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A
holiday romance with medium format
by
Alexander Mustard
Reproduced
from in focus 71 (June
2001)
There
was no denying it, I was in love. Not only was the object
of my desire Swedish, but she had biggest trannies I had ever
seen! Here we were in clear sunlit waters at a depth of three
metres, surrounded by stingrays. I was in heaven.
However,
this has not been a brief affair. My adventure into the world
of shooting on two and a quarter inch (60 mm) film started
about a year and a half earlier, at work. A clear-out of the
photographic department revealed a dusty and faded camera
housing, Made in the 1970s by the Hasselblad Underwater Division.
Hasselblad Housings do not usually turn up in most off ice
clear-outs, so maybe I should explain. I am a marine scientist,
indeed I am writing this while on a research ship riding out
Force 9 winds at 60N 20W in the Iceland Basin. And the housing
was previously employed as a survey tool, but had spent most
of the lost two decades collecting dust in storage.
After
some hard bargaining and some downright underhandedness I
managed to persuade the department that I should be entrusted
to get it working again. And soon I was lugging the 5 kg beast
home.
At
home I greased the o-rings and undertook some extensive trials
in the bath tub. No leaks - excellent. Despite the rigours
of my tests, I was not convinced, so I decided to get the
camera serviced by someone who knew what they were doing.
Thankfully, and I am most grateful, fellow BSoUPer Warren
Williams was just the man for the job, because he has experience
of these cameras in their heyday. I must also thank Peter
Rowlands and Steve Warren for putting me in touch with Warren.
In addition to the service we also decided to change one of
the flash synch plugs to be compatible with Nikonos synch
leads. Warren's expertise is first class, and it is the original
synch plug that now looks out of place next to the new one
he has fitted. In fact, I think that biggest challenge for
Warren was carting the housing across London to the Holland
Club!
While
Warren worked his magic I invested in an old rusty 500C camera
with a Zeiss bistagon 50 mm lens, which has a field of view
roughly equivalent to 20-24 mm on a 35 mm camera. Luckily
all this came together less than two weeks before I had planned
to go on holiday to Grand Cayman (in April). I was all set.
My luck has certainly been in with this project, and this
was reconfirmed when I turned up at Gatwick, where the conveyors
were broken and they could not weigh my luggage!
I
am a photographer of the electronic camera age, I believe
that God gave me fingers to operate the aytof ocus, and that
flash guns have settings other than TTL only for decoration.
So the change to the fully manual Hasselblad was quite a shock.
But soon and to my great surprise using the Hasselblad become
a pleasure. Its chunky gears are smooth and certain, and the
extra concentration required made each photograph more precious.
The involvement in the creation of each image was such that
my 35 mm pictures now feel like snap-shots.
So
much of the joy of this hobby is in the process and not just
the results. Electronic aids had made me forget that.
In
the water the Hasselblad soon shed its pounds, although it
remains a little nose heavy. The view finder is monstrous
and I can almost look through it with both eyes simultaneously.
It is dimmer than that of a 35 mm camera because of its sheer
size and the slow lens I was using (f4). Another surprise
was the square picture format which proved a refreshing and
suitable shape for many marine subjects and also meant that
flash positioning didn't need to change.
A
medium format lens with a similar angle of view to a 35 mm
lens will have a much reduced depth of field because of its
longer focal length . I found that I did not have a big problem
with depth of field in the bright, shallow, tropical waters
of Grand Cayman. Even using Velvia I was not limited, although
backgrounds were noticeably blurred compared with 35 mm. In
my opinion, where I chose simple backgrounds the effect was
often positive. Many underwater photographs are taken to maximise
depth of field but with less range in focus the subject con
have more impact. I shall be certainly be taking more 35 mm
shots with less depth of field in the future.
This
was definitely the most enjoyable underwater photographic
experience I have had. The love affair was not about the subject
matter, or the diving but shooting with such an involving
piece of equipment, which made each twelve shots an unrivalled
pleasure. And those big trannies? Well they just blow you
away.
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