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Capture One 4 PRO vs. Hasselblad Phocus

KETCH ROSSI

New member
Hi guys,

as I will be shortly receiving my Hassy H3dII-39 (Marc? :)), I wanted to take advantage in full glory of this Camera System, and I'm a MAC user.

Hasselblad clearly says that using Phocus, will maximize the Hasselblad File quality and provide for a the best platform, from capture to post, in order to correct any defect that might be captured, and allow Phocus to interpret the files, and correct any lens issue, as well as give their files the best tools to fully take advantage of their 16 Bit Depth color range, as well as Dynamic Range and so on.

However I see that some Professionals in commercial studios use Capture One 4 Pro with their Hassy.

So my question is, to those that really know by experience, not speculations please, I'm a Pro Photographer and be using this tools for Business not just pleasure, so it is important that your most welcomed shared opinions be well informed and based on facts not rumors, or floating info, that I already have read about it extensively, and I like to know more about the two before trying them out for my self, as when you use a system just on a quick trial basis one might not take full advantage of the Program, and discard it before truly seen its potential, and at the same time I don't unfortunately have too much time on my hands this days, and would much prefer to avoid learning a system that I might not ending up using..

My interest is off course to take full advantage of this incredible system, and like to simplify my work flow in post, utilizing only one SW and after image has been processed bring it to Photoshop CS4 for retouching.

Lens corrections are important, CA, Vignetting, Moire, Tonality, DR, Color Depth, but for me is also important for the chosen SW platform to provide great Tethered work flow, for me and my clients, while using a Top of the Line MBP with SSD drive and a 30" Cinema Display, I like to have fast actions, and a smooth Tethered experience, again both for me at work, my assistant, and also important to my clients to see a good system at work with out having to wait too long.

I thank you in advance for your participation in this discussion.

Ketch Rossi
 
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thomas

New member
However I see that some Professionals in commercial studios use Capture One 4 Pro with their Hassy.

So my question is, to those that really know by experience, not speculations please,
sorry... I have no experience with Phocus but it's really simple in your case: Capture One does not support Hasselblad files. Period. So you have to use Phocus.
The above mentioned professionals most likely use Hasselblad cameras with Phase digital backs.
You can convert the files to DNG to open it in C1 but then you throw away everything that Phocus can do for your files.
 

jlm

Workshop Member
i have been using both Phocus and capture 1 pro for more than a year. I have no real problems with either one. Phocus is used exclusively with the hassy .3FR files, producing 8 or 16 bit .tif or .jpg outputs. C1 I use for sony and leica files.
It is possilble to use Phocus to convert the .3FR files to a dng (for C1 processing) but you will lose some of the metadata, including some of the lens corrections. There are always advocates for their favorite system (I met a potential hassy guy yesterday who wants to use adobe camera raw to process his .3FR files) but the OEM usually makes the most from their raw files. C1 may offer afew more features, but I see little reason for crossing platforms, Phocus works well and produces great image files. Hassy is pretty good about updating Phocus as well and it is free to hassy db owners. Phocus 2.0 is due out in a few weeks, btw.
 

KETCH ROSSI

New member
HA! Well perfect less to worry about it.

Thanks for the quick answer Thomas, this solves the problem of having to compare them out, in fact I never bother to look what DB they had, :)

Thanks Jim for your response as well.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
However I see that some Professionals in commercial studios use Capture One 4 Pro with their Hassy.
What you've seen is many professionals using Phase One backs with Capture One on a Hasselblad H2 body. This is indeed a very popular combination as it gives you the availability of good leaf shutter lenses as well as the rock solid stability and very powerful feature set of Phase One and Capture One workflow.

There are always advocates for their favorite system (I met a potential hassy guy yesterday who wants to use adobe camera raw to process his .3FR files) but the OEM usually makes the most from their raw files. C1 may offer afew more features, but I see little reason for crossing platforms.
This understates it a bit. The majority of all professional tethering is done with Phase One digital backs with Capture One (in the MF space) or Nikon/Canon with Capture One (in the dSLR space).

Jlm: do you tether or do you just convert images? These workflows are very different.

Don't take my word for it (I'm obviously very biased). Google "digital tech" for your area, call 4-5 and say "I don't have any medium format systems but I want to shoot tethered; what program/digital-back do you prefer?". Report your findings here.

This by the way is NOT a diss on Hassy's Phocus which is a good program. It's just that Capture One has a long and very strong track record of extreme speed, stability, and features and has earned the leading market share in rental studios, and digital techs.

Anyway, I'm butting in. If you own a H3D already then you should use Phocus for both tethering (your only option in any case) and for processing as it will give you the best results. Trying a few raw files through alternative processors such as Raw Developer or LightRoom is worth your time just in case you happen to prefer their rendering; however, chances are very good you'll prefer Phocus' rendering.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
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jlm

Workshop Member
Ketch has purchased a hasselblad with hasselblad back(opening post) so he has to use Phocus, for tethering or not, and to create either a .tif or a .dng. so capture one would be of no use for tethering and of partial use for processing his dng.
 

