INTRODUCTION

The Hasselblad 1000F is less frequent than the well known 500 series. It's older and uses totally different lenses.

It was made by Victor Hasselblad in Sweden between 1953 and 1957.

BEST SUITED FOR:

Studio

Weddings

Landscapes

Architecture

Art

PERSONAL NOTES

The Hasselblad 1000F is an old camera that uses a focal plane shutter in the body, instead of the leaf shutter in the lenses. So the sync speeds for flash photography is much slower, the machanics of the camera is more delicate, and the lenses used are totally different than with the 500 series, and everything is more rare.

A bit of context...

I have been using Kiev medium format cameras for years, and I always loved the Ukrainian lenses. The only problem with the Kiev cameras is the mechanical quality. I think that, of all the problem that could have happened with a camera, I experienced all of them on Kiev bodies: frame spacing issues, broken shutter, broken advance, light leaks, stuck mirror, bad fit... This is too bad, because the lenses are really great.

So, like many, I've switched to Hasselblad. Using the well known 500c/m, I had to use the Zeiss lenses, which are also great, but... I missed those Ukrainian lenses so much... Especially the Kaleinar 150mm f2.8 portrait lens and the 30mm f3.5 fisheye.

These lenses are available in 2 mounts : Pentacon-six mount, and screw mount. The screw mount is the same between the old Ukrainian cameras like Salyut, Kiev 60 or Kiev 88c, and the Hasselblad 1000F.

So, the Hasselblad 1000F came to the rescue! Good Swedish design, less reliable than the 500 series, but much better than any Kiev, it gave me back access to these old Ukrainian lenses. The best of both Worlds!

I now often use Ukrainian lenses on a Hasselblad 1000F. It's true tho that the screw mount is the same, but some mechanical adjustments needs to be done in order to have a fully working interface. Here are the details on how to make your Hasselblad 1000F compatible with the Ukrainian lenses.

CONCLUSION

The Hasselblad 1000F is not as good as a 500c/m: less reliable, cannot change the focussing screen, limited lenses, but if you want to use Ukrainian lenses, this is by far the best way to go.

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VERDICT:

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