Is The Hasselblad 100mm f/3.5 Worth Owning?

Sirius Glass · Mar 21, 2025

chuckroast said:
I know. I just bought that 100mm. <Hanging head down>

Enjoy it! I hope you are as pleased with it as I am. With all your Hasselblad lenses, my Hasselblad repairman advised that with each lens, every three months, remove the film back and fire each lenses 10 to 15 times at 1 second and the smallest aperture to help prevent the shutter from sticking.

Kodachromeguy · Mar 21, 2025

Congratulations on your 100mm lens! I really like my sample:

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2023/02/vicksburg-with-hasselblad-100mm-35-csi.html

If traveling by car, I often take both the 100mm as well as my 80mm-CB lens; they provide a subtly different fields of view. Both are multicoated 6-element Planar designs.

warden · Mar 21, 2025

chuckroast said:
I know. I just bought that 100mm. <Hanging head down>

Now you're on the hook to share the maiden voyage pics when you get it. Congrats!

chuckroast · Mar 21, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
Enjoy it! I hope you are as pleased with it as I am. With all your Hasselblad lenses, my Hasselblad repairman advised that with each lens, every three months, remove the film back and fire each lenses 10 to 15 times at 1 second and the smallest aperture to help prevent the shutter from sticking.

I fire every shutter in my possession for every camera every six weeks or so.

chuckroast · Mar 21, 2025

warden said:
Now you're on the hook to share the maiden voyage pics when you get it. Congrats!

OK, you got it.

chuckroast · Mar 21, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
I found the 60mm lens was too close to the 80mm lens, so I bought the 50mm lens and have been happy with it ever since. It is one of most used Hasselblad lenses.

I meant to comment on this. I agree that the angle of view of the 60mm lens is not remarkably different than the 80mm, however the 60mm is - in my experience anyway - a leagues better/sharper/contrastier lens. The 50mm seemed to big/wide for me at the time I chose the 60.

Having just bought the 100mm I now have lenses stepped in 20mm increments from 40mm through 120mm, and the jump to 180mm and 250mm. I think I'm good (until the next GAS attack).

warden · Mar 21, 2025

chuckroast said:
I meant to comment on this. I agree that the angle of view of the 60mm lens is not remarkably different than the 80mm, however the 60mm is - in my experience anyway - a leagues better/sharper/contrastier lens. The 50mm seemed to big/wide for me at the time I chose the 60.

Having just bought the 100mm I now have lenses stepped in 20mm increments from 40mm through 120mm, and the jump to 180mm and 250mm. I think I'm good (until the next GAS attack).

Ditto here, when I started using the 60mm the 80 just kinda stopped being used, nice as it may be. The 60 suits my eye and is sharp as a tack.

Michael Mutmansky · Mar 21, 2025

I started out with 50-80-150 but I feel 60-100-180 suits me better (plus 40, 38, and 350) (oh, and the 50, 80, 150 that I had at the beginning).

Question to the group... should I buy the 120 to finish the set? Hahahaha...

MTGseattle · Mar 21, 2025

Is there a non-macro 120mm or is the 120mm always a makro-symmar?

chuckroast · Mar 22, 2025

MTGseattle said:
Is there a non-macro 120mm or is the 120mm always a makro-symmar?

It's a Makro-Planar. So far as I know, it's the only 120mm in the Hassy lineup.

chuckroast · Mar 22, 2025

Michael Mutmansky said:
I started out with 50-80-150 but I feel 60-100-180 suits me better (plus 40, 38, and 350) (oh, and the 50, 80, 150 that I had at the beginning).

Question to the group... should I buy the 120 to finish the set? Hahahaha...

In my experience, the 120mm Makro-Planar is a lens unto itself. Very sharp and contrasty, as you'd expect, but with the ability to close focus.

The rule of thumb seems to be (and I'm waiting for my100mm to show up to prove this) use:

The 80mm for medium distance
The 100mm for long/landscape distance
The 120mm for short distance

Steven Lee · Mar 22, 2025

Chuck, congratulations!

At this point I own all Hasselblad lenses sans exotics like the fisheye or the 500mm. Resolution doesn't matter with them, because they all exceed my scanning capabilities and magnification needs.

I use them all. Typically when packing for a photo trip I pick 2-3 lenses depending on where I'm going. Sometimes it's 50-80-150. Sometimes it's 50, 100, and 180. You get the idea.

