VICTOR BT
Member
hi all, a couple of weeks ago i have asked on the forum a few questions about the 40mp MFD prior to testing them. the information on the forum and the replies to my previous thread were very enlightening. so here are a few remarks...
i have just had the initial test of the Hasselblad H4D-40, and a hassy guy from denmark was there to show and help, which was not only friendly but just great fist step with hassy h4d.
the overall impression is very positive, many things mentioned/described on the forum were clearly confirmed with the real thing in hand, and some quick tests on the monitor.
i have to say that my test was not some "methodical/scientific", but just an initial impression about how the camera feels in the hand and in work (which i think is more important, especially knowing that all the 40mp options are good on paper)... and another thing, how the hts1.5+phocus does it.
- in the hand the camera is really great. secure, very well balanced. actually, i think this is the best balanced eye-level camera together with leica M. it is not really big, nor it is small, but i think ergonomic feels better than mamiya camera. the thumb position and the shape that holds the thumb on the hassy body is just great, makes huge difference in comfort (be it holding, photographing, vertical, horizontal). the buttons seem to be easy, although, it takes some time to get familiar to all of them since there are many. initially, enough to know iso on the front and true-focus on the back with aperture and shutter wheels and the camera is actually ready to do everything basic. the shutter click position is also great. i know it is personal and depends on hands etc, but basically, the ergonomics is just great no matter how u see it. the fact that it is not clean and has lots of buttons is a matter of digital camera, and i think on hassy it works nice, lets say, different, but in practice, at least as good as leaf touch screen option.
- the auoto-focus / menual focus.... two things: great auto-focus, but manual focus is not as pleasant as on traditional top quality cameras (rollei, or even hassy-V). right from the beginning, i had some issues with focusing the camera manually. i was not as confident as with rollei, and in fact, when looking on computer screen i was missing focus just a little bit (kind of being more on nose than on eyes at half-body model photos at aperture +/- f4 on 80mm). i would not say mamiya is better, it has these issues too, but i really would like to have a snappy manual focus.
on the bright side, the auto-focus is amazingly good. fast, super accurate, and the true-focus is so easy (at least in common situations) and worked great. now, i dont photograph with pro-nikon (which is concidered one of the best auto-focuses??!!), but the hassy is certainly the best i have used. one that i would trust for sure, although i still would like a snappy manual focus ability. the lens themselves, although not rollei, feel very good for manual focus. just some issue with the screen/viewfinder. the viewfinder itself is good, it had the higher magnification version, again, a little downgrade in the feel compared to rollei cameras, but still very good.
now, it has to do with my little discomfort with manual focus on hassy, but the fact is that auto-focus (and true-focus) always worked so good and so easy, and better than i made it with manual. in short, initial impression is that it does just as good as i do it manually on rollei. another important thing is that i felt no delays in focusing processes. auto-focus can focus faster than man, but since this is passive process for photographer, it feels irritating if it feels there is some delays. with hassy i had not felt almost any delays, in more or less normal working pace. for example, i did have feeling of delays with canon 5d-ii alot, especially if there was not enough light or something complex...
- next issue is digital artifacts, namely, moire and color issues in hair, or with fine lines on bright place.
for moire, which was important to me, i took one of the most challenging dresses (semi-transparent, with fine net-like texture, white to nude color etc). i have photographed this particular dress/costume for fashion campaign just a while ago on film (no issues of course on rollei-provia). i have "recreated" lighting on that dress to mimic the original photo on film. a torture test for digital camera (although doing it exactly as on film with that type of look and lighting would be even more chalanging to the digital camera). as expected, lots of moire all around, especially on gently curved fabric. but the big surprise was that the hassy guy simply removed it with remarkable ease. the artifact has been removed, and the texture (the feel of the fabric) was preserved even when looking at 1:1 magnification on screen. so, there is issue with those artifacts, which is inherent to digital thing i guess, but the elegance in which it was resolved in Phocus was impressive. the thing is that there was nothing complicated that the hassy guy made there, he just moved the sliders (of moirse in that case) in Phocus and we inspected in on screen. that was it. now i know these problems can be solved in many cases, but i have never seem it done with this ease and such satisfactory results.
- over-all integration... and from here, it was clear what is the real advantage of overall integration, over-all digital solution. the camera does great on its own, the files out of the camera are not as impressive as slide film on light table, but with such a high quality file, a few touches on tone/color correction makes it live quickly, and from then lots of room for creative issues. when the camera+back get in trouble, i understand all the information is there to solve the issues with easy to use software and with satisfactory results.
