So i’ve owned the lumia rg67 for seven months now and the hasselblad for two months i very much enjoy them both i’m very blessed to have the opportunity to even own these two fun cameras both of them are pretty similar in function because they’re both modular slrs they can flash sync at all speed because they have a leaf shutter in the lens all the lenses are pretty sharp in both ecosystems and while simultaneously owning both of these cameras is very fun because i could just switch off whenever i want i’m asking myself like does it really make sense to actually own both of them at the same time the things that i’m comparing to these two cameras is based off of stock oem parts with just an addition of the eye level viewfinder i know there’s tons of third-party aftermarket equipment that you can invest in to make one of these cameras way better than the other whether that’s like upgrading the ground glass or investing in some focus assisting tools whatever it is i know it’s out there but i don’t own it by the way i’m not a pro camera reviewer i’m really just basing it off of my own personal experience it’s gonna be a highly subjective analysis comparison.
so take it as a grain of salt uh we’re just trying to have some fun share some thoughts and uh maybe start a discussion maybe in the comment section below but anyways let’s get down to it so let’s start off with things that i really like about the hasselblad i’ve owned it for about two months now and right off the bat you could tell that this is going to be way smaller than the rz67 like look at that size comparison it’s kind of scary holding it like this right now in a previous review video i said that the hasselblad 500 with the eye level viewfinder can actually fit easily into a peak design 3 liter everyday sling which is super nice for the rz i would have to rock a bigger backpack with it which is not a problem but nothing can beat a 3 liter sling it’s super small and compact the next thing that i really like about this camera is that it’s fully mechanical battery free electronic free just go out shoot just don’t bang it around but it’s nice solid build with the rz you need a battery if it dies you can only shoot at 1 400th of a second which could be problematic in very low light situations now let’s talk about the eye level viewfinder experience i think it’s way better on the hasselblad than it is on the rz with the hasselblad the pme5 viewfinder that i have it’s actually magnified into the ground glass versus the eye level viewfinder not doing that for the mamiya.
i thought that’s really weird but i think it makes sense because they actually sell an attachment that you could stick on to your eye level viewfinder to magnify that image it looks kind of silly you could always buy it off of ebay if you really want that function but it’s built right in here to the pm e5 and it’s also not a super gigantic heavy attachment like it is on the mamiya too so it’s super nice can still fit in that 3 liter sling also just one small detail that i really like is that the shutter speed and aperture on the lens versus on the rz the shutter speed is off to the side on a dial and the aperture is on the lens it’s nice to have everything in one place it’s super small detail doesn’t really matter and the last thing that i want to talk about for this system is that there’s less points of a whoops accident and what i mean by this is like not anything like super drastic this is also super subjective not everybody’s going to have a whoops accident like i do with either of these systems but what i mean is say for example you’re setting up for a shot and you’re about to fire whoops you have a dark slide so that’s one whoops accident that you can have just take it out and you’re ready to go and there’s nothing else that could prevent you from taking a shot that’s just one thing to keep in mind.
so that’s two potential whoops accidents there is a lock function on the shutter so that you don’t you know press it accidentally when the dark slide is out so that’s maybe three just maybe three again super subjective but for the rz if you’re setting up for a shot and you leave the dark slide in it won’t fire so make sure you take that out the shutter dial right here has three positions which is a lock the regular shooting mode and a fully mechanical the lock mode is self-explanatory so that’s another whoops again not really that consequential then there’s the regular one which is completely fine and then there’s a fully mechanical one that one will only lock you in at 1 400th of a second and sometimes you won’t even notice that you’re in it if you don’t look at it or if you’re looking through your viewfinder and the leds don’t go off if the leds don’t go off you’re either in fully mechanical mode or you’re something’s wrong so if you’re in full mechanical mode you can burn a shot even when the dark slide is in and that’s super sucky because now you have a blank frame or when the dark side is out and you’re setting up maybe you want 125th of a second at f 8 or whatever and you shoot at 1 400 that means your shot is 2 stops underexposed which sucks too so that’s 3 or four points of whoops accidents now another thing to keep in mind is that when you’re focusing with the belts.
