weeks before I need to charge it up again which is great so I can just leave it in my bag regularly ready for the next days photography inspiration.

It’s also a great ice breaker at parties as people are always fascinated by the look of the camera and I’m always surprised to find the amount of people I speak to who don’t realise that instant cameras and instant film still exist.

I do still use my Polaroid camera’s but I tend to use them more when I know I want a bigger instant photo than what I will get from the mini instax film.

Now I use this camera regularly, I find I tend to buy the fuji instax film weekly rather than monthly.

I really enjoy looking back through my journal to see what photos I’ve taken and what my daily scribbles/sketches have been.

It’s also great for jotting down potential photo ideas/projects in case I promptly forget them again.

In fact, I read an interesting article called ‘The art of the notebook’ by Tracy Calder in this month’s issue of Black and White Photography magazine (published by GMC publications).  

It is about creating a photo journal with some inspiration and pictures of photo journals that other people have created.

Does anybody else do a daily photo journal with their photography? I would love to hear what other people’s thoughts/views are on keeping a photo journal.