Hasselblad V on C/Y?

The good news is that Contax and Zeiss had already recognised the value of allowing Hasselblad's Zeiss lenses to be used on the RTS back in 1975 and produced an adapter (Hassel-CX) which appeared in their first brochure. Looking at the Hartblei version, it should do the job nicely.

I only ever used two Hasselblad lenses on my RTS - the UV-Sonnar 104 f4.3 and the S-Planar T* 120mm f5.6 (the late version that ran to f45). The UV-Sonnar can not be compared with any of the Contax Zeiss or Yashica lenses but the S-Planar has the same optical configuration as the C/Y S-Planar 60mm f2.8 and both benefit from T* coatings. It's worth remembering that almost all the black Hasselblad lenses feature T* but only a few of the later chrome-satin ones were multi-coated and carried the familiar red T* emblem. The coatings help to provide a match in colour rendition and contrast with the Zeiss Contax lenses.

Is the extra bulk and weight worth it? In most cases not as the Contax Zeiss lenses are optimised for the 35mm format but the benefit of using a medium format lens on a 35mm body is that you end up using its sweet spot. If you are going to produce very large images, the resolving power of the V-series can be a bonus but in general, when using 35mm film, you won't notice the difference. I only used the Hasselblad S-Planar because I needed to be free to go beyond f22 which was the smallest aperture allowed by the C/Y lens.

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s I knew quite a few 'togs that were Hasselblad users and adopted the RTS (and Yashica FR1) for the benefits of their electronic shutters and higher shutter speeds but for pleasure rather than professionally. Although Zeiss benefited either way, the adapter was produced to encourage Hasselblad users to try the RTS rather than persuade RTS users to buy Hasselblad Zeiss lenses. If you have a wide selection of C/Y Zeiss or Yashica ML focal lengths, it would not be worth the cost of buying V-series lenses as you are unlikely to see a major uplift in image quality (particularly when compared with the C/Y Zeiss glass).

However, if you already have a Hasselblad 6x6 camera, such as any of the 500 series, and a few lenses, you can really enjoy seeing the quality of some of Zeiss' finest glass but, even better, now on a variety of film and digital formats.