[Daniel Smith Participant Posts: 98]

Medium Format

on: December 4, 2020 at 10:38 am

I see Phase One has some digital backs to fit the older 501 Hasselblad cameras.

What is reality with image quality when using the older backs? Not the new stuff – way out of my price range. Looking at those that are online used for a few hundred dollars up to around $1800 or so.

I use the Hasselblad for B&W work. A digital back would be nice for some color images. Give me more options.

Final goal is prints. Would really prefer Square – but I see none of the digital backs are 6×6 so would live with it and crop when needed. Prints seldom over 16 inches.

 

So, anyone familiar with them is welcome to chime in.

"A good still photograph, studied by an inquiring mind, frequently yields more information than a mile of moving images". Walter Cronkite, New York, June 1989

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1311]

Re: Phase One back for Hasselblad 501?

Reply #1 on: December 4, 2020 at 12:39 pm

Having been a vice President of phase 1 I can tell you that those older backs are very nice especially the P 45. You’ll get great image quality and you also find it if you can do very good black and whites with it. There was never a commercially available square chip. At the time that would’ve been prohibitive pretty much as it is today pricewise.

Phase One had made Digital backs for Hasselblad cameras for a very long time. Short history, is that Hasselblad was bought and at that time there was a lawsuit regarding attaching a phase one back for hasselblad cameras, as they wanted a royalty for each back attached. It was a crazy times back in the day. However if you can get yourself a phase one back for your 501 you’ll be very happy with it. A lot of those old backs were tethered only so take a look at what you’re ordering and make sure you can do it untethered.

If you or have any questions feel free to contact me.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

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