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Incompatible focusing screens

"I missed her too much to let her go anytime soon."

Dear Antje,
I understand that you do not like to be without your Hasselblad. But if you send your camera somewhere else for the screen swap I will happily provide you with a replacement Hasselblad as long as your camera is away.

Ulrik
 
Thanks everybody - nah, I'm still there and not offended by anything.
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Here's the course of action I'm taking to resolve this:

1) Call the repair shop tomorrow
2) Shoot some more rolls with the 500C today (note to self: By all means, take an umbrella)
3) Process the rolls I shot yesterday
4) Go for a long run to get rid of residual frustration (Note to self: Wear technical running gear or a dry suit)
5) Buy a 500CM as a backup body (yeah, who am I fooling - it's mainly because it'll be great to have another Hassy in the house
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)

and of course:
6) Post something positive on this forum in the near future.
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Sorry guys, it's been unfortunate to make an entrance into a forum by posting an unpleasant experience. Actually, I think that there are so few positive threads about shooting with Hasselblads because it's so easy to shoot with them. Why talk about the smooth operation, the wonderful solid feel and the lovely sound of a long exposure? I could talk about the day when I first saw one, opened the viewfinder and fell in love. About loading the first roll of film (the wrong way around, but hey, at least I noticed in time!
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), about the first B&W roll hanging to dry in the bathroom and seeing THESE HUGE NEGATIVES!!!! Ahem. Sorry. About using my Canon 20D as a rather sophisticated meter maybe, and about the physical pain of hauling two cameras, a dSLR and a 500C, wherever I go. Or even the mechanical smell of metal and lubricants. When I bought one, I expected to love it and wasn't disappointed.

I'll take it on a business trip next week and hope to get some nice street scenes in Cologne - if the customers let me go early enough.
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Gotta go, seems like the rain stopped for a moment.

Antje
 
G'Day Antje:

This Forum's 'timbre' has already improved with your arrival.

You are most welcome. This forum is for photographers and artists, with or without Victor Hasselblad's little box camera, and is 'genderless'. Although the rules are seemingly set by a few, they are broken by all from time to time. Each transgression, however, is but a golden thread in this forum's rich tapestry. For here, when you look through the trees, you will find gemstones of experience and knowledge not available in any one published book.

You have already written your first page.
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Colin

PS. Contrary to public rumor (or rumour), Aussie blokes don't mind if sheilas join in the fray. Actually we're proud that Aussie shielas were the first in the world to get the right to vote.

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PPS Speaking of books, I have started a NEW topic - about the written word. No bitching or moaning allowed, and all posters going off thread will have to send a bottle of wine to a charity of my choice !!!
 
Marc,

Thank you for another great shot.
I can imagine her mother was pleased with the result.

I am glad Antje has joined us to make us part of her first experiences with her Hasselblad.

Colin,

Thank you for a good welcome post for our new member.
I am enjoying the Aussie treatment so much it will be inevitable to visit this continent soon.
I just wonder what charity you mean....


Paul
 
G'Day Paul.

Thank you.

I'm still thinking about the name for the charity, but I have the address already. ;-)

This is WAY OFF topic, and my lost post on this thread.

Please visit my country, mate. You'll be made real bloody welcome. Fair dinkum. All the blokes and sheilas will treatya orright.

BTW. There are less people in the continent than there are in California, and the country is as big as the ConUS. I remember when I first took my South Carolina born wife there, she asked why we were travelling on the lesser road systems rather than the interstates. I had to show her the sign ... National Highway 1 ... and that also helped her understand why on a busy day at world class national parks etc, you feel you must be the only people who were allowed in at the gate!!

For all that, Sydney is a fantastic, large, modern international metropolis (as is Melbourne, and to a lesser degree Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

But don't go for just 7 days !!

If you need a tour guide, let me know.

Colin
 
Antje:

Sorry guys, it's been unfortunate to make an entrance into a forum by posting an unpleasant experience.>

In my view, what transpired was not the fault of your contribution.

Please continue to post any questions, or concerns you have, share your experiences, or photographs: that is what the forum is for.

And, I think exactly what it needs!

Regards:

Gilbert
 
PPS Speaking of books, I have started a NEW topic - about the written word. No bitching or moaning allowed, and all posters going off thread will have to send a bottle of wine to a charity of my choice !!!


Oh oh! Looks like I may owe a charity or two... From now on no more 'whining' on my part. Wish I could join in a bit of 'wine' though.
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vic...
 
Yes, Victor, nice you see the paradox in how whining about whining is can also be whining.

In recent times, there has been a bit of whiny whining about whining, as opposed to constructive suggestions about how and what to post to the list.

I claim special knowledge of this as I live at Whian Whian. This is pronounced 'Wine Wine' or 'Whine Whine'. If things are good it is 'Wine Wine' in celebration, if things are bad it is 'Whine Whine'.

Nick
 
Hee,hee. Good one Nick : -)

Notice how the other threads took off ? ...with interesting literature on Hasselblad, and Wilko kick-started the old "favorite lens" thread with some excellent Hasselbald photos.

