Photographie Maximilian Busl - Hasselblad CFV-50 c

Hasselblad

Digital Back CFV-50 c

I want to share my expierences with this fantastic digital back. The CFV-50 c was avaliable from 2014 until 2019 when a new version - the Hasselblad CFV II 50C - came to the market. The CFV-50 c operates with a CMOS sensor with 51,2 Megapixels and the size of 33 to 44 millimeters. So this sensor is also called a medium format sensor as it is bigger than a fullframe sensor (24 to 36mm). In my opinion the name does not matter. Important is just the qualitiy - and it is great. Btw there are real medium format sensors like Hasselblad uses with the HD 6 100 MP and the PhaseOne IQ sensors with 53 to 40 mm each.

I got my CFV 50-c in the year 2016. Since this time my way to photography took an other direction. I used fullframe Nikon (D 100, D 300, D 3s) before and was never disappointed. But earlier in my life I photographed with a Hasselblad 503 CX. Using 120 film on a Hasselblad is a very own way to take pictures. I confess that I missed this kind of photography. But the digital way became more and more important. So I sold my Hasselblad gear (body, two Zeiss lenses, some film magazines etc) and also all my analog equipment and entered the digital world.

Some years ago I took notice for the first time that Hasselblad offered digital backs for the V-Series (500 and 2000 camera bodies like the 500 C/M or the 202 FA). But it was unaffordable to me. Then 2016 I inherit some money from my dad. So my dream became real: A Hasselblad, some Zeiss lenses and all that combined with modern digital technique. It's the merging of a full mechanical, analog working camera with a unbeatable digital back that makes my 500 C/M with the CFV-50 c so unique.

To work with this combination means to use the worlds best lenses on a full mechanical body and to record the pics on a sensor with stunnig features. The dynamic range is 14 stops - that means that you have details within the pictures from very dark to very light. It's not only black or only white but the details are visible. The pixels a bigger than with a fullframe sensor, you have less noise, you have more details and - most of all - you get a impressing picture - with some touch of 3D. But more important than all technical features is the way you use the camera. It's a kind of contemplation, inner peace, slower life. The composition of the picture is much more intense, the view through the viewfinder - either the prism finder or the waist level finder - is so much different to a common DSLR. You work slower, with more attention. There is no autofocus, no exposure program - everything is manual and needs high concentration.

Using the CFV 50-c leads back to a more and more reflective way of photography. Landscapes, long exposures, architecture, nature, portrait, even street photography - every kind of photography is possible except perhaps action or sports... The Zeiss lenses now come into their own: quality, resolution, color. It's great to use this combination. I will show some pictures I took with the 500 C/M and the CFV-50 c (and some of the full equipped camera too). I hope you enjoy it and feel free to respone whenever you want.

All pics protected: Copyright by Maximilian Busl