Australian photographer Bryan Chester has always been something of a control freak when it comes to perspective, distortion and depth of field work in architectural photography and small product work in the studio. Bryan specialises in both architectural and commercial photography. A die-hard view-camera user, he was very excited when he heard about a new Hasselblad which had camera movements – a ‘bendy “Blad”, officially known as the Flexbody. Since owning his first Hasselblad camera in 1988, Bryan has been addicted to the precision and craftsmanship of the Swedish SLR system, but it always ran second to his 8 x 10" and later 4 x 5 inch view cameras when it came to jobs that required camera movements. Hasselblad introduced the compact FlexBody camera in an effort to minimise the weight and size of a technical camera for use on location and in the studio. The rear movements on the Flex Body give a rise and fall of to 15mm and a tilt through to +/- 30 degrees. Importantly, the camera accepts Hasselblad Lenses and system accessories such as film magazines and view finders. The extra movements would also be a huge bonus for those photographers using Digital Capture. At the Photo and Imaging “95 Trade show in Sydney Australia Bryan got his first look at the FlexBody and promptly ordered one. Trading in his much-used large format view cameras was a major step, but he was sufficiently impressed with the potential and flexibility of the Hasselblad ‘semi-view’ camera to make the switch. However, there is one draw back with the FlexBody compared to the large format view camera. To obtain a horizontal swing at the film plane it’s necessary to tilt the camera on its side, which then prevents you making use of the rise, and fall movements critical for most architectural assignments. A conventional view camera has displacements in both the horizontal and vertical planes as well as allowing perspective and distortion to be controlled in both planes. To make the FlexBody truly useful, Bryan believed it was necessary to give it movements on the lens plane “You must be capable of correcting both the vertical and horizontal planes at the same time because buildings do disappear to infinity along the horizontal and they do climb to great heights on the vertical. I saw the camera had further potential as, in standard form, it only corrects on one plane at any given time, instead of the two planes that are really necessary. The FlexBody only does this at the film plane and not at the lens plane” Precision Engineering With the idea that some modification of the FlexBody might be possible, Bryan approached talented camera technician Eric Owen. “Modifying the Hasselblad FlexBody was probably the ultimate challenge,” explains Eric. “The space that I had available to fit in two completely different movements was just 17 x 15 millimetres.” Nevertheless, he rose to the challenge and just before the next Photo and Imaging show, Eric completed the first truly “Bendy Blad,’ complete with shift and swing movements at the lens plane. Not only does the modification work but also the level of precision matches that of the rest of the camera, which is no mean feat for somebody working without access to the tooling available to Hasselblad. One that Eric designed and manufactured replaced the FlexBody’s original lens slide ‘block’. Clearance notches were milled into the body frame to allow for the extra movement (and have no detrimental affect of the body’s integrity) The new block incorporates both sliding and gear-driven swivel mechanisms to give the shift and swing movements to the lens standard. Swing adjustments are geared and made with an Allen key inserted in the head at the side of the new block (just below the lens mount flange). Bryan Chester says that the engineering standard, the new parts and the finish are equal to Hasselblad’s own quality. Incidentally, the camera can be converted back to its original configuration if the owner ever desired (the original parts are returned to you.) His first test of the modified Hasselblad FlexBody was after his return from the Photo and Imaging Show. “The revisions proved invaluable when photographing the interiors of the new Marriott Hotel here in Brisbane, Australia. I also felt very sorry for another photographer I saw struggling with his 4 x 5 inch camera!” |
