Hasselblad 202fa

[soupdragon]

Hello.

I'm thinking of buying a Hasselblad 202fa but doing the usual googling, it seems the camera was the black sheep of the V series.
Anyone ever used one?

 

[skysh4rk]

Hello.

I'm thinking of buying a Hasselblad 202fa but doing the usual googling, it seems the camera was the black sheep of the V series.
Anyone ever used one?

View attachment 329987

Why the 202FA? Hasselblad stripped out a lot of features on this particular 200-series model (arguably, they crippled it). If it were me, I'd only buy if I were getting it for very cheap. Any other camera in these series would be preferred. Any purchases of the 2000- or 200-series Hasselblads would be risky as nearly impossible to fix nowadays.

I loved my 110mm f/2 lens, but decided to get away from these bodies due to cost and reliability. The lenses for these really are great though, so it's a shame.

 

[soupdragon]

I read about the stripped down feature list but none of them would I use even if they were available.

You mention reliability and that would be a concern to me. Any idea what the common failure modes are?

As for why, it's mint boxed and very pretty.

 

[skysh4rk]

I read about the stripped down feature list but none of them would I use even if they were available.

You mention reliability and that would be a concern to me. Any idea what the common failure modes are?

As for why, it's mint boxed and very pretty.

In terms of reliability, the main issues relate to the focal plane shutters and heavy reliance on electronics. Few people will work on these cameras, so once any of these go, the camera is usually done.

For many photographers, the other big issue with the camera is that the majority of Hasselblad lenses are of the leaf-shutter variety and I believe that the 202FA is the only camera in the 200, 500, and 2000-series lines that cannot use leaf shutters. I think you may still be able to use the leaf-shutter lenses, but you'll need to rely on the focal-plane shutter instead.

I feel like the camera is also missing the usual shutter speed dial by the lens mount too, but not sure on that. You might want to check the instruction manual to see how shutter speed is selected (or indeed if it allows manual selection of shutter speeds).

 

[soupdragon]

The shutter speeds (and other things) are selected with up and down buttons on the side of the camera.

The 202FA has the more durable nylon/fabric shutter curtains as opposed to the fragile metal ones.

I have to concur with you regarding servicing, I can't find anyone that will touch them.