DIY conversion: Hasselblad SW to 4x5?

[Drew Bedo]

A few years ago there was a craze (that got crazy) tfor converting old pPolaroids into 4x5 cameras. I know that this was driven by a desire for an inexpensive 4x5 rangefinder type camera. Today, Chamonix sells as many Saber cameras as they make. The Footman series are also used by many. Wanderlust will sell out as many TravelWides as they can deliver too. So I guess that there is a need for a scale focusing LF too.

Many of tthe conversions use a longer focal length lens to accommodate the longer distance to the film plane

What about adapting a Hasselblad SW to 4x5? There has got to be a huge number of old roll film magazines around to provide parts for the connection hardware. Could a back be grafted on in such a way that the longer focal length lenses would work? Would any of them cover even 4x4?

[Leigh]

Why two threads on the same subject?

- Leigh

[Lou Baleur]

http://www.glennview.com/sinar.htm

Scroll down to the "sinar handy" it has a has a Hasselblad 38mm lens on it and a negative showing the coverage on 4"x5".

[Jac@stafford.net]

I suspect you might be happier with a 47mm Super Angulon or 35mm Grandagon.

[Dan Fromm]

Look more closely and you'll see that the lens puts a circular image on 4x5.

I have a 38/4.5 Biogon that I shoot on a Century Graphic. No way will it cover 2x3, the circle illuminated cuts off sharply at 86 mm. Image quality suddenly gets bad at 84 mm. Both distances are diameters, not radii.

Drew, an SW is not a good starting point for a 4x5 camera.

Jac, I have the two lenses you mentioned. 6x12 is as big as they'll go. 4x5? Forget it.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Drew, an SW is not a good starting point for a 4x5 camera.

Jac, I have the two lenses you mentioned. 6x12 is as big as they'll go. 4x5? Forget it.

I think we have had this conversation before regarding the 47mm Super-Angulon. One of mine is an F/5.6 version, and I have filled the nominal 4x5 frame with it - with a centre filter and at F/16 or greater (numeric). Perhaps my standards are different. Regarding the 35mm Grandagon, 6x12 is good, however for me it is so extreme I find it difficult to use. (My camera has no rise!)

[Jac@stafford.net]

Perhaps these two duplicate threads could be merged.

[Drew Bedo]

Well I was looking at one more as a CAMERA thread, and the other more as a LENS thread.

The idea that popped into my head was a DIY back to add onto an SW body that would take a Hasselblad lens. Just a random thought over coffee. If its not that good an idea, well . . .OK.

Maybe I need more coffee.

Merge away if that's best.

[koh303]

http://www.glennview.com/sinar.htm

Scroll down to the "sinar handy" it has a has a Hasselblad 38mm lens on it and a negative showing the coverage on 4"x5".

wow flashback to 1996... so many words on such long pages :)

[David Lobato]

The idea that popped into my head was a DIY back to add onto an SW body that would take a Hasselblad lens.

The Super Wide is a body and 38mm lens in one unit. They do not separate as far as I know. I have not had one but have seen them a few times.

[hoffner]

The idea that popped into my head was a DIY back to add onto an SW body that would take a Hasselblad lens.


At this short FL the precision requirements for plan-parallelity and the correct focal distance are such that "adding a DIY back" on a camera just won't do.
That is the reason behind production of mechanically very precise cameras (Linhof Techno, Silvestri, Cambo DWS to name just a few) that can take these lenses.

[Drew Bedo]

The Super Wide is a body and 38mm lens in one unit. They do not separate as far as I know. I have not had one but have seen them a few times.

And here it is. I did not know this. I did not realize that the lens was not interchangeable. I had thought that the SW had the standard Hasselblad lens mount.

This is a little embarrassing.

[Jac@stafford.net]

It is all good, Drew. Hasselblad does have an interchangeable 40mm lens. It is no Biogon, it is different and still adequate.

[Drew Bedo]

Was working another idea last two days or so that involves using a mirror optic on a 4x5. This kinda poped into myt head and I was not thinking of wide angle at all, but longer telephoto. Hoped that the minimal SW body would allow enough set-back for a DIY sheet film back; doesn't look like that can happen.

Thank you everyone, for being so nice about it.

[Carsten Wolff]

I don't see the point of butchering an SW anyway. it is after all just a scale-focused lens with a fixed adapter to fit the backs. (Well, ok, the SWs also have a bubble level....whoaaa :) ).
Aaaanyway, allow me to digress a little and suggest alternative options, i.e. just start from scratch and forget the Hassie option: ... A few years ago, I went half-way to 4x5": I had sold my SWC, but kinda missed it and I got a bit bored on a rainy sunday, so I made a 6x9 scale-focus camera with a 58mm Omegon lens and a Mamiya-Press back; same weight as the SW; 50% more real estate, to me better ergonomics, excellent optics, perhaps $200 in cost. Not quite LF, but i is one of my favourite walk-around cameras; I called it
"Purple Haze V". I found that thing an ideal compromise, but if one wanted to make a 4x4" (or 4x5")....No reason why you couldn't make something similar with, say, a 65mm wide angle.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3830/11771394504_3873b124f3_z.jpg.

[pierre506]

The Super Wide is a body and 38mm lens in one unit. They do not separate as far as I know. I have not had one but have seen them a few times.

Nope, they are.
There are 2 single brand new CFI 38mm f4.5 lenses I had seen.
112717112718112719

[Dan Fromm]

The Super Wide is a body and 38mm lens in one unit. They do not separate as far as I know. I have not had one but have seen them a few times.

As Pierre506 pointed out, the lens is held to the SWx body by screws and can't be removed by the user. Its back focus is ~ 18 mm, so it can't be used on a Hasselblad reflex body.

The 38/4.5 Biogon was used on several cameras. For MF photographers the most notable, after the SWx, is the Alpa 12. It flew on a variety of aerial cameras, including Maurer P2, Vinten F.95 and AGI F.135.