Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
I've also got the RRS bracket which I've filed as well but I prefer the more compact Kirk setup.
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My H4D-60 arrived
- Thread starter Woody Campbell
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Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Let's move on to the Union Savings bank and a different topic. One important issue with the H4D-60 is that with HCD lenses Hasselblad and Phocus crop the image to 50 megs. This is the default - you can change in in Phocus. This is import to me because my two favorite lenses are HCDs: the 28mm and the 35-90mm. I'll explore this more systematically in later posts.
On all of the images in this series I've turned cropping off. In other words I'm using all 60 megs with my HCD 35-90. I've explored this systematically and will present results later, but for now let's look at practical applications. The following image is with the HCD 35-90 at 90mm, f6.8 handheld at 1/125 (iso 100 by the way).
Here's a crop from the top:
Not bad, right? This works (I mean not cropping to 50 megs) fairly well for two reasons: 1. The "last 10 megs" funkiness is least evident with this lens at 90mm - it becomes more evident as you move to smaller focal lengths. 2. I've made a minor perspective correction and a slight crop at the top.
The point I'm making is that if you have any reason to crop at all (I usually do) you're cutting the bad stuff off.
On all of the images in this series I've turned cropping off. In other words I'm using all 60 megs with my HCD 35-90. I've explored this systematically and will present results later, but for now let's look at practical applications. The following image is with the HCD 35-90 at 90mm, f6.8 handheld at 1/125 (iso 100 by the way).
Here's a crop from the top:
Not bad, right? This works (I mean not cropping to 50 megs) fairly well for two reasons: 1. The "last 10 megs" funkiness is least evident with this lens at 90mm - it becomes more evident as you move to smaller focal lengths. 2. I've made a minor perspective correction and a slight crop at the top.
The point I'm making is that if you have any reason to crop at all (I usually do) you're cutting the bad stuff off.
ptomsu
Workshop Member
Thanks Woody for sharing your views on the H4D60 - especially I am interested in how the HCD lenses perform on the 60MP sensor without cropping.
I must say I really like the results! And I do agree - most times some cropping is needed anyway in post processing, but if there is more one can start from this is always a great benefit. Definitely I prefer this solution as compared to the HCD lenses which would not need any cropping, but as a result be much bigger.
Start thinking already about what to trade in in addition to my H3D39 in order to upgrade to the H4D60
maybe my Flextight X5 will be an option, as I almost do not any scanning since some time.
Think the H4D60 is worth the upgrade, not only because of the more MPs, but rather TF etc.
I must say I really like the results! And I do agree - most times some cropping is needed anyway in post processing, but if there is more one can start from this is always a great benefit. Definitely I prefer this solution as compared to the HCD lenses which would not need any cropping, but as a result be much bigger.
Start thinking already about what to trade in in addition to my H3D39 in order to upgrade to the H4D60
maybe my Flextight X5 will be an option, as I almost do not any scanning since some time. Think the H4D60 is worth the upgrade, not only because of the more MPs, but rather TF etc.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Next on the agenda are a couple of Donald Trump buildings at sunset along Riverside Drive South. I did a number of shots like this to torture test blooming, green stripes, banding, etc. I've included two of them in this post. These are typical - no problems with the sensor. (Neither is there any artistic merit.) The first: HC 35-90 @ 55mm. F6.8 and 1/400 sec (iso 200). Not a great choice of settings for the subject but it was cold and I was moving quickly. The dark area in the upper right is probably caused by an internal reflection lightening the rest of the image. Fixable with some effort. It looks like the source is the camera body (because of the straight edge). The lens appears to perform very well at this focal length in this extreme lighting situation.
Similar settup but at 35mm for the following image. This is all 60 megs (ie not cropped to 50). Note that the lens hood is invading the frame slightly on the right and left (and probably in the corners)! This would be cropped out at 50 megs. The solution for me is to use the hood for the 28mm for the 35-90.
Similar settup but at 35mm for the following image. This is all 60 megs (ie not cropped to 50). Note that the lens hood is invading the frame slightly on the right and left (and probably in the corners)! This would be cropped out at 50 megs. The solution for me is to use the hood for the 28mm for the 35-90.
