First rolls of film... Ever! / by Tom Henderix

Few months ago, I struck gold. I found a near mint Hasselblad 503CW and 2 lenses at a flee market in Budapest, for about one tenth of what it would cost at a collector's. It came with a worn out 150mm f4 and an ok 40mm f4. I contacted a local collector and traded the two weird focal lengths it came with, for a very decent Zeiss 120mm f4 Macro. A much more versatile focal length for my use.

I've been shooting digital seriously for some 8 years now, so it would be interesting to see how I could handle a manual focus only, non-metering, medium format beast that is a Hasselblad...

These are the first results... Lots of shots were ruined by light leaks, most likely from a leaky film plate on the magazine. I'll have to send it in for maintenance before I use it more often. Even with the light leaks, first results are better than expected. At least a handful keepers, more than I had hoped. Especially the shots with Mira and Xandra worked out really well. As did the one with my dad. Getting focus right is still an issue, so I'll have to work on that...

To be continued, no doubt...

Film used in these:

Kodak Tri-X 400
Kodak Portra 400

Developed and scanned by the wiz kids at Carmencita Film Lab