Anyone shooting a Hassy 503CW with the CFV39 back?

[kuau]

Woody,
$5K for for 40mm CFE/IF wouldn't be so bad I guess. Now I just need to find one, Hasselblad does not have one in there demo fleet I asked them.
Still like everything else, hearing something about a lens is one thing, but actually going out and shooting it is a whole other ball game.

Yeah, I know what you mean with your S2, but for me it was way way way out of my price range, I could only imagine the quality, Like my M9 but even better if thats even possible and like you 37-40MP is more than I would ever need or want.

I did enjoy the 503CW retro feel all mechanical, kind of like an older leica, focus, aperture, shutter and shoot. Nothing to it, oh except don't forget to lock up the mirror.
I am sure I could easily get away with a 501CM, I don't think I would ever get the winder and I don't need ttl flash, so the 501CM would probably be what I would get and save even more $

Steven

 

[tjv]

Coming from AF with the Pentax, how easy did you find the Hassey with MF? Did you find it easy enough to get a critical point of focus at middle distances using wider apertures? I ask because even with the 35mm ZF Zeiss of my D700 I found the it difficult to consistently get the correct point of focus, especially in marginal light.

 

[kuau]

I found focusing on the 503CW using the PM45 view finder not to hard at all.
Split Prism micro focusing screen with mask comes with the CFV-39 back, and when I did have a question on ficus I used my zees 3x12 monocular to double check.

My million dollar question is how well does the newer 40mm CFE/IF perform compared to the older 40mm CFE i tested, which failed my tests.

 

[tetsrfun]

If wide is your primary concern then a SWC/M or later 38mm Biogon with the CFV39 may work for you. Hasselblad says that this combination isn't recommended for critical applications but I have read that some people are happy with the combination. IIRC, "jotloob" who posts here has used this combination. A SWC/M or later model super wide would likely be less costly than the 40 IF.

Steve

 

[woodyspedden]

Woody,
$5K for for 40mm CFE/IF wouldn't be so bad I guess. Now I just need to find one, Hasselblad does not have one in there demo fleet I asked them.
Still like everything else, hearing something about a lens is one thing, but actually going out and shooting it is a whole other ball game.

Yeah, I know what you mean with your S2, but for me it was way way way out of my price range, I could only imagine the quality, Like my M9 but even better if thats even possible and like you 37-40MP is more than I would ever need or want.

I did enjoy the 503CW retro feel all mechanical, kind of like an older leica, focus, aperture, shutter and shoot. Nothing to it, oh except don't forget to lock up the mirror.
I am sure I could easily get away with a 501CM, I don't think I would ever get the winder and I don't need ttl flash, so the 501CM would probably be what I would get and save even more $

Steven

Steve

I truly understand the price of entry for the S2 being high. I sold my M9, many lenses (most all of them silver chrome) and all the accessories, plus My Nikons (D3X and D3 plus hoardes of lenses and accessories) my Mamiya 7II kit with all the lenses, a Contax 85 1.2 50 Jahre anniversary edition, my Hassy 501, and my Contax RTS III with another hoard of lenses in order to get the S2, 70mm. 35mm, and 120mm (not arrived yet). I separately paid for the 180mm. Yikes About all I kept from my original kits was the Hassy 110 2.0 FE.

But I can tell you I have not looked back even once. I shoot my landscapes, kids (actually grandkids) and street stuff and have no complaints other than it surely takes a while to understand how to shoot MF (I am sure you also went through that learning curve).

I am planning to get the Fuji X100 for a camera I take absolutely everywhere. I thought about small DSLR's like the K5 and then started down the slippery slope of multiple lenses etc. I woke myself up and realized that Henri Cartier Bresson did almost all his work with the M and one lens so I figured that I should stick with a really small and light product that did what I needed to do. If there is a major need for IQ then out comes the S2 anyway.

Cheers

Woody

 

[D&A]

Hi All,

As I have been discussing with Steven, the many samples of the FA 35mm 645 lens I've been testing, for the most part have been exceptionally good...even edge to edge except (and its a big 'except") at very long "infinity" distances for landscapes. Steven has amply illustrated this with his fine images. This is where I believe Steven does a lot of his shooting. What appears to be in the design of this particular lens is field curvature that seems to increase exponentially with distance. Therefore at close and mid-distance range, stopping down a bit, with increased depth of field, the mild field curvature is compensated with the larger depth of field at f5.6 and beyond. As the distance increases to long distance infinity, the lens curvature is so great, that getting edge/corner sharpness is very difficult, even if stopped down to f13. One can see objects in the extreme foreground at the edges and corners, sharp when shooting long distance, yet the edges and corners at infinity in the same image are generally soft(er). Otherwise, for many other applications, I have found its an extremely good lens and I can see why it has received accolades from some sources.