you actually might have to compensate for a loss of light and there’s a chart over here but if you’re not paying attention you could under expose your picture by maybe half a stop maybe a full stop if you’re focusing super duper close it doesn’t really happen that often for i would assume most people but again these potential whoops accident points super subjective it’s not really like a thing for everybody but just something to keep in mind that the hasselblad has less than the rz so take that as a grain of salt so those are the things that i really enjoy about the hasselblad now let’s get on to the pros of the rz one thing that i actually like that is kind of an unpopular opinion is the weight i really like the heaviness of it i just said that i really like the size of the hasselblad it’s true i could pack it away in a nice little slang i had to get a bigger backpack for this but i kind of like the weight of this in my hand a lot more another thing that i really enjoy is focusing on the rz i kind of prefer it more than i do on the hasselblad the hasselblad throws pretty long probably by design so that you have a more accurate focus down to the fine detail for this you may not have a as accurate as some may prefer but for me it’s completely fine never really missed focus on the rz and on the topic of focusing you could also make any lens of pseudo macro because you could zoom this puppy in as much as you want it’s like an accordion.
it’s super cool just be mindful that you do have to compensate for a loss of light a problem that’s unique to the 500 cm and maybe some other variations of the hasselblad v system is that there’s actually vignetting that occurs when you use longer focal lengths so i own a 120 millimeter macro lens for the hasselblad 500 but in the viewfinder it actually cuts off my image just a little bit and if i use a 150 millimeter it’ll cut off even more 200 250 it’ll be more vignetted the reason for this is that the mirror inside the 500s is actually too small and it wasn’t designed for that when you use the 80 millimeter and maybe wider than that it’s no vignetting problem you’ll be completely fine so there’s that problem it kind of sucks they fix it in the 501 cm and the 503cw for the rz there is no vignetting problem if you use a 200 millimeter lens or a 65 millimeter lens you’re good to go on all of it i do prefer the eye level viewfinder experience on the hasselblad but i prefer the waist level viewfinder experience on the mamiya i’ve tried a waistline viewfinder of a hasselblad in stores and i really didn’t enjoy it that much.
it was a little bit too small magnifier was fine but when i pushed down the magnifier to like kind of compose a little bit more that window was a little bit too small for me for the mia i have no complaints it’s completely beautiful it’s a nice experience to always look at my subject through that and then to look at them right before i take their photos so on the mamiya i prefer it a little bit more there’s also a bonus detail of owning the 500 cm and it’s kind of nostalgic and sentimental because my parents wedding was photographed under 500 so owning one is kind of like you know adding to that and i did try to have my dad photograph with me on the 500 for some kind of like you know father-son moment but he was like nah i’m good and i was like dang well there goes that sweet moment between father and son using the same camera that was used for his wedding and now i’m using it 20 something years later and it’s just like well we’re not we’re not gonna have that moment anymore it was a good attempt but that sentimental value was kind of like going down just a little bit and at the end of the day.
which one do i prefer between the two of them and i got to say that i got stick with my original first love which is the rz67 yes it’s bigger it’s heavier it only gives me 10 shots versus the 12 shots that i get with the hasselblad yes there’s more points of failure or whoops accidents with me accidentally flubbing the shutter dial or leaving the dark slide in or whatever it may be once i get all those nitpicky things down like in the shoot i have so much fun using it i love rotating the back i love seeing the mask interact with the viewfinder i love bellow focusing more than i do with the turn focusing on the hasselblad it’s just a lot more fun for me and i truly do believe that you should invest in gear that’s going to inspire you that’s going to be a pure extension of you not just something expensive that sits on your shelf and something expensive that you hold in your hand.
if you’re not connected with it like you would maybe like driving a car that you really vibe with or being someone that you could be yourself around with then i don’t think that’s the right camera or maybe just not the right person i’m not here to give relationship advice i don’t know if what i’m saying is making any sense to you i completely understand if it doesn’t the whole like gear matters gear doesn’t matter conversation is very like convoluted and kind of self-contradictory and i know that i’m not perfect in it i’m not going to say that i am and what’s the point in investing a lot of dollars into something that is not a pure extension of you for the rz it kind of is for the hasselblad it’s a little bit distant or maybe i just need more time under the hood with it but what do you guys think which camera do you rock with that’s a pure extension of your creativity right now or what would you actually like to invest in later down the road i would love to hear about it make sure you like this video subscribe and that’s all i have for you guys in this video thank you guys for watching hopefully you learned something i don’t know but i will see you guys in the next post.