- HTS1.5... i was glad to have this thing for initial impression, thanks to the hassy dealer in israel and the hassy guy. it is small, after a couple of minutes very easy to use. quality and feel is very good too, same as the over all camera. range of capabilities is more than enough (unless some one needs really extreme stuff for technical or creative photography). i have tested it with 28mm lens, cause this is what interested me most.
so, of course the focal lenght gets "longer" and the image gets darker a little bit. the first thing is that in this combination, one has to do manual focus... so back to the manual focus issue - the viewfinder is not as snappy as rollei. now another thing is that with any movement, and even more so with tilting the lens, one needs a big picture to evaluate the effects. this is why 4x5 size is ideal, with naked eye or loupe. the fact that it gets darker is ok, but then 4x5 simply has much more generous space for composition and tilt-shift play. yet, the hts1.5 accessory is really good and still easy enough to work with, and the important thing is that it gets the results.
the results are done thanks to the Over-All digital Integration of hassy. without that integration (all the correction Phocus does based on the info it gets from the camera) the hts1.5 with 28mm lens in almost not usable or one would need tons of time to correct it alone.
bottom line, with hassy+hts+28+phocus seems that the photograph is not 4x5 quality (here, alpa+35mm would get much closer), but very satisfactory. no issues using the results i saw from test photos unless there is a need for the really best quality. i felt that photo is not not as crisp/deep/rich as with 4x5 (some of it could be solved with further processing). but out of the camera, the result after all those correction in Phocus (vigniting, distortion, including shift calaculations etc) is without artifacts etc.
so...
with this initial test, i becomes clear to me what is the over-all Integration of the system with 40mp potential for art or commercial print. it just works. easy and satisfactory... out of the camera. from then it is all a matter of taste and creativity in the processing.
and here is a little issue. even when starting to realize what is probably the best digital system, i still have an emotional issue with hy6. i now understand more that hy6 with any kind of digital solution is not the wisest choice, especially having on the other side such an accomplished digital system like hassy h4d. but talking about camera alone, with all the due respect to this good hassy shape and build quality, the rollei vibe is missing. actually, i dont really know to explain it, maybe it is just the eye-level vs hy6/fx/6008 viewing and the design form that camera gets because of it ?!
anyway, there was no wesit level finder accessory for the hassy over there, which might be the answer in many cases... and anyway, with hassy it feels as theres no way to go wrong if an accomplished digi system is wanted.
i have just had the initial test of the Hasselblad H4D-40, and a hassy guy from denmark was there to show and help, which was not only friendly but just great fist step with hassy h4d.
the overall impression is very positive, many things mentioned/described on the forum were clearly confirmed with the real thing in hand, and some quick tests on the monitor.
i have to say that my test was not some "methodical/scientific", but just an initial impression about how the camera feels in the hand and in work (which i think is more important, especially knowing that all the 40mp options are good on paper)... and another thing, how the hts1.5+phocus does it.
- in the hand the camera is really great. secure, very well balanced. actually, i think this is the best balanced eye-level camera together with leica M. it is not really big, nor it is small, but i think ergonomic feels better than mamiya camera. the thumb position and the shape that holds the thumb on the hassy body is just great, makes huge difference in comfort (be it holding, photographing, vertical, horizontal). the buttons seem to be easy, although, it takes some time to get familiar to all of them since there are many. initially, enough to know iso on the front and true-focus on the back with aperture and shutter wheels and the camera is actually ready to do everything basic. the shutter click position is also great. i know it is personal and depends on hands etc, but basically, the ergonomics is just great no matter how u see it. the fact that it is not clean and has lots of buttons is a matter of digital camera, and i think on hassy it works nice, lets say, different, but in practice, at least as good as leaf touch screen option.
- the auoto-focus / menual focus.... two things: great auto-focus, but manual focus is not as pleasant as on traditional top quality cameras (rollei, or even hassy-V). right from the beginning, i had some issues with focusing the camera manually. i was not as confident as with rollei, and in fact, when looking on computer screen i was missing focus just a little bit (kind of being more on nose than on eyes at half-body model photos at aperture +/- f4 on 80mm). i would not say mamiya is better, it has these issues too, but i really would like to have a snappy manual focus.
on the bright side, the auto-focus is amazingly good. fast, super accurate, and the true-focus is so easy (at least in common situations) and worked great. now, i dont photograph with pro-nikon (which is concidered one of the best auto-focuses??!!), but the hassy is certainly the best i have used. one that i would trust for sure, although i still would like a snappy manual focus ability. the lens themselves, although not rollei, feel very good for manual focus. just some issue with the screen/viewfinder. the viewfinder itself is good, it had the higher magnification version, again, a little downgrade in the feel compared to rollei cameras, but still very good.
