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Your first Hasselblad H System... tips and tricks?

symbolphoto

New member
I recently purchased an H3DII-31 and while i'm waiting for it to arrive - ever so patiently... i was wondering if anyone has anything to add here as a tip or trick for those coming from 35mm?

I'll be using Phocus 2.5 and exporting to photoshop. Probably shooting half tethered and half not. Shooting ourdoors in the sun a lot with strobes.

I'd love to hear any advice anyone has being new to the system or not.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I had that H3D-II/31 camera before moving to the H4D/40. Here are a few thoughts, most are applicable to any MFD camera use, some are specific to the H:

The general differences between MFD and 35mm ... MFD has shallower DOF at any given f/stop. Higher shutter speed required for any given focal length when hand-held. The aspect ratio of MFD is less wasteful compared to 35mm when producing standard sized prints or page sizes ... so in effect, MFD gains even more resolution in actual use.

The H camera allows you to set a minor mirror delay for hand-held work .... which actually has a visible effect, and is especially useful working with ambient light where slower shutter speeds may be employed.

A tripod or monopod is worth its weight in gold when it comes to MFD work. IMO, many people squander the advantages of MFD with minor camera movement. You can use an L bracket from Really Right Stuff ... which provides access to the sync port on the H camera (some L brackets do not), or use the RRS HD monopod head to swiftly move from Landscape to Portrait orientation.

I suggest exploring options in post processing:

Obviously Phocus will provide the best RAW processing, especially color and DAC corrections.

However, when exporting from Phocus to a finished Tiff file of selects that you want to work on further ... you can use Photoshop Bridge Browser and CS5 ... or you can import into Lightroom-3 as DNGs which I find provides some processing tools that are not found in PS, or are easier to use ... and are non-destructive.

When layers or other unique functions of PS are still required, PS can be directly accessed from LR, used, and the file goes back into the LR library as a version ... as many versions as you want can be done and stored side-by-side in the same LR library.

Output from a LR library is then totally flexible ... the files are there to be revisited for corrections, re-cropping, etc. ... and directly outputted at any size, file format, color space desired without effecting the original.

Use of flash and studio strobes:

The H camera provides the advantage that ALL lenses are central shutters with a top sync speed of 1/800th. To my knowledge, the HC28D, 35, 35-90D, 300 are the only such MFD-AF Leaf shutter lenses currently in existence. All shutter speeds are available when hard-wired to strobes (as long as the flash duration supports it)

However, if you use a radio sender, check what the top sync speed actually is of your unit ... for example, in most cases my Hensel Porty transmitter tops out at 1/250th sync.. My Microsync tops out at 1/350th sync with Leaf Shutter cameras. The Pocket Wizard Transceiver tops out at 1/500th with Leaf Shutter cameras.

According to printed specifications, the Elinchrom Skyport Universal SPEED set sync's up to 1/1000th ... but I've never used one yet to trigger my Profotos in the field ... I will be ordering a set once I investigate it further.

I use Metz speed-lights with the Hasselblad module for general fill. All on-flash controls are bypassed and taken over by the camera, and I've found this to be very convenient because you can do all comp adjustments without taking your eye from the viewfinder ... the H TTL flash meter is very accurate. With speed-lights, 1/800th is available for fill.

I suggest that you log onto the Hasselblad USA site and join. There is a wealth of info and PDFs on most any subject regarding the H system.

-Marc
 

symbolphoto

New member
Marc thank you so much. That's all really valuable stuff. I'm anti-monopod in general but you are bringing up very valid points on resolution and such.

Sync Speed - Man i freaked out for a minute.... i have all elinchrom gear and i do have 2 speed transmitters so i'll give that a shot. If i can't use them at 1/800 that kind of negates buying into the whole H system to begin with. What are the effects of a leaf shutter if you exceed the sync speed? I'm assuming it's not a black bar like FP shutters, i'm assuming it'll maybe be heavy vignetting?

Lastly, i thought all HC and HCD lenses were leaf shutter and therefor capable of 1/800 no? If i can't use the 100 2.2 with strobes at 1/800 then i'm not going to be a happy camper. :(
 

Professional

Active member
Marc thank you so much. That's all really valuable stuff. I'm anti-monopod in general but you are bringing up very valid points on resolution and such.

Sync Speed - Man i freaked out for a minute.... i have all elinchrom gear and i do have 2 speed transmitters so i'll give that a shot. If i can't use them at 1/800 that kind of negates buying into the whole H system to begin with. What are the effects of a leaf shutter if you exceed the sync speed? I'm assuming it's not a black bar like FP shutters, i'm assuming it'll maybe be heavy vignetting?

Lastly, i thought all HC and HCD lenses were leaf shutter and therefor capable of 1/800 no? If i can't use the 100 2.2 with strobes at 1/800 then i'm not going to be a happy camper. :(
You can use 1/800 with any lens, i was shooting in studio at 1/800 with no problem.
Finally my H4D-60 arrived and i will go tomorrow i hope to pick it up and give it a try.
Enjoy and post your shots in this forum!!! ;)
 

Professional

Active member
This is a quick shot example with 1/800, not good lighting anyway but it was just to give you an idea, i was using Hensel Head 500ws with shoot-thru umbrella, sync at 1/800 and triggered by PW.

