Nice review Peter.
It is unfortunate that you didn't also have the opportunity to use the 907x with native XCD lenses.
Two nitpicky notes:
- The 907x/CFVII 50c Special Edition was announced in July 2019, the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing which it commemorates.
- The 200/2000 series focal plane shutter bodies were introduced about 1977 ... twenty years after the 500C ... and never really replaced the 500 series leaf shutter bodies. The write up seemed to imply that these were a replacement, where they were really an option with additional features on top of what the 500 series had to offer. The 500 series bodies continued on to the end of the V-system production.
Nothing in that to speak of, I just noticed when reading. The Hasselblad Historical website has a nicely delineated history of the V system time line, and a mechanism for users to identify the year of every body, back, and lens by serial number.
Regards focusing when using the back on an SLR body: Live View is incredibly accurate and makes it easy to focus with any lens, but as noted, using the lens shutter or the body shutter and Live View is a slow, clumsy operation. Switching the back to use the eshutter and simply locking the lens open is much easier in use, but then you have the limitations of using a 300ms scan time eshutter to entertain yourself with.
I bought the 907x Special edition (ordered in July 2019, delivered in Feb 2020) for itself and to extend use of my Hasselblad 500CM bodies. When I first started using it on the 500CM, I thought the same: Some alignment is off and I'm not getting the true focus plane in the viewfinder. Stopping down two stops when hand-holding the camera solved that problem to a great degree, allowing increased DoF to cover the focus error, but it bugged me. I did a series of tests with the camera on a tripod and the high magnification chimney finder to focus with ... that determined for me incontrovertibly that the back and the viewfinder were properly aligned. The problem is the older focusing screens: they're just not particularly easy to see the focus transition clearly enough with the WLF magnifier and the digital back resolves so well that extremely minor focus errors are very easy to see in the final image when seen at 1:1 on a computer screen.
I then tried the focusing screen supplied with/for the CFV50c back as a standard component. I'm pleased to report that not only does this focusing screen have the appropriate framing scribed for the CFVII 50c back, it has also been computed to assist with ascertaining focus quality more compatible with the digital back. I find that when using it, with whatever lens wide open on the body, my "critical in focus" consistency jumped up from about 25% of my shots to over 85% ... which is about as good as I ever get hand-held, unless shooting at a distance stopped down three to four stops. So I strongly suggest anyone using the CFVII 50c with a Hasselblad SLR body is wise to upgrade their focusing screen to this model.
I really love working with this camera system; for me it's a high quality, utilitarian camera not a bling object—although I really like the signage on the Special Edition version of the digital back. LOL! I don't use it as much as I use some of my other gear, but I pull it out in preference whenever I'm going for that extra plus in dynamic range and imaging quality. It's not a fast system, but then I never expected a medium format camera to be a fast system... I've now acquired four of the XCD series lenses to complement my four V system lenses and find they are all excellent, high performance lenses with beautiful character and imaging quality.
Fun stuff.
G
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