I know what you are thinking ' Pan 400' sounds a bit ambiguous. Well that's I have to go on, I plucked the roll from my film stash but the box had long been checked and I could find no reference on the roll backing or negatives as to just which Pan 400 it is.
I'm assuming Berger, Kentmere or Ilford, but honestly - not a clue!
Anyway enough about the film - the camera, the camera! My old Hasselblad 500cm gave up the ghost not long after I became a Hasselblad Heroine (the irony). It got jammed and at first I thought it was the film back, but after trying 4 different ones it became apparent it was the body that needed a service. I found somewhere in the UK that services them but it was coming in at about the £600 price tag and so I put it off, and off...
Then when re-scanning these beauts the other day I immediately was reminded of how much I love that camera. I headed to eBay to see how much they are going from these days (seems to be about 1k-3k) and then I tried filtering by shopping on Google and saw that Park Cameras had one, just the body and film back for £650 - with a 6 month warranty. Warranty is my number 1 must have for any pricey film camera purchase these days and having used Park Cameras many times before I took the plunge. Next day it arrived - I cannot tell you how excited I was!
So, I defamiliarised myself with the camera and grabbed the 50mm 1.4 distagon from my rather large selection of old Hasselblad lenses and headed out in the garden to fire off a test roll, before setting up in the kitchen to develop the film.
Very pleased to report that everything seems to be working!
Let our adventures begin!
