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Street portraits with a Hasselblad 203FE

bladdered

bladdered

Member
My Hasselblad activity has been fairly quiet over the last couple of years whilst exploring the Leica M9 and MPs, but I came back to my Hasselblads and what a ball I've been having with them.

Shooting in the street handheld with a 203FE and a 110mm f/2.0 wide open is a completely different experience from snapping with a 35mm camera. It's not easy, but my images are really pleasing to me and I hardly want to shoot anything else at the moment. The Hass has a mind of it's own and encourages me to shoot in a more formal style, but these pictures hang together better and I can see a portfolio taking shape.

As I said, not much use with the Hass recently and so I suspect that there will be a change of direction before long and the tripod might come out. What I really like is the absence of debate about image quality, in focus images breath quality, so it's about subject matter and composition.

The 203FE provides fabulous facility in the street. With auto exposure, it's a point, focus and shoot camera. Makes it reasonable quick when subjects have been asked to pose.

You can see my recent results here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rolophoto/

regards
 
Well, thanks for having a look and coming back to comment.

Appreciate that it's a gear centric Forum and that's a good thing for us owners, so no criticism, but it would be great if it was more. :)
 
Nice pictures and lot of hard work in there. It is a real pleasure to see some 203 camera results. I have a 203fe and as what happened to you after your M9 my camera too was left untouched for several years now because of my M8.2. I was struggling to take out my 203 but strangely it never happens. But somehow i have to finish my last film stock which is fairly expired and one of these days I am going to take out this camera and explore the city streets.

I like to add too, it seems like a ghost town,,, really but I always appreciate this Forum . hope to see more of your work again!
 
Cyril, thanks for your comments on the images. Appreciated.

I've responded to your question via Flickr mail.

The M9 is so easy to carry and it's tempting to abandon all else. However, there's a 'grandeur' about an image taken on a Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, or similar. I have a fine collection of images taken with my Leica cameras, but somehow I feel that the 120 stuff is more permanent.

It's not a resolution issue, rather a presence. I always question the need to shoot my Hass up to the point of sampling for the black in Photoshop. Only then do I know that my decision to carry the weight, bulk and suffer the reduced spontineity was right for me.
 
nathantw666 said:
I know what you mean. It seems like a ghost town here. People are viewing the posts, but nobody is really saying anything to contribute. It's a strange time to be a Hasselblad V user.
Click to expand...

Yes you are right. Strange times ... I found the 203 street photos some days ago and many thanks for that link. Highly appreciated. I am quite a new 203 user with CVF 16 II and far away from such great results.

All the best and let us bring some live in the ghost town ...
Walter
 
Wonderful photos! I am envious. I've tried to do the same kind of thing with my 500C/M and 80/2.8 Planar but my reluctance to get right in the subject's face and inability to hold the camera steady result in very few "keepers."

Like the others, I am disappointed by the lack of traffic on this forum. Perhaps part of the reason is the diversity of Hasselblad products. The only thing an H4D shooter and I really have in common is the name on our camera. There is a lot more discussion of the 500 series Hasselblads in places like the APUG medium format forum.

--Doug
 
bladdered said:
Cyril, thanks for your comments on the images. Appreciated.

I've responded to your question via Flickr mail.

The M9 is so easy to carry and it's tempting to abandon all else. However, there's a 'grandeur' about an image taken on a Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, or similar. I have a fine collection of images taken with my Leica cameras, but somehow I feel that the 120 stuff is more permanent.

It's not a resolution issue, rather a presence. I always question the need to shoot my Hass up to the point of sampling for the black in Photoshop. Only then do I know that my decision to carry the weight, bulk and suffer the reduced spontineity was right for me.
Click to expand...

I agree on this and I have gone to see a Lab where i can dust off some of my old Blad Negatives from the shoe- boxes and scans and put in to display. And at the same time dust off my Blad Camera and clean and fine tune for reusing for clicking . I Think I need to calm down and go in to my old rhyme of clicking with the analog cameras that I did for so many years.
Thanks... bladdered.....:z04_photos:
 
I prefer Rolleiflex 3.5F for street and you have a great set by the way. The 203FE mirror slap is too loud for candids. The 6008i is even worse.
 
Thank you. I have a Rolleiflex 2.8f also, but show images on my Flickr site rather than here.

I've almost given up with candid street shots where the man's hat blows off, lands on the windscreen and the car crashes into the ice cream vendor ........ I currently prefer to shoot characters I come across on the street and make their portraits.
 
Very interesting pictures. Every one has his interpretation of street pictures. The 110mm/2 lens is particulary interesting for pictures taken without tripods.
Years ago with this lens http://blowupster2.blogspot.ch/2010/03/les-filles-au-salon-de-lauto-2010.html most of them taken at 2.0 other with flash but no tripod used.
Last Sunday I spent 1 houre at the for UCI Wold Cup Trial, I used this lens too. At 200 asa and at 5.6 I got some moiré I removed with phocus. Pixelised pictures here: http://blowupster.blogspot.ch/2012/09/coupe-du-monde-uci-trial-2012-23.html
The winder was realy a help to folow the event. But I have to care about the low speed of CFV buffer.

Perhaps this is more "real street camera": http://blowupster.blogspot.ch/2010/08/kyoto-juillet-2010.html
 
Fantastic thread!

I'm impressed with your work, I feel to go for a Hassy after my two years M9 experience.
 
Love your pictures. Tell me more about your camera. Did you buy it new or used? Have you had any trouble with it? Thanks.
 
Yes, I was asking the OP about his camera, the 203FE. I've been wanting this camera but like many others I've been scared off by reports of various problems and the difficulty of getting it serviced.
 
I guess This question is not for me but I like to give an answer as I am a proud owner of my first Blad 203Fe ( Millennium nothing to do except it is an special edition) I had just one issue since I bought it during the year 2000 , as Brand new . It was about the slow shutter setting on manually on viewfinder Led display. But the settings worked perfectly. This problem I had after 5 or 6 years after and never sorted out yet as it was a miner issue for me and my camera works still perfectly as it did about 13years ago. So all I can say this is a great camera still highly demanding due to the Digital Backs compatibility . Choosing a second hand is not very risky and there are specialists repair services still available in Europe although Swiss Blad repair services ended for Blad V camers.
 
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