Since many of these Pentax FA AF lenses, of various focal lengths, were produced in the film era...they seemed to have left the factory with a wide range of acceptable tolerance (for film). Yet in many samples of a given lens, those same tolerances often leave a lens that has lackluster performance on the 645D body. With the ability to test multiple samples of each single focal length FA lens Pentax has made...one can eventually come up with samples that do justice for the 645D body..but its a slow long drawn out process...that I believe is worth it if one wants to use some of the advantages of the 645D body.

Absolutely no doubt to the exceptional performance of the S2 and especially the Leica S2 lenses. Truly its turning out to be quite a remarkable system for what its designed for. What the Pentax 645D system offers if one is willing to go through the hard work of lens selection, is a relative bargain in exceptionally good performing lenses with a very good body to match. The price point for such performance is hard to match.

As Steven has correctly pointed out, I too have found one lens that with testing multiple samples, consistently came up with a poor performance....and that's the Pentax FA 45mm lens.

I just wanted to add these comments to put the Pentax 645D system into perspective and the relative merits of the system.

Dave (D&A)

 

[kuau]

Woody,
Wow, I understand you selling off a lot of your gear, but even the M9
putting mpix aside, I have yet to see sharper images then that from the M9
I guess the S2 does just that. I'm not surprised though, leica really knows what they are doing and like everything else, true quality always comes at a high price and usually worth it.

I guess for me I was trying to get M9 IQ out of an inexpensive MF system and I also prefer 4:3 over 3:2 format I came close but not quite there.

Steven

Ps. Woody enjoy your S2 :thumbs:

 

[kuau]

Dave,
Thanks for chiming in and you are 100% correct on your response . . I was just wondering if any of the phase/mamiya users were experiencing any better results with the 35 and 45mm af lenses when shooting more towards infinity.
And if the Phase one version of there 35 and 45mm af lenses are the same as the older mamiya versions.

Steven

Hi All,

As I have been discussing with Steven, the many samples of the FA 35mm 645 lens I've been testing, for the most part have been exceptionally good...even edge to edge except (and its a big 'except") at very long "infinity" distances for landscapes. Steven has amply illustrated this with his fine images. This is where I believe Steven does a lot of his shooting. What appears to be in the design of this particular lens is field curvature that seems to increase exponetionally with distance. Therefore at close and mid-distance range, stopping down a bit, with increased depth of field, the mild field curvature is compensated with the larger depth of field at f5.6 and beyond. As the distance increases to long distance infinity, the lens curvature is so great, that getting edge/corner sharpness is very difficult, even if stoped down to f13. One can see objects in the extreme forground at the edges and corners, sharp when shooting long distance. Otherwise, for many other applications, I have found its an extremely good lens and I can see why it has received accolades from some sources.

Since many of thses Pentax FA AF lenses were produced in the film era...they seemed to have left the factory with a wode range of acceptable tolerance (for film). Yet in many samples of a given lens, those same tollerances often leave a lens that has lackluster performance on the 645D body. With the ability to test multiple samples of each single focal length FA lens Pnetax has made...one can eventually come up with samples that do justice for the 645D body..but its a slow long drawn out process...that I believe is worth it if one wants to use some of the advantages of the 645D body.

Absolutely no doubt to the exceptional performance of the S2 and especially the Leica S2 lenses. Truly its turning out to be quite a remarkable system for what its designed for. What the Pentax 645D system offers if one is willing to go through the hard work of lens selection, is a relative bargin in exceptionally good performing lenses with a very good body to match. The price point for such performance is hard to match.

As Steven has correctly pointed out, I too have found one lens that with multiple samples, consistantly came up with a poor performing lens....and thats the FA 45mm.

I just wanted to add these comments to put the Pentax 645D system into perspective and the relative merrits of the system.

Dave (D&A)

 

[jlm]

i used the 40IF for a while with the 205TCC and cfv39; found it outstanding!

contact Son Pham; he may know where to get one

 

[jlm]

another one from the same shoot

 

[kuau]

Thanks jlm
Those images look promissing, though I'm not sure you were focusing near or at infinity?
This is where I see problems in the past.

Steven

 

[jlm]

definitely not at infinity, probably trying for about 75'; a little back from the infinity stop

 

[Louvre]

Well after taking a closer look at all my images I took with my 503cw + CFV-39 back,
Even with careful attention to capture sharpening, I see no benefit in IQ over my Pentax 645D. I was unable to get a good result from f8-f16 on the 40mm CFE lens, very soft corners. Steven

The correct procedure to focus with Zeiss FLE lenses is to focus, read the distance, set the floating elements and adjust focus again after setting the floating lens group

The 40 mm CF(E) lens is a great lens that was followed by the IF version with marginally better resolution against more distortion.

 

[wyan]

I suppose all hasselblad MF lens can be used on Pentax 645D with an adapter. There are many such adapters on ebay and even on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Adapter-Hasselblad-Lens-Pentax/dp/B002JY4KME