KETCH ROSSI

New member
Thanks Doug, and Jim for your responses,

in truth I unfortunately did not purchase the H3DII-39 as of yet since Marc decided to retract his offer and our deal was not made at the end, so I'm still looking to conclude a purchase and now have three possible deal pending, one of which is here with Bob, so I still hope to have a camera in my hands shortly to test out the workflow in Phocus, but I have no intention of using anything else to render and finalize initial processing on my photos.

Only when first processing and all corrections are done in Phocus I would then export al pictures to Bridge folders to then in turn export individual files I wish to retouch in to Photoshop CS4.

I do however have not yet fully understood the Hassy/Phocus Protocol very well, which is important I do, as I must maintain the absolute best quality of my images from start to end.

DNG is my favorite way of storing files long term in my folders, then export those files in to CS4 for retouching or in to LR2 to create JPEG's files to send out and such, when exporting large numbers of files, other wise I use CS4 for individual ones.

So if I:

Bring in to Phocus the original Hassy file, then work on it, and finally export it to Bridge folders in DNG, so that i turn I can export them to CS4 for retouching.

Is this the right path to maintain the best image quality on Hassy files?
 

thomas

New member
So if I:

Bring in to Phocus the original Hassy file, then work on it, and finally export it to Bridge folders in DNG, so that i turn I can export them to CS4 for retouching.

Is this the right path to maintain the best image quality on Hassy files?
this is exactly the question you have to face in detail. Not all - if any - adjustments in the RAW converter are stored in the processed DNG file. You should really ask David Grover, Paul Claesson or Nick-T which adjsutements exactly are really stored in the DNG file.
I'd store the original RAW files and take the processed TIFFs for editing unless I'd know what is written in the DNG ...
 

KETCH ROSSI

New member
Yes Thomas,

absolutely, it is worthless to spend time and money on MUA, Hair dressers, assistants, lighting, composition, Talent etc, if at the end, you don't take care of an equally important aspect of today's photography, POST!

For this I want to assure I understand and I have been guided to the best post processing work flow, I can change my routes of how I have been doing things no problem, this is after al the reason I'm moving to MF from 35mm after over twenty years in the 35mm format, I just need and want more, and since I know I can.. well I wanted :)

David?
Paul?
Nick?

:)
 

jlm

Workshop Member
here is my flow:
1. Import the hassey .3fr files into Phocus to create .fff raw files.
2. use Phocus to adjust exposure, contrast, white-balance, etc. corrected images, add metadata as needed (keywords, etc)
3. process in Phocus to output 16 bit .tif files in proRGB color space at native resolution
4. load .tif files into CS4 and tweak and touch-up. save as pre-uprezzed file.tif
5. in CS4 run Genuine Fractals to up-res to final print size and print res (240dpi for me)
6. add some unsharp mask
7. save as print.tif file, print
 

KETCH ROSSI

New member
That is not a bad way at all, I imagine much larder Files in your folders, if stored as Tiffs, but if going to DNG means loosing capacity to bring back the full glory of the file, then I will forget all together about DNG and just use Tiffs full rez. files.
 

thomas

New member
That is not a bad way at all, I imagine much larder Files in your folders, if stored as Tiffs, but if going to DNG means loosing capacity to bring back the full glory of the file, then I will forget all together about DNG and just use Tiffs full rez. files.
I even store the processed TIFFs (16bit) together with the RAW files as long time archive as I think TIF is more assured of a good future. But I do not shoot high volumes so storage capacaty is not really an issue for me (too, storage is cheap).
 

KETCH ROSSI

New member
Actually that is a good idea, in fact I did once made the big mistake to not save the raw file for an image I retouched for a client, and later, months later, something came up were additional changes were to be made, and they would just not come out the same as I din't have the raw files any more, DNG only :(

This one.
 
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Dale Allyn

New member
I save the RAW, the tiff output from C1, the layered tiff or psd from CS3/4, a print version with output sharpening on a layer in each paper profile to be printed (often in more than one size), a low res version...

Storage is cheap, and time to reproduce is not. ;)
 

jlm

Workshop Member
one thing: if downloading from a CF card, the images will come in as .3FR files. Phocus will see them and show thumbnails for review. then you can select the keepers and maybee's for "import" by Phocus. that creates a set of .fff files and these are what you do adjustments to and process.
if you shoot tethered, i am told, the files come in as .fff directly.

once done "importing" to .fff, the original .3fr files can be deleted. As with any? raw processor, the .fff file is the raw data and will not get fundamentally and irrevocably altered by adjustments; the adjustments are carried along with the file as a set of instructions so the original raw data is left intact. the .fff files are what you archive as the highest level of security
 
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