Shaun had originally received the booklets from one of his friend’s, who used to own a camera store, so a lot of these booklets were only available at the time to Hasselblad dealers.
Shaun had read my recent blog posts about the Hasselblad 500 C/M camera I had recently purchased so thought I’d enjoy them.
When the parcel arrived, I was extremely happy with the booklets he sent me.
Most of the booklets were from the 1970s with information about the black lenses which, matched my Hasselblad camera since it was made in the 1970s.
I knew over time, I would like to add some accessories to my Hasselblad but I was struggling to find online the right information about certain accessories I was potentially after and which one’s would fit my particular camera and 80mm lens.
A prime example of this was when I recently wanted to purchase a lens shade for my camera. I initially spoke to the London Camera Museum from where I purchased my camera but at the time they only had one extremely scratched one in stock and I was after one that was in cosmetically good condition.
After receiving these booklets, I found some helpful information in one of the Hasselblad catalogues which, enabled me to confidently purchase the right lens shade online for my 80mm lens:
This brochure has been extremely useful in helping me to understand what other accessories I may like to purchase/use on my camera and I’ll be blogging about some of these over the next few weeks.
I also found this Hasselblad System photo at the front of the brochure quite interesting:
Another interesting leaflet that I found inside one of the booklets was a Hasselblad price list from 1976:
Shaun had also sent me some booklets which provided information on how to use the Hasselblad system for tackling a wide variety of photography projects:
Most of these booklets were included in what was sent to me. I did note that the Polaroid Instant Film Photography one isn’t showing on here although I’m not sure why as most of these booklets date from 1975 including the Polaroid one. I can only think that maybe the brochure was released a few years later and perhaps the polaroid publication was out of print?
There was also a great booklet included by Shaun of the Black-finish Lenses which is very relevant to my year of camera and it gives some great information on how an image will look under different lenses used:
Some other useful booklets were on individual lenses that can be purchased for the Hasselblad. One of the booklets was on the Zeiss T* F-Distagon 30 mm f/3.5 ”Fish-eye” lens:
I would one day love to own this lens for my camera as I love the fisheye effect which can be seen in this photo:
However, after looking into potentially buying one, I found that not many of them were ever made so they tend to go for a lot of money now (around £1,500.00 upwards) that I’ve found for sale so far. Even back in the 1976 Hasselblad price list they sold for around $2,325.00 when they were brand new!
So for now, this lens will go onto my wish list and I’ll need to have a long, hard think about how often I would use this particular lens in my photography projects before I feel I could justify spending this amount of money.
Lastly, in the brochure, I came across a section in the back which mentioned the Hasselblad House Magazine:
Again, I’d never heard of this before and after looking on eBay, I found somebody in the UK was selling a couple from the 60s-70s which were £4 each so I bought them to read out of curiosity and I’ve really enjoyed the content in them:
If you’re a vintage Hasselblad owner and would like some more information on accessories that are right for your camera or would like some advice on best lenses/kit to use on a particular photography project using your Hasselblad, then please contact me as I may be able to give some advice with the booklets I now have. I’m always happy to help anybody out who may have had similar problems to me with knowing what to get for their Hasselblad.
I recently bought the Rollei 120mm colour film, which was on sale at a reduced price whilst purchasing some silver gelatin paper.
I had read that the Rollei Chrome CR 200 is an E-6 colour slide film which has rich, warm colours and subtle contrasts. It can be cross developed (C-41 process).
I knew I wanted to test this film out in my Hasselblad. I’ve recently become quite addicted to black and white photography so this was the first colour film that I decided to try and I was very excited to see the results.
After doing some research on the film and looking at other people’s photos online who had used it, I decided that I preferred the warm tones and colours when the film is cross processed under C-41 so got my film developed this way.
Here are a couple of photos I took of my nephews:
I was really pleased with how the above photos turned out. I felt the film being cross processed gave a warm vintage feel to the photos. I feel the colours all blend in together in a nice subtle way. I also love the crisp detail of the trees that my camera has managed to capture.
I next took some photos of blossom trees:
Again, there is very much a warm tone to these photos and I particularly like the darkness of the tree against the bright blue sky. Also the blossom has a yellow tint to it.
Lastly, I took some photos on the beach with the waves and sky:
I love the water detail in these photos and was surprised to see that the clouds almost look like paintings.
I especially love the last photo which I feel has a real 1970s dreamy, advert feel to it.
I note the majority of my photos tend to be of still objects outdoors and I’ve recently been trying to push myself outside of my comfort zone and try other types of photography.