 

David K

Workshop Member
Tareq, best of luck with your new kit. Look forward to seeing some shots showing what it can do. I think you're one of the first here to take delivery of this camera.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Marc thank you so much. That's all really valuable stuff. I'm anti-monopod in general but you are bringing up very valid points on resolution and such.

Sync Speed - Man i freaked out for a minute.... i have all elinchrom gear and i do have 2 speed transmitters so i'll give that a shot. If i can't use them at 1/800 that kind of negates buying into the whole H system to begin with. What are the effects of a leaf shutter if you exceed the sync speed? I'm assuming it's not a black bar like FP shutters, i'm assuming it'll maybe be heavy vignetting?

Lastly, i thought all HC and HCD lenses were leaf shutter and therefor capable of 1/800 no? If i can't use the 100 2.2 with strobes at 1/800 then i'm not going to be a happy camper. :(
Test your Elinchrom Speeds, they are supposed to go to 1/1,000th. My tech guy said that in some cases the manufacture's spec's on other transmitters can be exceeded to a degree with little to no visible effect. Still, even the published 1/500th of a Pocket Wizard on the H camera beats 1/125 sync on a focal Plane shutter MFD camera. For sure you get 1/800th sync when hard wired to any generator.

Yes, all HC lenses are Leaf Shutter ... Phase One has some Leaf Shutter lenses for the Phase One/Mamiya Digital focal plane camera, but not all ... the HC lenses I listed are focal lengths you can't get elsewhere ... at least not yet. Leica is supposed to make CS versions of all their lenses eventually ... they sync at 1/500th.

-Marc
 

symbolphoto

New member
It's weird, i've been in Elinchrom for a while now too i can't find any documentation on 1/1000th, is that published somewhere? Or just known that you can exceed 1/800th a bit?

I didn't see it on their spec sheet, nor have i heard it anywhere else.
 

Dustbak

Member
It's weird, i've been in Elinchrom for a while now too i can't find any documentation on 1/1000th, is that published somewhere? Or just known that you can exceed 1/800th a bit?

I didn't see it on their spec sheet, nor have i heard it anywhere else.
I have the original skyport PDF that mentions 1/1000th. I have no problems using them at 1/800th. I don't know why the newer versions are only mentioned to 1/250th? Maybe because the world in large seems to be DSLR oriented. I can only guess. It striked me as odd that they would name the newer versions 'speed' claiming it to be faster while only topping out at 1/250th

You can download that here: http://www.yousendit.com/download/T1VuS3hlK3h6RTljR0E9PQ
 
Last edited:

Professional

Active member
Tareq, best of luck with your new kit. Look forward to seeing some shots showing what it can do. I think you're one of the first here to take delivery of this camera.
Thank you very much!
I don't think so i am the first one, David has it, and i saw somewhere i don't know someone posted a shot from this new camera, but i will go tomorrow to pick it up, i wish to go today but the area where is the store locates is awful and i am lazy today to go there, so i will do my best tomorrow, also i will take my Profoto Pro Head to them as i bought it just last week and the flash doesn't work, so i will take the light to fix it and take the 60mp and do some shots.
 

symbolphoto

New member
Thank you very much!
I don't think so i am the first one, David has it, and i saw somewhere i don't know someone posted a shot from this new camera, but i will go tomorrow to pick it up, i wish to go today but the area where is the store locates is awful and i am lazy today to go there, so i will do my best tomorrow, also i will take my Profoto Pro Head to them as i bought it just last week and the flash doesn't work, so i will take the light to fix it and take the 60mp and do some shots.
What happened to the light? Just died?
 

symbolphoto

New member

symbolphoto

New member
For instance, the Quadra has the ability to increment it's adjustments to 1/5 and 1/2 stops. Where is it mentioned? Only buried in the manual. Grrr.


Ok back to Hasselblad. B&H has a backorder on the H3DII bodies only, so i'm simply waiting. I guess they are coming in directly from Gothenburg because it's been a week and B&H is typically quite fast.

There is a thread going on here: http://www.hasselbladdigitalforum.com/index.php/topic,1178.15.html about custom made Firewire cables... seems nothing has bore fruit yet.

Granite Cables seems to be a favorite here... anything else one needs to know?
 

aldo

New member
Hi symbolphoto,

I just did a quick test with a Ranger Quadra A (at full power) + H4D-40 + 100mm f/2.2 + skyports. No problem at 1/800. But I found that from 1/125th to 1/500th you loose about a half of stop... from 1/125 to 1/800 you loose about a 2/3 of stop.

I recently adquired the H4D-40... and used it with the quadras a couple times... I found the images a tiny underexposed... it's nice to now this "little thing" about the Ranger Quadras A + H4D-40...

I'm curious if any Phase one p40+ or p60+ users has been able to synchronize at 1/1600... and with how much light loss... anybody?
 

symbolphoto

New member
Aldo, that's great to hear. I don't mind losing stops, that's easy to recover. I have the Quadra A and Ranger RX AS, so hopefully i can handle whatever comes at me. And btw if anyone has any Elinchrom questions, feel free to PM me. I'd like to contribute to this forum as well, and while i'm a newbie to MF, i'm well-versed in Elinchrom's line.
 
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