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Bad focus with CFV back

I had the opportunity to borrow a CFV-50 for the WE, and akin to the comments posted here - found it quite difficult to achieve accurate focus - even when using a solid tripod and mirror lock-p.
What I found quite problematic were indoor portraits - my eyes are not what they used to be - and the f4.0 lenses are not terribly bright.
That said, when it was sharp - WOW - those "old" Zeiss lenses really sing.
 
I have had the same problem with my CFV 50 back. I sent it to Hasselblad to have the back calibrated to my body. Altough the dealer told me it would take about 14 days before I would have my body and back returned, it took Hassleblad 6 weeks before I had my body and back returned. But now it works fine.
 
Hello,

The Hasselblad distributor in Hong Kong told me that each Hasselblad body used with a specific CFV back must be sent to them together with the CFV back for calibration.

Kind Regards,

YW
 
That is correct and that is exactly what I did. Each back is calibrated to one or more bodies.


Kind regards,
HWRam
 
I must be lucky as my CFV50 works just fine with my ancient bought when new in 1974 500 CM. It does need careful work for optimal results but I am not to my view having as much difficulty focusing as some indicate. The acumat screen that comes with the CFV50 is pretty good.

Pixel peeping is both a bane and a blessing. Sometimes the resolution of this setup is astounding, but always keep in mind that the end result with regards to size and viewing distance. Even the Canon 5D II can produce a 16x20 print that has about all the resolution most viewers will be able to see.

Good luck! T
 
Well, I got a 1958 500C that needed some oil. Open it, close it and works fine. With this body, there was the old focussing screen with the big spot of microprismes. The view is not bright at all, but focussing is far easier. I have beter result with this screen with my CFV-39 than with my transparent screen given with the cfv kit.
So for difficult shooting I use the 500C instead of my 503CW as it's not possible to put 500c screen on later bodies.
 
I got a 1000F kit last week. With this kit, there was a special old sport viewfinder that fix in place of normal viewfinder. So you have aerial viewfinder (no so practical to my use !), and I discovered that inside of this light viewfinder there was an optical tunnel to get huge magnification of the center of the screen (bingo !). This viewfinder and the CFV back allowed me to test my bodies (except 1000F, FA202 and modified 203FE). Then I modify the screen level to synchronize focussing.
 
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