From a previous blog post, you’ll see I attempted to take some indoor photos of my cats which wasn’t very successful.
Next I thought I’d attempt to take some photos of my nephews using some black and white film.
So with my Hasselblad in tow, I headed to a local park with my sister and nephews.
I decided on a park setting as I thought this would be enjoyable for them and ideally, I wanted to capture some photos of them having fun.
I wasn’t sure how successful this photo session would be since my nephews are used to having photos of them taken digitally which is a very quick process.
Obviously, my film format Hasselblad camera was going to take longer.
I recently acquired a Hasselblad Lens Shade for my 80mm lens on the advice I had received from a professional photographer who used this exact model camera back in the 1970s/80s. It’s a lens shade made for the Planar C and F lenses (which mine is) and is provided with a bayonet mount. There is an alignment dot which helps facilitate attachment to the lens.
The reason I decided to use a lens shade was because it was a very bright, sunny day so I thought it would help reduce sun glare and reflections. It also helps protect exposed lens surfaces.
To my surprise, my nephews were really good at staying still and posing for the photos. They were absolutely fascinated by the camera and quite enjoyed the experience.
Here are some photos I took using the Ilford Delta 400 black and white film:
After I had used up the roll of film, my nephews wanted more photos taken of them which was really lovely. Thankfully I’d also packed some Kodak 400TX film so used this too. Here are some of the photos I took:
Overall I was really pleased with how the photos turned out as I didn’t know what to expect. I think it helped that they really enjoyed me taking photos of them and it was a fun environment to photograph in.
I recently purchased this film from Analogue Wonderland whilst buying some other 120mm film:
The Fomapan film is available in different ISO’s from 100-400. I decided on the 200 ISO because I knew I wanted to use it on a bright sunny day in England.
I had seen some photos taken by other people using this film and I liked the style of photos the film seems to produce.
The other appealing thing about the film is that it is very cheap and can be purchased for £3.50 at Analogue Wonderland.
If I’m completely honest, amongst the other more expensive films I had purchased from Analogue Wonderland, this one had remained at the bottom of my pile. This was because I was waiting for a very sunny day and I also viewed it as not being of great quality because it was very cheap.
I recently spent the weekend in Rye with some friends. It was a beautiful sunny day on the Sunday so I decided to take a walk around Rye and test out this film in my Hasselblad.
When I got the film developed, I was extremely impressed with the quality and contrast of the photos. Here are some of the photos I took:
It’s definitely a film I’ll be buying again as I think it is great value for money. I also want to try out the other ISO formats they do.
I was thinking today about the satisfaction I’ve had recently in being able to produce silver gelatin prints in the darkroom for gifts.
Whilst I appreciate that it’s a very personal thing to decide what photos you would like on display in your home, I’ve only gifted a couple of photos so far, to people who I know would love them and would definitely have them on display.
The first silver gelatin print I gifted was to my friend Clive, who went away with me last year to Singapore when we watched the Formula 1 Grand Prix there.
It was an amazing trip away and I managed to take a nice photo of Singapore using the zoom lens on my Pentax K1000 camera and Kentmere 100 black and white film.
I really liked the photo when I got it developed and practiced printing it on silver gelatin paper at my second black and white photography course at Varndean college. Here is a scanned copy of the print I did using a 3.5 Contrast Filter:
Clive saw the photo and really liked it. He had recently moved houses and said how lovely that picture would look framed up in his home office.
I therefore mounted it using white card and framed it in a nice black frame and gave it to Clive and he was really happy with it. It also felt like a nice moving in gift to his new home.
The second photo I gifted was to my husband today as it’s his birthday.
He is actually quite a difficult person to buy gifts for since he never really wants anything and if he does, he just buys it himself.
In the past I’ve taken him away on holiday for his birthday but due to current work commitments, he cannot take any time off work in the near future so I knew I wouldn’t be able to do this for him at the moment.
In fact, I think I felt more sad for him than he did at going to work today.
A couple of weeks ago, I had been practicing portrait shots with him using my Hasselblad 500 C/M camera and some Rollei RPX 400 black and white film.
I particularly liked a picture I’d taken of him cuddling our dog so decided yesterday when I was in the darkroom to make an enlargement of it.
Early this morning before he got up for work, I placed the photo on the mantel piece in our living room for him to see.
I’m pleased to say he really loved it and left for work with a big smile on his face. That was a great feeling for me knowing how happy I’d made him and I knew that photo meant more to him than anything material I could have bought.
