I’ve been using the Hasselblad 500c/m for most of my work the past six or seven years now. As a complete camera system it checks most boxes for me. The camera itself is relatively light (for a medium format camera), the ergonomics feel intuitive, and the the overall system itself is capable of doing just about every subject I have an interest in exploring. Maybe best of all, the available lenses on the “V System” are all rather excellent. All the samples I have tried of every focal length have had a performance level that far exceeds my own skills as a photographer.
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.
Like most people who buy a Hassselblad 500c/m (or any other camera in the V S System lineup) my copy came with the standard 80mm f/2.8. This is the lens I’ve used for about 85% of the work I’ve done with the camera. It’s one of those lenses that sets the benchmark for all the others. It’s sharp, contrasty, has really nice bokeh, and is so common that picking one up isn’t a huge financial flex. The focal length is considered “normal”, i.e. it has a field of view relatively close to the human eye. If want to work with a Hasselblad, this is probably the place to start and I wouldn’t be surprised if it lived on your camera body most of the time.
That being said, over the years I’ve acquired a few other lenses for my Hasselblad kit. Typically I’ve only pulled out my wallet when I’ve come across good deals that are hard to pass up. There is a lot of used Hasselblad gear floating around out there and with some patience deals can be found. For example, I picked up the 150mm f/4 lens for about $250 from a seller on Facebook who was just looking to dump his gear in favor of the latest and greatest Fuji digital point and shoot. Ok cool, at that price it is worth a try right?
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.
At 150mm this is a focal length with medium format that is considered a portrait lens. It’s a short tele-photo that makes it easy to fill a frame with someone’s head and shoulders while also getting a good amount of background blur. Normally I like to get a bit more of the environment into my photographs so this lens doesn’t get a huge amount of use, but sometimes its healthy to put a lens on my camera that is a bit outside of my wheelhouse just to see the world from a new perspective. Besides, it can also be nice to photograph a portrait of a person while also standing more than a few feet away from them. A bit of distance between yourself and your subject isn’t a bad thing. I’ve noticed people tend to relax a bit more and have an easier time looking straight at the camera when the lens isn’t right in their face.
Like every other Hasselblad lens that I’ve worked with the performance is well…. nothing short of excellent. It’s incredibly sharp even when wide open at f/4. Heck, it might even be too sharp. Sometimes I like when portraits are a bit soft to hide blemishes and give the overall look of the image more of a lo-fi character. So yeah, take that complaint with a grain of salt. I’m aware of how silly it seems to complain about a lens being too sharp. I could always soften this up with a filter if I really wanted to.