now, it has to do with my little discomfort with manual focus on hassy, but the fact is that auto-focus (and true-focus) always worked so good and so easy, and better than i made it with manual. in short, initial impression is that it does just as good as i do it manually on rollei. another important thing is that i felt no delays in focusing processes. auto-focus can focus faster than man, but since this is passive process for photographer, it feels irritating if it feels there is some delays. with hassy i had not felt almost any delays, in more or less normal working pace. for example, i did have feeling of delays with canon 5d-ii alot, especially if there was not enough light or something complex...
- next issue is digital artifacts, namely, moire and color issues in hair, or with fine lines on bright place.
for moire, which was important to me, i took one of the most challenging dresses (semi-transparent, with fine net-like texture, white to nude color etc). i have photographed this particular dress/costume for fashion campaign just a while ago on film (no issues of course on rollei-provia). i have "recreated" lighting on that dress to mimic the original photo on film. a torture test for digital camera (although doing it exactly as on film with that type of look and lighting would be even more chalanging to the digital camera). as expected, lots of moire all around, especially on gently curved fabric. but the big surprise was that the hassy guy simply removed it with remarkable ease. the artifact has been removed, and the texture (the feel of the fabric) was preserved even when looking at 1:1 magnification on screen. so, there is issue with those artifacts, which is inherent to digital thing i guess, but the elegance in which it was resolved in Phocus was impressive. the thing is that there was nothing complicated that the hassy guy made there, he just moved the sliders (of moirse in that case) in Phocus and we inspected in on screen. that was it. now i know these problems can be solved in many cases, but i have never seem it done with this ease and such satisfactory results.
- over-all integration... and from here, it was clear what is the real advantage of overall integration, over-all digital solution. the camera does great on its own, the files out of the camera are not as impressive as slide film on light table, but with such a high quality file, a few touches on tone/color correction makes it live quickly, and from then lots of room for creative issues. when the camera+back get in trouble, i understand all the information is there to solve the issues with easy to use software and with satisfactory results.
- HTS1.5... i was glad to have this thing for initial impression, thanks to the hassy dealer in israel and the hassy guy. it is small, after a couple of minutes very easy to use. quality and feel is very good too, same as the over all camera. range of capabilities is more than enough (unless some one needs really extreme stuff for technical or creative photography). i have tested it with 28mm lens, cause this is what interested me most.
so, of course the focal lenght gets "longer" and the image gets darker a little bit. the first thing is that in this combination, one has to do manual focus... so back to the manual focus issue - the viewfinder is not as snappy as rollei. now another thing is that with any movement, and even more so with tilting the lens, one needs a big picture to evaluate the effects. this is why 4x5 size is ideal, with naked eye or loupe. the fact that it gets darker is ok, but then 4x5 simply has much more generous space for composition and tilt-shift play. yet, the hts1.5 accessory is really good and still easy enough to work with, and the important thing is that it gets the results.
the results are done thanks to the Over-All digital Integration of hassy. without that integration (all the correction Phocus does based on the info it gets from the camera) the hts1.5 with 28mm lens in almost not usable or one would need tons of time to correct it alone.
bottom line, with hassy+hts+28+phocus seems that the photograph is not 4x5 quality (here, alpa+35mm would get much closer), but very satisfactory. no issues using the results i saw from test photos unless there is a need for the really best quality. i felt that photo is not not as crisp/deep/rich as with 4x5 (some of it could be solved with further processing). but out of the camera, the result after all those correction in Phocus (vigniting, distortion, including shift calaculations etc) is without artifacts etc.
so...
with this initial test, i becomes clear to me what is the over-all Integration of the system with 40mp potential for art or commercial print. it just works. easy and satisfactory... out of the camera. from then it is all a matter of taste and creativity in the processing.
and here is a little issue. even when starting to realize what is probably the best digital system, i still have an emotional issue with hy6. i now understand more that hy6 with any kind of digital solution is not the wisest choice, especially having on the other side such an accomplished digital system like hassy h4d. but talking about camera alone, with all the due respect to this good hassy shape and build quality, the rollei vibe is missing. actually, i dont really know to explain it, maybe it is just the eye-level vs hy6/fx/6008 viewing and the design form that camera gets because of it ?!
anyway, there was no wesit level finder accessory for the hassy over there, which might be the answer in many cases... and anyway, with hassy it feels as theres no way to go wrong if an accomplished digi system is wanted.
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