I attached a copy of the photo in the blog heading but here it is again:
I suppose it’s quite obvious that there will be differences in a photo from being scanned onto a computer compared to if you print a copy of it in the darkroom.
I really noticed a difference in the contrast in a couple of my photos this week that I’d originally scanned using my Epson V600 scanner and then developed copies in the darkroom.
These photos were taken using my Hasselblad 500 C/M Camera and Ilford Delta 400 film.
The first image was of a close up of a tombstone in the shape of a cross with a tree in the background. Here is the original image that I scanned on my Epson V600 scanner:
I didn’t tweak the original scan as I was happy with the original exposure. As you can see, it isn’t high in contrast and there are many subtle shades of grey which is what I would have expected from the Ilford Delta 400 film.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I decided to print an enlargement in the darkroom but I was surprised by how different the contrast and tones were:
I cropped the photo slightly as I wanted more focus on the tombstone and tree and I felt the extra detail on the right hand side of more trees took attention away from this. The biggest difference I noted though was how much darker the trees and shadow detail were. Also, the grass, tombstones and background detail were left with really nice shades of grey.
I next decided to do an enlargement of a tree image I’d taken on the same roll of film with the sun shining through the trees. I was keen to see how this would look in a print. Here is the original photo I scanned on my Epson V600 scanner:
I made no amendments to this photo at the scanning stage as I was happy with the exposure. As before, the photo consists of various shades of grey with no real contrast.
Here is the same image which I printed in the darkroom:
Once again, I cropped the image, this time on the left hand side because I wanted more focus on the two big trees with the sun shining through. You’ll notice that the greys are much darker on this print compared to the original scan. I’ve also lost the grey detail from the sky which was in the original scan. This gives the image a lot more contrast.
I used Ilford chemicals to develop both prints and also Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe Pearl 8×10 paper. I exposed both images for 1 minute and I didn’t use any contrast filters.
Personally I prefer the darkroom prints over the original scanned images. I’m very keen on contrast in my photos as I feel this adds to the dramatic effect I wanted to achieve in these particular images I took.
Perhaps I could have achieved this effect too on the scanner by changing the contrast but I am just surprised by how different they look in print.
I’m very grateful to have access to a darkroom and I get so much satisfaction in seeing my images almost come to life in print instead of just looking at them on the screen.
I’ve also enjoyed messing about cropping my images to see how different it can make my photo look.
Needless to say, there are many more prints that I now want to develop in the darkroom to see how different they look compared to my original scanned images.
Lastly, the darkroom prints have also been scanned onto the computer using my Epson V600 scanner and they look the same as the actual print.
When I was shooting a lot of my photos on 35mm film, most of my camera’s had a built in light meter or some form of light meter on them and I felt my photos exposed ok so I never felt the need to buy an external light meter.
Since I’ve been getting into medium format photography more, I knew at some point a light meter would be a good investment.
When I was using the Diana F+ medium format camera it had settings on the camera for sunshine, cloudy etc so I never felt the need to get one then either. Also, when I was using the Lubitel 166B, I pretty much went by the sunny 16 rule and would stop it down and change shutter speed by guess work depending on how cloudy or sunny the day was.
Once I knew that I was going to invest in a more expensive medium format camera, I felt it was essential for me to get a light meter so I could hopefully do the camera justice and get the best photos possible to my ability.
I really didn’t know where to begin when looking for a light meter. The choice to me was overwhelming!
The costs were also greatly different and I really wasn’t sure what make to buy or what to spend.
After researching light meters online, I felt I perhaps wanted to pay a bit more to ensure I got a better quality one and had in mind a budget between £80-£150 but I still wasn’t sure what to buy.
I also didn’t know if I wanted an electronic or manual one. Again, so much choice.
I was going to visit my local camera shop and have a chat with them about what would be best for me but as luck would have it, a fellow blogger had read one of my Lubitel posts and asked me if I had thought of investing in a light meter.
After having a chat with him, he suggested the Weston Light meter range. After looking into those light meters in more depth I did like the fact they were british made, looked of great quality, were nice and manual and also didn’t require batteries due to the selenium light cell.
These light meters appeared to have been mainly produced from the 1950s-1970s and I was a little concerned how accurate the reading would be today and if I would be better off buying a modern digital one.
Ian fully rebuilds, refinishes, and restores these old light meters with a new selenium cell.
I checked out the website and saw he had a variety of the light meters for sale. I knew from looking at them I would prefer a Weston IV or Weston V. I read some good reviews online about these particular models. I also liked how both styles looked.
