120/5.6 S.planar anatomy

[jesalonen]

Hi all,
after 2 yrs with DSLR I got my 1st film camera yesterday, Hasselblad 500c/m with S-Planar 120/5.6 (silver). I'd like to know your opinions about this lens, but I also would like to know the meaning of a little clutch in the left side, which has options V,X and M? What's it for?

along with the body and lens I did get a metering prism, which operation principles remain unknown to me, but I'll get to that later... Thanks!
Jari

 

[amoebahydra]

Hi all,
... but I also would like to know the meaning of a little clutch in the left side, which has options V,X and M? What's it for?
...

These are features of Compur shutter; V stands for selftimer, X for electronic flash sync, and M for flash bulb flash sync.

Regards

Patrick

 

[polypal]

120S-Planar

The 120 S-Planar is a lens meant to be used at close range.
Unlike other lenses this lens is optimised for objects not further from the lens than 1-1.5 m
Performance at infinity is less good.

Take a look at the lens barrel and you see a scale indicating reproduction ratios of 1:10 till 1:2
That is where the S-Planar is at its best.

The explanation Patick gave for V/X/M is correct.
V stands for "Vorlauf" .
I wonder what M stands for?

 

[jesalonen]

Thanks guys,

the "X" made me suspect this, but I wasn't sure... I'm glad that my impression about Planar being close-focusing optimized was correct. Now, I'm looking for a reasonably priced a bit wider companion for that Planar, and got two offerings so far: Distagon C50 chrome and Distagon C 60/3,5. What do you think of these?
Best wishes,
Jari

 

[amoebahydra]

...
I wonder what M stands for?

M stands for Medium fast bulbs, offering time to peak combustion at 18-20 ms and generally 8-12 ms flash duration. This type of flash bulb is suitable for leaf shutter only as the duration of flash cannot cover the period for the focal plane shutter slit for full frame travel. Flash bulb is fired slightly earlier than X sync to catch up the peak combustion.

While for focal plane shutters manufacture at that period needs FP type flash bulb with 30-35 ms time to peak combustion and long flash duration of 25-35 ms.

Regards

Patrick