TimothyHyde
Subscriber Member
Were the Trump shots hand-held, Woody? I assume the others were on your tripod.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
I've spent a fair amount of time working with the HTS 1.5 and the new camera. My general comments on the difficulty of accurate focusing are recorded above. None of the table top stuff that I've tried with tilts meets my standards for posting here - I'll keep working on it.
How about pano shifts? The HTS 1.5 provides 18mm of shift in either direction. If you do three images, one centered, one all the way left and the other all the way right, in portrait orientation, and stitch them you end up with a frame in landscape orientation with a perfect 2x3 aspect ratio and pixel dimensions of 12,762 x 8,488 for a whopping 108 megs. Nice. Does this actually work?
Not with the HCD 28, unfortunately. This lens covers the 50 meg image circle beautifully, the 60 meg image circle less so (more on this below) and putting the HTS 1.5 behind it doesn't change this. So there is nowhere the shift to.
The HC 100 is a different matter. The image below was captured with the HC 100, ISO 50, f8.0 (I hoped to have a little headroom on focus) and 32 second exposure - three images with the HTS 1.5 shifted as above and stitched in PS. I was focused at infinity.
Here's the whole stitched image:
And a crop from the fair left side of the image:
The crop is from the extreme side of the image shifted 18mm. This is wildly impressive performance. Note that the images is sharp and has reasonable contrast (even in the extreme lighting in that portion of the image). But focus is really important here - I hit it exactly by focusing at infinity - the foreground which is about 200 meters away is well out of focus.
Note also that the 32 second exposure is fine (perhaps with the exception of the noise around the bright lights but the conditions are extreme). When you shoot long exposures the camera makes a dark frame of the same duration - Phocus is clearly making good use of it.
How about pano shifts? The HTS 1.5 provides 18mm of shift in either direction. If you do three images, one centered, one all the way left and the other all the way right, in portrait orientation, and stitch them you end up with a frame in landscape orientation with a perfect 2x3 aspect ratio and pixel dimensions of 12,762 x 8,488 for a whopping 108 megs. Nice. Does this actually work?
Not with the HCD 28, unfortunately. This lens covers the 50 meg image circle beautifully, the 60 meg image circle less so (more on this below) and putting the HTS 1.5 behind it doesn't change this. So there is nowhere the shift to.
The HC 100 is a different matter. The image below was captured with the HC 100, ISO 50, f8.0 (I hoped to have a little headroom on focus) and 32 second exposure - three images with the HTS 1.5 shifted as above and stitched in PS. I was focused at infinity.
Here's the whole stitched image:
And a crop from the fair left side of the image:
The crop is from the extreme side of the image shifted 18mm. This is wildly impressive performance. Note that the images is sharp and has reasonable contrast (even in the extreme lighting in that portion of the image). But focus is really important here - I hit it exactly by focusing at infinity - the foreground which is about 200 meters away is well out of focus.
Note also that the 32 second exposure is fine (perhaps with the exception of the noise around the bright lights but the conditions are extreme). When you shoot long exposures the camera makes a dark frame of the same duration - Phocus is clearly making good use of it.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
The foregoing image piques my interest in the HC 50 II. I may need to figure out what to sell!
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Let's try the HCD 35-90 at 35mm with a long exposure in some nasty light. Here's the skating rink at Rockefeller Center .3 seconds at f5.6 and Iso 200:
And the crop. Note that Phocus is doing a reasonable job on noise without killing the detail.
And the crop. Note that Phocus is doing a reasonable job on noise without killing the detail.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
A few more posts to go. Let's take a break and look at some walk around images, before we plunge into the boring brick wall tests. The point of this is that the H4D-60 with the HCD 35-90 is a reasonable walk around camera. The 35mm "crop factor" is 0.6 (0.7 if you crop to 50 megs) providing a 35mm equivalent range of 21 - 55mm. I'm a wide shooter so this suits me. If I want wider than 21 I can put the 28 in the bag (equivalent 17mm), or stitch (which only works handheld if you're not doing near-far compositions). If I want longer I can crop in post to 40 meg dimensions and get the effect of 110mm (70mm), or to 24 megs and get the effect of 145mm (90mm). It's great to start out with a lot of pixels.
All of these images are full frame 60 meg with minor perspective corrections and croppings.