Let's see more everyone. Gotta evangelize the V system and keep it going. I try to infect other wedding shooters whenever I can. Digital 35 is so prevelant in that business now, and newbies just don't know what they're missing ... so I try to show them the error of their ways : -)
 
Hello Wilko, thanks for your response, no corrosion present thank goodness. Everything else works fine. I am a little hesitant to tackle the problem myself even if I am watchmaker and a fine one at that.....better to stick to what I know. I'm happy to leave it to the experts so if any of the aussies out there can recommend someone I'd only be too happy to hear.

Wolf
 
I`d like to mention that replacing a screen in a 500C is not rocket science, in fact with the right size screw driver it`s dead simple, takes about five minutes.
Also I don`t know how anyone could break a screen, it`s very straightforward, it`s also easy enough to keep the screen level by looking at the edges as they sit around the body of the camera.
As for getting perfect focus though that may be a different story although I think you can get focus right by setting focus on infinity and move the screen up and down till you get it spot on with a subject 200 meters from the camera.
I am no expert but I`m really amazed a technician would not fit any kind of screen on a 500C, but maybe the problem was you were trying to fit a CM screen on a C, that would not work of course.
To be honest I don`t know whether or not acute matte D screens are even available for screw mount 500C`s.
Another piece of info which I do know for certain is that if you can see the screws in the corner of the screen, it has been adjusted or the screen changed by someone other than a technician as they coat the screws after fitting the screens, so they are in a way welded to the screen frame and cannot move.
 
Mark,


Hasselblad stopped supplying screens for 500C models many years ago. Understandable as the last 500C's produced are now over 35 years old.

Fitting a screen suitable for "M" models like an Acute Matte in a 500C body is possible after removal of the metal frame that is fitted to these screens.
Removal of the frame around a later "M" screen is a delicate job but by no means impossible to do.

Before adjusting the new screen it is good practice to check and adjust the position of the mirror.

With current friendly prices for 500CM's it may be better to look for one of these.
 
> Removing of the frame around a later "M" screen is a delicate job but > by no means impossible to do.

I have done this many times my self, and it is very easy...but with an AcuteMatte, it also looks very easy to break the AcuteMatte (though I've never broken one) since it's two pieces, and one of the pieces is very thin and fragile. If I remember right, I had some trick (I haven't done this in a number of years) using playing cards that made it quite easy.

Regards,

Austin
 
Hi

Today I got my hands on an old EL/M with an old-style focusing screen.

This focusing screen conveniently auto-disassembled
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itself (or in other words: it was fubared by a previous owner).

But this gave me a good opportunity to show you all how the complete
assembly fits together:

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bottom right: the top metal frame. It is displayed from the underside
(relative to its normal position) to show it is really a metal holder.

top right: the actual focusing screen. The actual image is formed
on the bottom of this glass plate. The shiny side is the top, the
bottom side is the matte side.

bottom left: the Fresnel lens. This is a thin plastic lens that
ensures an even lighting of the focusing screen. One side is smooth,
the other side has the typical Fresnel groove pattern.

top left: the bottom retaining frame that holds the hole thing
fixed into the top metal frame.

I do not have a AM to make comparison pictures of. That is, I do have 2 AMs but no desire to wreck them. Donor AMs are welcome
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Wilko
 
The difference between this older standard screen and the Acute Matte screens is that:

- the glass bit in Acute Matte screens is only a plain glass sheet protecting the bit that is below it, and is very much thinner, and that

- the plastic part below the protective cover in an Acute Matte is not just a Fresnel lens, but also the part that defines the image plane (or rather: produces the image, since it is not merely a light scattering surface, but consists of millions of tiny pyramid-like structures that direct light towards one point above the screen).

The difference in glass plate thickness make it difficult to pry the Acute Matte out of the frame: the glass part breaks easily.

(The difference in how it works makes focussing using an Acute Matte screen a bit less easy: there is no single, well defined image plane, but a - albeit small - range in which our eyes can find a sharp image.

The particular optical nature of Acute Matte screens also makes the out of focus parts look rather different from how they would look using a 'normal' diffusing ground glass, and from how they will appear on film, so judging that is also made more difficult.

The change from Acute Matte to Acute Matte D was one that made the 'business end' more "D"iffusing like a normal focussing screen's business end, and brings a (small) improvement of both things mentioned directly above.

And the Acute Matte screens have a rather pronounced positional dependency: your eye needs to sit exactly centered above the screen, and at the right distance from the scree. Else you will see a 'hot spot'/bright patch on a darker screen.

Using prism finders solves this 'positional' effect.

That all means that in bright light, it is much easier to focus accurately, and judge the image's appearance, using an old style screen, like the one originally in the 500C.
But only when light levels are sufficiently high!
)
 
Hi Q,

Yes, indeed the plain AM's to my eye are much less easy to focus in bright light (e.g. Utah canyons ;-)

I typically have my 45gr prism finder on the camera, this helps a lot in those circumstances. A WLF is just not fun with a plain AM in bright ambient light. The very least you have to do is shield the WLF, and use the loupe.

The prism finder in combination with a checkerboard / split image AMD gives me whtat I think is the ideal solution for my use.

I have yet to try my chimney finder, assembled from 2 wrecked units. Total cost, EUR 8, is not at all bad for this finder. The only downside is that it is a bit awkward in the camera bag. But it nicely avoids the stray light issue with a WLF.

Wilko
 
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