Hasselblad 501CM Film Camera

The Haselblad 500C (the model 500CM is merely a slightly updated version of this camera), was the first successful 6x6 negative camera Single Lens Reflex System Camera ever devised that used leaf Compur shutter, synchonizing shutter with electronic flash at all shutter speeds. From the outset,it was intended to fill a void that Victor Hasselblad and company saw in the camera market during the late fifties the last century.It was also intended to be quite simply, "the best Camera ever produced."Many photographers would agree that 500C achieved this goal. It changed photography forever.Is was also the clear choice of the astronuats and the 500C as well as subsequent models were used during the Appolo Moon Mission. An electricly-driven model, and another sister model was even used on the moon's surface itself.=The things I like most about the Hasselblad 500C are as follows:1)It was engineered by Hasselblad, with the help of the famous car makers at Porche, to be very ergonomic.In my hands,it has always felt very natural, with all the controls falling exactly in place, or within easy reach. For those who may feel differently,I submit that they may not be using it as intened. Times have changed a bit since 1958, but most of the mechanics of film cameras are still the same. However some of the routine techniques used then, have been lost on later generations.2) The camera, as a system,allows the user to select from a vast array of lenses, backs, film formats, finders, filters, lens-shades, adapters, releases, and assessories designed to fill virtually any need. Although expensive, the 500C can even be fitted with a digital back to become one of the finest digital cameras available.3) The 500C, as it is came from the facotry used a medium format 6x6 (2-1/4 inch square) medium format negative.This format, much misunderstood today, provided the real "ideal format", because cropping could be done within the viewfinder either horizontally, or verticaloly, or left square,without having to turn the camera sideways. 4)Single Lens Reflex cameras have become very much the norm today, but at the time they were just coming into their own--in this larger format, unheard of. It provided a highly-enlargable negative that totally out-classed the 35 mm format. It still does today for big enlargements. In truth, one is very hard-pressed to get as good an image made from a digital camera of "standard" sizes today, as one gets by using good modern films, processing, and quality digital scanning. 5)SLR cameras also enable the user to see exactly what is seen through the viewfinder, and therefore exactly what will transfer to the film,right up to the moment that the mirror blacks out the image for the length of the exposure, as with any SLR. This is an advantage over rangefinder or electronic display cameras.6) The camera can take a variety of different film sizes by simply changing the backs, including digital,and /or Polaroid-type instant picture films.7) The large negatives can be more easily seen on a light-table or even just held up to the light, in order to quickly select for final images for scanning. Even at this late time in the process, there is more image to choose from for an ideal crop, if it is cropped at all.8)In my opinion, there are no finer optics than those made for the Haselblad camera (out of room) try here for nuetral non-ad on the 500C: http://notesandnods.typepad.com/photography_for_profit_or/2008/10/my-very-own-pie.html