film friday: the nikon fe vs. the hasselblad. sort of.

I had big plans for today's post, my friends.

Last week, I was having a bit of a down day, and I decided that I would head over to the Cenacle Retreat Center, and walk their labyrinth. Because the setting of the Cenacle is so beautiful, at the last minute I grabbed both film cameras I own -- a Nikon FE and a Hasselblad 501c -- to take some shots. Wouldn't it be cool, I thought, to take similar shots, to see which camera is truly the better? I strongly suspected that the Hassie would win hands-down, since it would be wildly considered the better of the two cameras.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't really succeed in this mission.

See, here's the thing: even though I took the shots at the same camera settings and the same film (ISO400 Fuji colour film), I failed to consider the fact that I was in far more practice using the Hasselblad as opposed to the Nikon (not to mention the fact that I was using lenses with different focal lengths on each camera; not to also mention that the Nikon takes rectangular photos and the Hassie takes square ones). So even though I instinctively believe the Hasselblad takes technically better shots, there were certain shots on the Nikon I liked better (because the image wasn't as sharp, and the blurry effect was sort of cool), and shots that I liked the Hassie better (because I just liked the square shape). And then there were some where I just totally screwed up the focus on the Nikon, and others that I completely messed up the depth-of-field on the Hassie ... and ... and ... and.

Anyway.

For the record, here are some of my favourites from that day. I'll let you guys be the judge.

Taken with the Hassie.  Compare with the similar shot I took with the Nikon, at the top of this post. — *Taken with the Hassie. Compare with the similar shot I took with the Nikon, at the top of this post.*

See what I mean? Different. My instinct is that I'm able to take sharper images with the Hasselblad (and for this reason I like the second shot better -- plus, I like the tilt and the square format of the second shot), but then just as soon as I make that decision, I look at the next two photos, and decide that sharpness is overrated:

I totally like the Nikon better in that second set.

And finally, the third set:

*sigh* I don't even know anymore. What do you think?

Finally, just to muddle things up a bit more, here's a shot I really liked from the roll of film on the Nikon (taken in our kitchen. Fruit is kind of a big deal in our house):