My Photographic Time Tunnel – Hasselblad 500C/M

It was a very exciting moment when Yael showed me her Medium format camera – The magnificent Hasselblad 500C/M. She bought it about ten years ago because her teacher at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem told his Photography students they must own a Medium format camera. It was a great expanse for a student, and it took her many years to appreciate it as an asset. Nowadays, though rarely used, Yael’s Hasselblad has a place of honor in her closet, and every now and then, when the muse is right, she takes it for a walk & shot. I was honored to borrow it from her, and immediately thought of ways I can make the best of the two weeks we are going to spend together.

So what is a Medium format??? Apparently the size of the recorded image has several standard measurements, both in Analog and Digital photography. The most common is the 24 by 36mm, film canned in the 135 film canisters, also called 35mm or Full Frame. The Medium format, which is usually 6×6 cm, comes in the 120 film roll (12 frames) or 220 film roll (24 frames). And then we’ve got the founding fathers, the large format with film as big as 4 X 5 inches (102x127mm). For me it was the first chance to play with the big guy’s toys, and I felt like going from earth to outer space. Well, the Hasselblad was the camera chosen by NASA for the landing on the moon…

There are many medium format cameras, but the Swedish Hasselblad considered being one of the best in the market. Using Carl Zeiss Lenses, it is a powerful tool with very sharp results. Medium format cameras are usually used by professionals for fashion and commercial. The high resolution enables enlarging parts of the picture and having outstanding sharpness.

Though the 500C/M is “small” for a Medium format Hasselblad (V-System series), it’s still a heavy and very large tool for street photography. The use of the high mirrored Focusing screen, even if large and bright to watch, takes a lot of experience to get hold of – what you see inside the screen is a mirrored reflection of the view, so the landscape is reversed.

Yom-Kippur arrived and it was a chance to make a grand use of the Hasselblad. I loaded it with Kodak ISO 100 120 film, and placed it in my video Lowepro backpack. Yom-Kippur in Israel is a very interesting occasion. I won’t get into the religious ideas of the tradition, but it’s very similar to the Christian habit of going to confession. The Jewish people punish themselves with one day of fast with no other activities then praying. The country is completely shut down for 24 hours. No cars, no shops, nothing! The non-religious people make this a holiday and opportunity for some quiet time with the family – or better yet, they take the bikes and drive the free-of-cars roads. Some even go open and calls this day – The bicycle holiday! So here I go, in the spirit of the day, riding on my bikes, rolling fast toward Ayalon high-way that leads into Tel-Aviv.

The next week I went with it to Tel-Aviv:

Juli’s restaurant in HaCarmel market:

Hasselblad 500C/M on Facebook

Hasselblad 500C/M on YouTube: