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Problems with exposure

V

Velvia

New Member
Hi people!
I recently bought a Hasselblad 500C/M with a 80mm f2.8 Carl Zeiss lens. The seller convinced me that it worked properly & even showed me pictures he took with it. Sadly, after 5 rolls of film, only one succeed. It was way too dark, though. I took this photo indoor at night, with 400 ASA Kodak Tri-X, f2.8, and 1/15, as advised by my lightmeter. I even took a photo with my DSLR to ensure that the result wold be okay.

My films were blank. I just realized that my camera's aperture and shutter speed were locked in cross-coupling. Could it be the problem? The mirror behind the camera was a bit dirty too. Not sure what went wrong. I have loaded the film correctly, according to the video I saw on YouTube. Sincerely appreciate any kind of advises from you, people.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi, I'm a new owner of a V system as well, but the first photographer I assisted for (25 years ago!), was a Hasselblad shooter, and I also worked for years in a rental house, so I've handled a lot of bodies, backs and lenses. The easiest way to tell if something is blatantly wrong is to take the back off the camera, and then fire it while looking thru the back end of the body where the secondary shutter is. Even better if you prefire the mirror/secondary shutter with the switch near the winding crank. If you open the lens right up, and set the shutter speed to 1/500s, you should see the slightest bright flash if the lens is pointed at a reasonably bright wall. Keep testing by steeping to slower shutter speeds while keeping the aperture at f/2.8. When you get to 1sec, continue testing by closing down the aperture. If anything is really really messed up with the shutter or aperture, you should be able to see it.
 
Velvia said:
I just realized that my camera's aperture and shutter speed were locked in cross-coupling. Could it be the problem?
Click to expand...

The locking itself should not be the problem as long as you set the correct exposure value (shutter speed and aperture as measure by your light meter). Then you can just turn the cross-coupled rings and select the combination that suits best for the picture you want to take. Exposure should be ok in any case.

Regards,
Sixtomat
 
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