My favorite lightweight combo is 60+100.

RalphLambrecht · Mar 22, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
Enjoy it! I hope you are as pleased with it as I am. With all your Hasselblad lenses, my Hasselblad repairman advised that with each lens, every three months, remove the film back and fire each lenses 10 to 15 times at 1 second and the smallest aperture to help prevent the shutter from sticking.

I'm doing that for years now(1s only); so farso good

Slixtiesix · Mar 22, 2025

It all depends on what you are going to do with these lenses. The 100 CF is sharper than the 80 CF, when used wide open and very uniformly across the frame. The 80 CF gains a lot of sharpness when stopped down 2-3 stops. However, the 100 CF only has this advantage when used at medium to long distances. When used at short distances, the 80 CF is at least as good or better than the 100 CF. At short distances however, the 120 Makro Planar is sharper than both of them.

@Kodachromeguy: How does your 80 CB compare to your 100 CFi? I never used the CB version and I have heard different opinions. Some complained it was worse than the 80 CF, others who used it with a digital back praised its sharpness and contrast.

Arthurwg · Mar 22, 2025

My most used lens is the 60, followed by the 120, and I've also started using a 50. I don't even own the 80.

Kodachromeguy · Mar 22, 2025

Slixtiesix said:
@Kodachromeguy: How does your 80 CB compare to your 100 CFi? I never used the CB version and I have heard different opinions. Some complained it was worse than the 80 CF, others who used it with a digital back praised its sharpness and contrast.

I really like my 6-element 80mm CB lens. It is contrasty and looks uniform across the field. I only once used an older 7-element C lens, so I do not have enough experience to comment on differences.

As for comparing with the 100mm CFi lens, stopped down to f/4 or smaller, I barely detect any differences in resolution. I won't go down the sharpness rathole. They all look "sharp" on fine- grain film.

bags27 · Mar 23, 2025

I sold my 80 after getting the 100.
I bought a beautiful 120 5.6 s-planar very cheaply and surprisingly preferred its rending to my newer 120 4.0 planar so I sold the 4.0 also.

I have the 50, 100, 120 s-planar and 250 SA.
But my newly acquired SWC 903 is all I really want to use now.

Slixtiesix · Mar 23, 2025

Yes the old 120/5,6 S-Planar is spectacular. I have this for the SL66.

Sirius Glass · Mar 23, 2025

bags27 said:
I sold my 80 after getting the 100.
I bought a beautiful 120 5.6 s-planar very cheaply and surprisingly preferred its rending to my newer 120 4.0 planar so I sold the 4.0 also.

I have the 50, 100, 120 s-planar and 250 SA.
But my newly acquired SWC 903 is all I really want to use now.

The 50mm, 100mm and 250mm with the 503 SWC are a great combination.

rulnacco · Mar 25, 2025

chuckroast said:
In my experience, the 120mm Makro-Planar is a lens unto itself. Very sharp and contrasty, as you'd expect, but with the ability to close focus.

That 120 Makro-Planar is a sweet, sweet lens. It can also be used for portraiture: his work is a bit extreme, but quite a bit of Platon's schtick is to get pretty close with the Makro-Planar with a single light right above the camera.

Here's my own attempt to try his style, shot on an ancient (2004) 22-megapixel Sinarback 54M: www.presquevu.com/x2783.jpg. (Make sure to view the full-resolution image--and be gobsmacked by all the detail in the skin, including those tiny little hairs we don't even know we have.)

Arthurwg · Mar 25, 2025

I think I remember that the 100mm lens has a long focus throw, which I didn't like.

Sirius Glass · Mar 25, 2025

Arthurwg said:
I think I remember that the 100mm lens has a long focus throw, which I didn't like.

That never bothered me.

GLS · Mar 27, 2025

Yes, absolutely. The 100mm is probably my most used Hassy lens. The 80mm has been gathering dust.

fdonadio · Mar 27, 2025

Considering the current prices for the 80mm, I would rather skip it and get the 100mm.

blee1996 · Mar 27, 2025

I was also surprised at the relatively high price for 80mm lens recently, even older C versions. I guess 80mm is the most compact and matches the svelte classic 500C/M pretty well.

Is The Hasselblad 100mm f/3.5 Worth Owning?

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