proof of life.

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Last week, while transferring my Hasselblad from my desk to a nearby shelf, the camera slipped from my hand and landed on my hardwood floors — lens side down — with an awkward thud.  The sound of this thud is not one I recommend you try to reproduce with any camera or piece of machinery that you care about.  I was, in any event, horrified.  There may have been some hyperventilating.  The camera itself seemed to be working fine afterwards; the happy Hasselblad-y slap of the shutter opening and shutting was still there, thankfully.  It was the Zeiss lens that concerned me more; it seemed, at first glance, that the aperture blades were potentially stuck.  [Cue additional hyperventilating.]

There was some film left in the camera, so I took some test shots at different aperture settings, then rushed the film off to the lab.  The developed negatives seemed to suggest that all was well — tests at f/2.8, f/22, and f/8 seemed to be true to setting.  Phew.  For additional reassurance, I took the camera out with me this weekend, with a couple of rolls of slide film (Provia 400X and Velvia 100).  As these shots attest, it looks like everything is ok.  Daylight shots were spot-on, and interior shots, while darker and more muted, seemed to be as precise as the film speed and 1/60 shutter speed could muster.   Thank goodness!

I’m going to take the lens to a local repair shop, just to get a checkup for good measure, but I’m pretty pleased to see that, even if only this once, the tank-like qualities of the Hasselblad proved their mettle.
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