To purchase one would cost me around £139.00 which was within the maximum budget I had in mind. I loved the fact they are fully restored so that gave me great confidence in how well they would work.
Before I decided to take the plunge and purchase one from the website, I decided to have a quick look at the Weston Master IV and V light meters on eBay.
I found several on there quite cheap but they obviously were old and hadn’t been restored so I was happy to pay more money for a refurbished one.
However, I was drawn to a particular one for sale on eBay which was the Weston Master V, as the seller stated that it had been refurbished back in 2014. He described it as being in excellent condition but he would only reveal who had refurbished it to the winning bidder.
This was all rather intriguing and I was really hoping, judging by everything that was included in the photos (manual and cases) that it was refurbished by Ian Partridge.
When I looked at the listing, a couple of people were bidding on the item and it was going for £10.50. I had looked at it on a Sunday and the listing was actually ending that evening!
I decided to take a punt and put in a last minute bid of around £60. I ended up winning the light meter for £31.15 with postage.
The light meter arrived with the original restoration paperwork and it was refurbished by Ian Partridge! I was over the moon!
The light meter looked shiny and brand new and felt of amazing quality in my hands and had a lovely weight to it.
I wasn’t sure how to use this light meter but since the manual was provided, I quickly learnt what I needed to do to make best use of it.
I first used it with My Hasselblad last week and in my previous blog I provided photos of what I took. I was really happy that the light meter seems to work perfectly as I was very happy with the exposure of the photos.
I feel extremely lucky that I was able to pick up an amazing light meter for a great price that will hopefully last me for years to come.
Here are some close ups of the light meter and invercone with their cases:
On a final note, I would like to say thank you to my fellow blogger, 35mm Film Shootist, for all his help on this.
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!
Since the beginning of my journey into film photography last April, I knew at some point, if the passion didn’t fade, that I would want to invest in a higher end film camera.
I had originally started off with my beloved Pentax K1000 as I knew I wanted a 35mm SLR camera and since this is a fully manual camera, I learnt lots about Aperture in relation to Shutter Speed and ISO with the help of the built in light meter in the camera.
Apart from my investment in some nice instant cameras such as the Leica Sofort and Polaroid SX-70 I suppose my next investment and step up into a film camera was my much loved Olympus Pen FT half frame camera. I love this camera and the image quality it produces.
In recent months I’ve been really getting into medium format photography. I really love having to think about my composition and how it can work into the square style box.
I think I must have a thing for composing a photo in a slightly different photo size as this is what I love about composing shots with the my Olympus FT.
I suppose my love of the medium format style photos first began when I bought a Diana F+ Camera cheaply on eBay.
As the months progressed I then bought another Lomography style camera, the Lubitel 166B which was originally meant to be a present for my husband as he had taken an interest in this camera but couldn’t get on with it when he tried it so I persevered and began using it.
I love the square format of the photos and I was starting to use more black and white film in it since I knew I wanted to do more darkroom work.
I always thought when investing in a high end camera it may be one of the Leica 35mm film cameras but my heart was telling me to invest in a medium format camera.
As we all know, there is so much choice in the medium format world. You can get fairly decent medium format film cameras ranging from a few hundred pounds right up to thousands of pounds.
If you had asked me in the summer of last year which high end medium format camera I would ever consider buying, I would have said the Pentax 67 which isn’t technically square but I was already in love with Pentax since owning the K1000 and thought I would love the fact the camera style and viewfinder can be used like a 35mm SLR camera.
However, I was fortunate enough to try out somebody’s Pentax 67 camera last year during a photography walk in Brighton. I knew instantly that it wasn’t for me. The main reason……because it was too heavy and big! I really struggled to hold that camera up to my eye and I knew that I would never use it or take it out with me if I owned one.
I had always thought that I would never like a ‘shoot from the hip’ style camera as that just seemed too weird to me to take a photo. However, after using the Lubitel 166B, I realised I loved taking photos in this way which I was really surprised at!
I then looked at potentially investing in a decent TLR camera and again was fortunate enough to have a friend who owns a decent Yashica TLR. However, on trying this, the dial placement just didn’t feel natural to me. I can’t really explain why as the picture quality and image in the viewfinder was much better than the Lubitel but I wasn’t falling in love with it. Also, I knew at some point I would like the option of interchangeable lenses. I know some of the TLR’s have this option but I just wasn’t feeling it.
