equipment

Hasselblad cameras have good and bad points. The good points are that they are, through longevity and marketing as well as other qualities, the standard in pro medium format photography, and Hasselblad system items can be rented worldwide: they are reasonably durable, have good optical quality, and lots of system accessories are available. No other medium format system boasts a fifth of all the various items available for the Hasselblad system. Because they are the standard most photographers understand them. Because working pros favor them, prestiege buyers, wannabes, and dilettantes do so as well.

The downside is that they are heavy, noisy, expensive (especially for the lenses which are not so much better than their Japanese counterparts), and can be damaged easily by careless or untutored handling: they are somewhat awkward: and their 6x6 cm format is simply out of sync with standard print sizes (with a 1.2:1 aspect ratio) or 35mm practice (1.5:1), leading to never utilizing the whole negative in practice.

This volume is to all intents and purposes the official unofficial Hasselblad manual of practice. You are getting "100% Standard Tech" here:this is the fountainhead of Hasselblad doctrine. If you've committed to using Hasselblad cameras the Hasselblad way, this book shows you how to do it. You won't find any criticism of any current Hasselblad equipment or any objective "vis-a-vis" here.

If you are looking into whether or not you should choose Hassselblad, this book is essential provided you keep the above in mind. Other books will provide information on other systems. Hasselblad is definitely not for everyone, even everyone without financial impediments to doing so. Large format, 35mm, other MF SLRs and the classic twin lens reflex are all better choices for some uses-and users. However, if you want a visually conspicuous status symbol, it's tough to go very wrong with Hasselblad.

This is a thorough review of the Hasselblad system and a great book on general photography as well. It is particularly useful for someone who has a basic camera system and plans to rent additional components as needed. The only criticism is that the illustrations (often wonderful color and black and white photographs by Mr. Wildi) are not referenced directly in the captions. Rather than using "Top, Left, Right, Upper Left "etc., the captions state "the other" image. What other image? You can figure it out fairly quickly, but this needs changing in future additions. I blame the editors.

Perhaps Mr. Wildi could write a section on studio lighting, flash metering and the Visatec system in the next addition as well?

Thank you Mr. Wildi for this wonderful book. It serves as a reference manual, is a joy to read, and is aesthetically enriching: A work of art.

I purchased this book because I had just bought a used Hasselblad that didn't come with a manual, and discovered it wasn't so easy to guess how to use it. I'm glad I found this book because it has been the biggest help to me so far and I'm not even through reading it. Not only does it explain every camera that Hasselblad ever made and what makes it unique, it goes into detail about all the different accessories and what they do also. This book could just explain how things work and leave it at that, but it does go into detail about why certain parts of the camera work a certain way and for what reason. I now know how to use my Hasselblad and I recommend this book to anyone who needs a little jump start like I did with these great cameras.