The Hasselblad 500 C/M is an iconic camera. Guys like me lust over them. Through some networking, I had a phone chat with an elderly gentleman who said he had one for sale. But when I asked to meet with him to look at it, he came up with several excuses to put things off. He was sick, busy, needed to gather up all the accessories and so on. He said he’d keep my number and call when he was ready to sell. It became evident that he didn’t really want to sell. And who could blame him? I’ve never heard from him again.

I’m in love with this camera.

Fast forward a few weeks and I was having lunch with a friend. Ironically, it was the same guy who put me in touch with the relectuant seller. He asked me if I’d bought the Hasselblad. When I relayed the story about what happened, he mentioned that he had a Hasselblad of his own back at his studio just gathering dust. He offered to loan it to me. He agreed we could go to his studio right then and there to grab it.

As it turns out, he had the exact same camera and lens as the reluctant seller. I was thrilled to put some film through it. My first roll was Kodak Tri-X 400. I developed it in Kodak D-76 1:1. I’m in love with this camera.