A Hasselblad Flexbody out in the field exposing through a roll of Rollei Ortho 25 film.

Shooting an ortho film can be quite fun. The stuff is generally super low ISO (ISO 25 in this case), super fine grain, and has a spectral sensitivity limited to the blue/green end of the spectrum.  This can give ortho films a distinct look in terms of their tonality.⁠

For this image we combined the tilting capabilities of the Flexbody, with those characteristics of an ortho film, along with the judicious use of a couple heavy ND filters to really draw out the shutter speed.

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The Hasselblad Flexbody is one of the more innovative cameras that Hasselblad ever made.  Think of it like a mini large format camera, capable of using the Hasselblad V-system lenses and film backs.  While the Flexbody has all four movements typically found on a large format camera (that would be tilt, rise, swing, and shift), the camera is immediately capable of tilt and rise.  Since it is a square 6x6cm format, you can easily rotate the whole camera 90 degrees to turn those two movements into their swing and shift counterparts.  You just can never combine tilt and swing, or swing and rise, for example.⁠

⁠The Flexbody almost requires being secured to a tripod at all times.  While the standard Hasselblad 500C will never make claims as the fastest camera ever, the Flexbody is an even slower and more methodical process, again very much akin to shooting large format field cameras.  The photographer sets the Flexbody up on a tripod and mounts the camera's ground glass back.  At this point, focusing and movements can be dialed in.  Critically focusing requires the use of a loupe - or very keen eyesight - and potentially a specialized fresnel screen, if tilt or swing are applied.  Next, the ground glass back is removed and the film back is seated.  After that, and very importantly, a cable release is required to partially trip the shutter and close it, prior to the dark slide being removed from the film back (otherwise you end up with a blown out, fogged frame of film).  At this point, the cable release is pressed again to trigger the shutter's firing.  One crank on the side of the camera advances the film back to the next frame, the dark slide must then be reinserted and a second knob on top of the camera is used to reset and reopen the shutter in the lens.⁠

⁠It is quite a process, huh?!  The camera has several steps that need to be followed or disaster in the form of a lost frame of film can happen.  But slowing down, having to work for each exposure, double checking yourself as you go, and thinking about what you are doing are hardly the worst things a photographer has to do.  Plus, the results can be so much fun.⁠

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Delta 100 is not a film we use terribly often.  When gathering sample images of this film stock, our staff had none.  This necessitated some "alone time" with the film out in the field.  The results were pleasantly nice.  We had general expectations of what the film would deliver; for example, we knew Delta 100 was a fine, tabular-grain film.  When we saw our resulting scans, we were impressed by just how smooth its grain was.  While Fuji Acros II is probably finer grained (Ilford doesn't publish RMS or Print Grain indexes for the grain of its films), Delta 100 still comes across as very fine.  We feel like it still beats out TMax.  In short, we enjoyed getting to know this film.  The exercise was a valuable one as we had been avoiding this film for apparently no good reason other than ingrained preferences to the emulsions we already knew.  Now we know a new one.

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We find the way that cameras see the world endlessly fascinating.  Many photographers use cameras to record what they see.  Some photographers use cameras to record the world in ways they cannot see.  Whichever purpose you are using a camera to fulfill, we're right there with you.  A fluent photographer is able to go out into the world and speak about it in a whole other language - that of light and time and all the other aspects of visual imagery.  We are fortunate for this visual voice we have. ⁣⠀
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On a vaguely related side note, we'll use this image to remind you that the lenses of our cameras project their images upside down and backwards.  We realize that most of you know this already, but we help many photographers who do not quite grasp this concept just yet.  It is pertinent when trying to decipher where a pesky light leak originates from, or figuring out where that black hair in every negative is stuck in the frame mask of the camera.  For example, if the light leak is spreading in from the top of your image, that means it is coming from the bottom of your camera, hence where you should target your gaffer taping efforts.  Anyway, we weren't necessarily thinking about that when we made this image but it is a great representation of that feature of physics.⁣⠀

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The unique capabilities of the Hasselblad Flexbody remain fairly abstract without a visual to support them. Enjoy these sample images made by staff member, Zeb Andrews.

We love the summer-to-fall transition; all the bright colors, the dramatic shift in weather and light!

Zeb brought his Hasselblad Flexbody out to the very seasonally appropriate pumpkin patch to help him find a good pumpkin for his next pinhole project...

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