Dissapointed Hasselblad owner

I'm not familiar with the Epson scanner you mention, but flatbeds often have problems with holding the 120 film flat and even if they do, the very best scans (which delve into the MF quality) come from much more expensive scanners.

Dont be dissapointed with the Blad, suggest you concentrate on getting the best from your current scanner or paying to have drum or flextight scans.

Whether a digi back is better is probably down to economics and how much this could save in terms of film, processing and scanning. If you do a lot it would make sense to originate the image on digital.

Yep, it's the scanner. One of the reasons I have no internet portfolio. If you want to show your pictures on the web, your digital camera is the tool for this.

I think you should first assume that it's you before further purchases. You should eliminate all possible screw-ups that might have taken place. There are too many factors to assume the Hassey isn't taking sharp pictures.

Marcus, you could always get the chemicals out and print in the manner film was intended? Once film goes digital it looses credibilty and becomes scribbly. If you scan, usually you`ll have to sharpen the image and the merry go round starts. Take the time to process your work correctly and avoid scanning unless it`s high end. I doubt any scanner will live up to the camera`s image quality.

The reason I want to scan is first of all I want to show my work on the 'net. Second I used to print my copies myself, but I unfortunately don't have that time anymore. The reason I bought a Hasselblad is merely that I like to work with a medium-format and I have always wanted a nice old Swedish camera :)

At the same time when I see photos here on photo.net where the photographers saying they use a Hassy it seems as they have wonderful images (perfect focus etc). Maybe I have to do some real testshots with a heavy tripod and MLU?

Have you looked at the film under high magnification to see if it's really sharp?

Hi Marcus,

Film can do just fine scanned and assuming your camera is working well it will take sharp images. To be sure you should look ar the negatives with a magnifier or perhaps shoot a roll of slide film and convince yourself that the image on the film is fine. If so then it is yoru scanner. The issue is commonly where the scanner places it's focus (not always at the plane of the film, if your film is held flat and to some degree the type of film you are scanning.

Personally now I use a MF film scanner but I did use a flatbed scanner (3200) with Epson then these 3rd party negative holders and had fine results.

holders:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mfholderintro.html

notes on your specific scanner:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/3170notes.html

I print some of my images with tradition means and digitally print others. There is a lot that can go wrong with a film to digital work flow set up but there is a lot to be said for the overall control of your image (especially for color images) once it is digital.

Some newer flatbed scanners are perhaps easier to work with for negative scans that your, another option might be to see if you can spring for a newer scanner.

Robert

As others have suggested, the first thing to do is to rule out "operator error" which with a Hasselblad generally means "camera motion."

Are you shooting on a heavy tripod at 1/250th or 1/500th second ?

If you are hand-holding, that's an 80% likely source of the problem. The 'blad doesn't hold like most other cameras and there is that big mirror slap that introduces camera motion. While it might be only a thousandth of an inch movement during exposure, it shows up immediately as an unsharp image. It takes a lot of practice and an appreciation of how to minimize camera motion to shoot a 'blad hand-held and expect big enlargements.

I have not taken any images sloer than 1/125. Usually I use a tripod and 1/500. I have an WLF that have -1 diopter. But I have lenses on and maybe this makes it harder for me to focus correctly. I will test to shoot on a ruler at 45 degrees and see how that comes out.

/ Marcus