Hasselblad Instruction Booklets - from the archives

Hasselblad 501CM with 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon CF lens and 45° viewfinder

Dear readers, I have been using this Hasselblad since 2017. It has been reliable and optically excellent. Obviously, I should have bought one decades ago (but I used Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex cameras instead). Over the years, I did collect a series of booklets prepared by the Hasselblad company that described techniques or types of photography that you could do with your Hasselblad camera. But obviously, you needed to buy the appropriate accessories or lenses! Hasselblad, like Leica, was a master of special fittings or accessories, all made with the most meticulous engineering and production quality - and serious price.

A historical note: Hasselblad cameras went to the moon. Special motorized models were equipped with big buttons that could be operated with gloves. The now-cherished color photographs of the earth rising above the moon's surface (earthrise) were on Ektachrome film.

Here are more earth-bound applications. The Eye - The Camera - The Image and Square Composition discussed the advantages of square frames (54×54mm on 120 or 220-size medium format film). As of 2020, Kodak, Ilford, Fuji, Foma, and possibly some other companies still sell 120-size film. Not bad for a 100-year-old format. So if you have a medium format camera, put it to use and go record your family and world. If it is time to graduate from digital, borrow or buy a medium format film camera.

Here are booklets on various techniques or special applications.

Here are some slightly larger-format booklets from 1986-1988.

I never saw a booklet on urban decay photography. Maybe I should offer to write one. Maybe they would send me one of their beautiful medium-format digital cameras in exchange.......