I then looked at the various Bronica’s and Kiev’s at my local camera shop. Clocktower Camera’s had several for sale but again, on looking at each one, I just wasn’t feeling them.
I’m sure there are still loads and loads of medium format cameras I could have tried but by this point I started to consider the Mamiya and Hasselblad cameras.
Whilst I think the Hasselblad camera looks extremely stylish and I love the modular system, I really thought it wouldn’t be the camera for me either. Nowhere locally had one for me to try out and I didn’t know anyone that owned one although one of my friends used to own one years ago and told me how great they were.
Back in December I met up with one of my camera buddies for taking photos around London and we decided to head to the Camera Museum in Museum Street in Holborn so I could check out their Hasselblad collection as they specialise in repairing Hasselblad’s and also sell them.
The staff were really helpful in there and talked me through the different Hasselblad cameras from the more modern ones, to the V series.
Once I held one of the V series one’s (the 500 C/M to be exact) I instantly fell in love! I had seen the prices so knew I would only want to spend within the budget of the 500 C or C/M and I liked the fact they are fully manual which is what I personally look for in a film camera.
I was amazed at how light weight it was for a decent medium format camera! I was easily able to hold it with my left hand and turn the lens and fire the shutter with my right. It felt great. I loved the viewfinder which was very bright and clear, almost like looking at a television screen. The whole camera felt very natural to me.
The quality of the camera was amazing, it felt well built and not at all plastic.
I was very honest with the camera shop and admitted I didn’t have the funds to buy one there and then but that didn’t seem to bother them with the time they took going through the various camera’s with me which was lovely and helpful of them.
Even if I had the funds there and then I would have held back from purchasing one because I knew I needed to do more research. Also, the 500 C/M model from 1981 that I tried in the shop wasn’t in the best of condition cosmetically (although the price they were selling it for reflected that).
I had a lot of chats with different people about the Hasselblad cameras including one of my ex photography tutors who is also a professional photographer and does freelance work for companies such as Sunseeker Yachts and I really like his photography so I value his opinion. He knows my style of photography and also knows you can take photos hand held with this camera and he couldn’t find a bad word to say about this camera either. He also checked with a friend who owned a 500 C/M for quite a number of years before moving to digital and he also only had great things to say about the photo quality and use of the camera etc.
My ex tutor did say that for several hundred less the Bronica’s are quite good but he said I need to go with what I’m feeling and if I settled for a Bronica, I would only end up pining for a Hasselblad so would never be quite happy with the Bronica and I agreed with him.
I could have easily bought a Bronica since I had sufficient funds for one of those but I decided to be patient and save for the Hasselblad.
By this point I had also decided the Mamiya wasn’t for me. Although I had done much research on the different models and heard great things about those camera’s which I know are used by a lot of professional film photographers today. I suppose we have to just listen to what we would like rather than what everyone tells us is best for us and what we should like. Quite frankly my gut told me, buy the Hasselblad.
Through out January, I sold off a load of stuff I’d been meaning to sell for the past year and now I finally had an incentive to do it.
By last week I had made enough money to buy a Hasselblad 500.
I had already decided in my research that I wouldn’t buy a 500C, purely because I wouldn’t be able to change the viewfinder myself and I knew this may be something I possibly would want to change for a particular type of project at some point so it was going to be a C/M model.
I next had to decide on the type of lens as I initially liked the look of the original Chrome lenses but after further chats with the guys at the Camera Museum I discovered that they don’t have the special multicoated layer on the lens so I wouldn’t get as much contrast on clouds etc as I would with a later C T* lens (which are black not chrome). There is also a slightly later lens known as the CF and I was told the image quality wouldn’t be any different to the C T* but it just turned differently so it was personal preference on what style I would like out of these two. The CF lens is also a bit bigger which put me off and is also slightly more expensive so as a newbie to the Hasselblad system, I was quite happy to have a C T* lens when I bought my camera. I also knew for now, I would be happy with the standard 80mm lens since I had tried out the different size mm lenses (from the more zoom type to the wider angle) at the shop and got an idea of the scope of photo I could take through each one.
I already knew that I wanted to buy my camera from the Camera Museum, as they had been really helpful. Also, they provide new light seals with every second hand camera (which would normally cost £80 plus VAT if you asked them to do these for one of your Hasselblad’s) and they provide a 6 month warranty in case of any failures in the camera.
Since I would be spending quite a bit of money, I knew I wanted a warranty. I also knew I wouldn’t be getting any bargains on eBay or Gumtree as they were all going for the same price as what the Camera Museum was charging, if not more on some of them!
