The pictures in this entry are the very first quick snaps with the Hasselblad 110mm F2 Planar to get a feel for the lens. To be fair the lens really should be used on a medium format set-up, then it could show off its expanded FOV and shallow DOF. On the Canon 1Ds Mark III the Hasselblad 110mm Planar is reduced to something less than its intended design.

Looking at these first images I cannot say if the Hasselblad is any better than the Contax 100mm F2 Planar. The Hasselblad is certainly no less capable. In this case I am trying the Hasselblad 110mm F2 Fifth Generation and they don’t come cheap. Expect to pay ~$3,000 USD - more if it comes with the box and all the other bling. A mint condition Contax 100mm F2 Planar is ~$1,000, so one has to ask what does $2k more get you? Well, it buys a 645 lens - and that is a very important point.

SOME DIFFERENCES

I am not going to ramble on and on about creamy this, sharp that... The Zeiss 100mm Planar family is well known when it comes to those measures. Instead I’ll write about some of the physical differences. Compared to the Contax 100mm F2 Planar, the Hasselblad is bigger - about 20% longer and about 20% heavier. The Hasselblad’s aperture ring turns in the opposite direction (stopping down is counter-clockwise), so it feels awkward. I suppose that will I will get used to this in time.

The Hasselblad has an aperture preset button. The lens is set to the desired aperture, and then before taking the picture a button is slid and the lens stops down to the preset aperture. The lens still works in regular stop down fashion like a Contax C/Y lens, so either method works. The focus ring has about 2X more travel compared to the Contax 100mm Planar, so fine tuning focus on the Hasselblad is easier. The focus ring is nicely dampened and gushes German build quality. The whole lens gushes der German uber build quality - and it should considering the price.

I feel the Contax 100mm Planar is a bit sharper wide open, but that can be a red herring sometimes. F2 seldom has enough depth of field for the subject to fully develop. In the case of portraits, one eye may be in focus while the other eye is not. It can be good look for pirates. With the Contax 100mm Planar I have been learning with careful composition I can shoot F4 to F5.6, have plenty of DOF for the subject and still have a nicely blurred the background to varying degrees. F2 is always a temptation.

While the Contax 100mm may have the edge wide open in terms of sharpness, F2 does come with a fair amount of light fall off in the corners. The Hasselblad being a 645 lens has a much larger image circle with essentially no light fall off on the 1Ds3. ALL the images on this page had vignetting added in via Photoshop.

THE LONG TERM PLAN

The Hasselblad 110mm F2 Planar was part of a medium format plan, so I do not know if I will  keep it over the Contax 100/2 Planar. The Contax 100mm Planar has been a stellar lens and I am perfectly happy to continue using it. That said, the Hasselblad will get its fair chance. The Hasselblad 110mm Planar is no longer in production, so finding a mint condition is not as easy as it was five years ago. I’ll follow up on this topic in a month or two.

MAY 18, 2008 UPDATE

It is now a couple months later and I am still using the Hasselblad 110mm F2 Planar on the Canon 1Ds Mark III. And I am still thinking about selling it. The Mamiya 645AFD II and Phase One P25 digital back were sold in April 2008, so there is not much need for the Hasselblad 110mm right now. As you’ll read in the some of the subsequent 645 Blog entries, the Hasselblad renders very pleasing gradients. Its color palette is slightly different than the Contax 100mm F2 Planar. I can think of many other things the money could be used on, but for now the Hasselblad stays.