I’ve been searching for a Hasselblad acutematte focusing screen for almost a decade now. The one I have in my 500CM is pretty scratched up and of the older generation of screens. But, it has a split image and prism, which I really want to have on my focusing screens. And the alternatives I have found have been lacking that, so the search has continued.
On my Rolleiflex I have a similar problem, it has the original focusing screen from the early 50s. It is just murky somehow and unless in bright sunshine its impossible to nail focus. There is no “pop” when you hit focus at all, it’s difficult to explain. Murky would describe it the best.
Taking an image of the focusing screen in an accurate way is difficult, I would say this one looks worse in person.
But anyhow, then I came across Magicflex (https://magicflexcamera.com/focusing_screens) who had screens for both my Hasselblad and the Rolleiflex so I decided to give it a shot and replace both. It took a couple of weeks for the screens to arrive but they were well packaged and came with clear instructions and a pair of latex gloves. Changing the screen in the ‘blad is easy, just pull out the top and open two tabs. Plop old one out, plop new one in, push in the tabs and you’re done. On the rollei it is a little bit more work, four tiny screws and two metal clips but not difficult either.
And wow, what a difference. The image is sooo much clearer on both cameras now. The prism is not as “prismy” as the original Hasselblad one but the split image is as good.
On the rollei you can now actually see the corners. The fresnel on the new screen makes such a huge difference, its clear corner to corner.
All in all, I’m very satisfied with the quality of the screens. They made a big difference and I’m looking forward to shooting more with the Rolleiflex again. The price is steep, there is no denying that. But I can probably recover some of that cost by selling the previous screens. They are not broken or too scratched up so you can get a decent price for spare parts like this.
My vacation is now during entire July so I have gotten a lot of photo work done finally. More things coming soon!