Whilst saving for one, the Camera Museum had listed a 500 C/M model for sale which was in a condition I was happy with (unlike the one I viewed in December). This particular model was from 1978 which again, I was happy with. After having a chat with them on Wednesday, I got on a train that morning and tried it out. I spent over an hour with them going through the workings of it. I was extremely impressed by the overall condition, especially the back curtains as you can see in the photo below:
We went through all the shutter speeds which seemed to work perfectly. I was also warned about potentially jamming the camera if I take the lens off and it’s been fired and the camera hasn’t etc so I need to make sure they all match before putting back together. So currently I’m a bit scared of accidentally doing this but hopefully I won’t!
Needless to say I purchased the camera along with a nice original thick Hasselblad strap in excellent condition to give me good support as again, the joys of visiting an actual shop rather than buying the camera online meant that I could try out various straps. I had liked the look of the thin leather strap but after trying it, the camera easily slipped off my shoulder and it just didn’t feel that well supported so I knew that I would need the thicker strap.
They also gave me a free black and white film which I loaded into the camera in front of them so they could make sure I did this properly. It also meant I was ready to go and shoot. I would have loved to have taken some shots in London but I had to rush back to Brighton on the train before rush hour ensued so I used the film locally.
I’ve since got the roll of film developed and am extremely happy with the results. I’ll be blogging about this separately since this blog is really long so thank you to everybody who has taken the time to read it.
For anybody interested in purchasing a Hasselblad, accessories or who would like some more information about the camera or getting a repair done, their website is:
In one of my previous blogs I mentioned my obsession with printing contact sheets which I had been doing for 35mm negatives and I had a Paterson Proof Printer specially for this.
Since I’ve recently been getting more into medium format photography and when I knew I was going to continue to do prints in a darkroom, I decided to invest in a 120mm Proof Printer from Paterson.
I bought mine brand new on eBay since I struggled to find any second hand ones at a cheaper price in this particular format.
I decided to try it out on my first session in the Brighton Community Darkroom.
However, I made a couple of mistakes. First of all I’m not sure if the mistakes were due to me concentrating so much on mixing up the chemicals and getting used to the enlarger but I’ll explain what I did.
Here is a picture of the first contact sheet I did:
I did the usual test strips first to check the exposure times etc. These photos were taken at Brighton Marina using my Lubitel 166B camera and JCH Streetpan 400 black and white 120mm film. The film is naturally high in contrast which I love.
The first mistake I made was not matching the negatives the correct way round in the proof printer. In my haste to get a contact sheet printed and check I was using the enlarger correctly, I had just put the negatives into the proof printer without really thinking about the direction etc which resulted in this print.
Also, I noticed that the end photo hadn’t quite printed fully. I was perplexed as to why this was and thought perhaps there was something wrong with the proof printer?
I re-read the instructions of how to use the proof printer (which quite honestly, is pretty self explanatory) but I thought I must be doing something wrong. I still couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong. I then read the instructions again and saw the key sentence that I originally must have kept skimming over when reading them originally and here is the mistake I made:
When I print the contact sheet, I was putting the 8 x 10 inch photo paper directly onto the grey sponge area then shutting down the top screen which contained the negatives and subsequently taking an enlargement:
What was happening was that the border where the hinge is on the front screen, was blocking part of the negative from transferring onto the paper, hence why I wasn’t getting the full photo.
Finally I realised from the instructions that I should have been placing the photo paper into the slot of the where the hinge is directly onto the negatives on the glass front:
I’m sure to most people this would seem really obvious, even without reading the instructions, and I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I did this mistake, but I do tend to lack common sense sometimes!
Once I realised my mistakes, I decided to re-print these negatives again during another session in the darkroom.
I used a No 2 Contrast Filter and did a test strip using exposure times of 30 seconds:
From the test strip I decided on an exposure time of 2 1/2 minutes. Before I printed the whole contact sheet again, I did another test strip at the full 2 1/2 minutes exposure to check I was happy with that:
You’ll see that the last photo was much lighter but I have to make some compromises when doing a contact print so was happy with this and here is the final result:
First of all, I’m pleased I managed to get all the images the right way round! You’ll see that a couple of the photos are under exposed but at least I get an overview of the photos and can then choose which ones I’d possibly like to work on for enlarging into prints.
I’m very happy that I now know how to use the contact proof printer correctly and will be using it for all my black and white medium format negatives when I need to do a contact sheet.
Natalie Smart Film Photography 