If you've never had the pleasure of shooting with a 6X6cm Hasselblad SWC - Super Wide Camera (now 905CF) - on the street and hand held, the simple joy of using the new Zeiss Ikon SW in the same way may seem odd.
Neither camera has a built-in viewfinder or a rangefinder measuring device. The user must estimate the camera to object distance and manually set this on the lens focus ring, using depth-of-field or hyperfocal distance ranges to cover anomalies of the guessing game. However, aside from the advantage of the SWC's larger frame size, that camera's objective is fixed. The SW can be fitted with whatever ZM or Leica M bayonet (as well as screw thread types with appropriate bayonet adapter.) is needed along with accessory slip-in the-hot-shoe viewfinder. It endows this new model with a great deal of versatility. Using wide angle lenses in the focal length range 15mm - 28mm in normal outdoor daylight situations, apertures in the range of f/5.6 - f/8 (or smaller), marginal errors of distance estimating when the desired object is in the 2-4m range will be covered. More accuracy is required for closer objects, especially in low light situations when maximum apertures are the only choices.
But this kind of extreme visual liberation is not to everyone's liking. more .....
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