Using the Hasselblad Waist-Level Viewfinder

I’ve been very busy with my Hasselblad 500C and have gotten much more familiar with it.

I have shot with waist-level finder’s before on 35mm cameras such as my Nikon F and my DSW’s Blackbird Fly, but with such a small image size they weren’t very easy to use.  Using on on a medium-format camera like the Hasselblad is much more practical and enjoyable.

I am now quite used to the waist-level finder on the Hasselblad, and find it actually enables a greater variety of viewing angles than an eye-level prism.  You see here I mounted the camera on its side on my tripod at eye height and therefore could look straight ahead to compose.

I have held it below me as I kneel or crouch, as well as held the camera upside-down directly above me to get a bird’s eye perspective.  Being able to extend the camera out as far as my arms can reach provides a lot of flexibility.

While it will never dethrone the eye-level finder for action or fast composition work, I am getting a big kick out of it.