Yup, the Rolleiflex TLR was THE medium format camera for quite a while! The Yashica 124G was what we got loaned in photo class in high school -- actually a very good camera for its pricepoint.My first real camera was a Rolleiflex TLR...
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A modern SWC
- Thread starter danlindberg
- Start date
Jorgen Udvang
Subscriber Member
My first one was a Rolleiflex Baby, a camera that I really miss. Thanks to Dan for starting this thread. Great inspiration!My first real camera was a Rolleiflex TLR...
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richardman
Well-known member
I love my 203FE, I love my Leica, I love my XPan, I love my 4x5, and even the 8x10.
But in terms of size and shape, an SWC beats them all. This is why the mini-SWC in the form of the new CFV II 50C + 907X + 21mm XCD is so appealing. Perfect size and shape.
But in terms of size and shape, an SWC beats them all. This is why the mini-SWC in the form of the new CFV II 50C + 907X + 21mm XCD is so appealing. Perfect size and shape.
Hasselblad X1D + XCD 21/4 & cropmode 1:1. A modern SWC.
Yesterday I took my bike and the lightest backpack with the X1D + XCD21. Nothing else. I had no plans where to go, what to shoot, the only thing I knew was that I had no time pressure and was going to shoot the entire day with crop factor 1:1 enabled and look for B&W imagery.
Super wideangle and square format seems at first a little strange, but it is really (for me) going back to my roots. I have never owned a SWC to be fair, but I used a 500CM and the Cf40 Fle for a decade and shot countless of FP4's and HP5's.
Yesterday was my first 'outing' with this mindset. Much more to come! A few random images from a full day out in 30C heat.....
Wonderful, Dan. I have a feeling this was actually the initial specific design purpose for the X1D. It's such a liberating thing when you have such high quality in such a small package.
Godfrey
Well-known member
Mine was a 1949 Rolleiflex Automat with Zeiss Tessar 75mm f/3.5 lens. It belonged to my grandfather, who "loaned" it to me the same way he "loaned" it to my Uncle Matt when Matt got to high school. I was the only 13 year old 9th grader in the school wandering around shooting with a 20 year old Rolleiflex TLR when I was in high school...
I gave it back to my Uncle when my grandfather passed away in 1970. I wish he'd kept it and given it back to me at some point, but he discarded it at some point because teen-aged me was not kind to it, cosmetically, although it always worked perfectly.
Years later, I picked up a Yashicamat 124G and was enjoying using it a lot. A customer at the photofinishing lab I was working for at the time came in one day and asked me if I knew anyone who wanted an old Rolleiflex. That's how I came upon my second Rolleiflex, this one a 1952 MX-EVS ... and then had two others in subsequent years. I sold the last of them to raise part of the funding I needed to buy Hasselblad gear.
The square format photograph is always special to me. It also always takes me a little while to get my head around using ultra-ultra-wide perspective like the SWC provides. To get this going in my mind, I fitted the CL with the Voigtländer 10mm and have not put anything on it since ... until yesterday when I was doing some comparative testing with the V10 on the Leica M-D FF capture. I'd taken the Summilux 35 off the M-D (for the first time in a while!) and fitted it to the CL just to keep dust out while I was working with the M-D. I snapped one photo with it ... When I've been working with a 10mm lens for a while, a 35mm 'normal' lens seems an extreme telephoto!
Fun stuff. I've got six more "mini-digital SWC" photos to post from the CL+V10; I'll post them in my other thread and put a link here in case anyone wants to see them.
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Godfrey
Well-known member
Here's a link to that latest set of six photos I mentioned:
https://www.getdpi.com/forum/leica/...gtlaender-10mm-cropped-square.html#post791398
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https://www.getdpi.com/forum/leica/...gtlaender-10mm-cropped-square.html#post791398
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danlindberg
Well-known member
Isnt the x1d+21mm even much smaller?
JohnBrew
Active member
Jack, time to pony up for a Z7. It has 1:1! :clap::clap:
Godfrey
Well-known member
The X1D+21mm is a completely different form factor. I doubt its volume is smaller than the CFV50c II+907x+XCD21assembly since the latter does not contain a large handle/grip, but it might be close. Add a big external grip to the modular assembly camera and its volume would likely be greater. But it's difficult to compare size with two such different form factors.
Which is more comfortable in your hands depends on how you use the two cameras. I tend to use my Hasselblad 500CM and SWC cameras mostly on a tripod, where the hand-holding differences are inconsequential, but of the two I tended to use the SWC hand-held a good bit of the time. I didn't find it awkward to use, even without a grip: the way its short strap wrapped around the body and my wrist made it very stable and easy to manage hand-held.
One thing: My Leica SL with Summilux-R 50mm lens fitted is about the same size and shape as the X1D + 21mm lens. Because of the shape of the SL body with its large attached grip, it would not fit in various of my bags that the Hasselblad 500CM with WL finder, A12 back, and 80mm lens fits, or that the Hasselblad SWC + finder + A12 back would.
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The x1d has the grip but the CFV50 is quite a bit deeper.
Anyways, I agree about the different form factor and probably also a matter of taste. Nice to have options and nice that Hassy supports classic cameras with new products.
Godfrey
Well-known member
danlindberg
Well-known member
PP towards my beloved Velvia transparencies look!
lookbook
Well-known member
... an absolutely first-class work!
Hasselblad X1D + XCD 21/4 & cropmode 1:1. A modern SWC.
Yesterday I took my bike and the lightest backpack with the X1D + XCD21. Nothing else. I had no plans where to go, what to shoot, the only thing I knew was that I had no time pressure and was going to shoot the entire day with crop factor 1:1 enabled and look for B&W imagery.
Super wideangle and square format seems at first a little strange, but it is really (for me) going back to my roots. I have never owned a SWC to be fair, but I used a 500CM and the Cf40 Fle for a decade and shot countless of FP4's and HP5's.
Yesterday was my first 'outing' with this mindset. Much more to come! A few random images from a full day out in 30C heat.....
One advantage creating a square image using a camera with a rectangular sensor is that shift function is built in: holding the camera in portrait orientation and (normally) avoiding any tilt, one can decide on post to shift the square crop a bit awards to reduce the amount of floor/ ground in the picture, or to shift the crop down to emphasize by purpose on that area. I think also a few of the previous examples could benefit from that option.
Very nice! My favorites are the one with the motorcycle and the building with the tree (can't decide which one). A close second is a mountain with shadows and a tree. It's a classic. Forced I will peek the building as my favorite. It's no a scientific peek, nor even using expertise there is just something I love about it, a kind of saudade
Hasselblad X1D + XCD 21/4 & cropmode 1:1. A modern SWC.
Yesterday I took my bike and the lightest backpack with the X1D + XCD21. Nothing else. I had no plans where to go, what to shoot, the only thing I knew was that I had no time pressure and was going to shoot the entire day with crop factor 1:1 enabled and look for B&W imagery.
Super wideangle and square format seems at first a little strange, but it is really (for me) going back to my roots. I have never owned a SWC to be fair, but I used a 500CM and the Cf40 Fle for a decade and shot countless of FP4's and HP5's.
Yesterday was my first 'outing' with this mindset. Much more to come! A few random images from a full day out in 30C heat.....
This is amazing example o the natural use of a wide-angle lens. The mural looks amazing and larger than life, full of power.