All of these images are full frame 60 meg with minor perspective corrections and croppings.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Nope. Just me, my Hasselblad and my messenger bag. All images except the one out my window (the stitched night exposure) are hand held. Actually for the Rock Center shot I stabilized the camera on a concrete planter - the L plate provides a robust flat surface that you can use to steady the camera in landscape or portrait orientation.
This is one of the amazing things about this camera - it lets you hand hold at traditional rule of thumb shutter speeds - one over the focal length (at the same time that it's punishing you on focus and depth of field), especially if I can find something to brace myself or the camera against. This surprises me - shooting digitally I general expect to need one stop faster shutter than one over the focal length.
I believe that Marc has reported similar experience. I use the factory default mirror delay of 50. Marc has suggested that the camera's mass operates to stabilize against the little vibration induced by the shutter and by human shake.
This is a case where the in-lens shutter offers a real advantage.
TimothyHyde
Subscriber Member
Amazing. I used the mirror delay of 100 on my H4D40, but then I use the tripod 90% of the time. Maybe I should loosen up a bit. Do you ever use the mirror-up handheld? Thanks for posting these, Woody. It will help me quite a bit as I begin to learn the contours of mine.
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Ok. Let's have some fun with some brick walls. Out the window of our dining room. I've taken these with all lenses at all f/stops but let's focus for now on the HCD 35-90. Here for the record I'm on a tripod.
Starting at 35mm (in this post) wide open at f/4.0. This is all 60 megs. I've added lines to show where Phocus crops to if you turn on the 50 meg crop. Results in the corners improve as focal length increases. I'll post 90mm at some point but frankly this part bores me.
I don't understand why Hassleblad doesn't offer a focusing screen that shows the 50 meg crop lines.
Here are center and edge crops at f/4.0:
The softness of the corner is aggravated by the fact that the buildings on the edge are behind to focus plane so this is not a great test.
Center and edge crops at f/16 (I haven't reproduced the whole image because at web resulotion it looks the same but for vignetting).
Starting at 35mm (in this post) wide open at f/4.0. This is all 60 megs. I've added lines to show where Phocus crops to if you turn on the 50 meg crop. Results in the corners improve as focal length increases. I'll post 90mm at some point but frankly this part bores me.
I don't understand why Hassleblad doesn't offer a focusing screen that shows the 50 meg crop lines.
Here are center and edge crops at f/4.0:
The softness of the corner is aggravated by the fact that the buildings on the edge are behind to focus plane so this is not a great test.
Center and edge crops at f/16 (I haven't reproduced the whole image because at web resulotion it looks the same but for vignetting).
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
I do use mirror up handheld and may have in some of these images (the button is right there under your finger and if everything is holding still why not?).
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
Here we go with the last post in this series. I'll try to recap in a day or two have some others have had a chance to react. For now let's try something fun. I mounted the HTS 1.5 on the camera with the HCD 28. On tripod in landscape orientation. I shot 3 shots - centered, shifted full left and shifted full right - and stitched them in PS. I cropped roughly 10% off of the right side of the resulting long pano. ISO 100 and f/11. Pixel dimensions are 6,600 x 14,248.
Here it is. It's actually fairly interesting aesthetically. Note that contrast drops as you move toward the edges. It's noticable on the left, but not on the right were it is cutting shadow density which benefits that part of the picture. There is a slight green cast toward the left, which could have been corrected in Phocus with a gray frame exposure. I've include crops moving further and further to the left. Image quality in the center is outstanding. It drops once you leave the central area (which is what you would have seen without the crops) - but once it drops it remains more or less consistent all of the way to the far edge.
Center crop:
Further out:
On the edge:
I've printed the funky right edge at a number of resolutions. Native image height is 22 inches at 300 dpi. Printed at 22 inches high the optical issues are clearly visible; at 15 inches high they have generally disappeared. This amounts to downsampling by a multiplier of .7. The effective downsampled file size would be 45 megs. So this is a way of getting a different aspect ratio but not any additional resolution.
At the next opportunity I'll try this with the HC 100 - probably with much different results.
Here it is. It's actually fairly interesting aesthetically. Note that contrast drops as you move toward the edges. It's noticable on the left, but not on the right were it is cutting shadow density which benefits that part of the picture. There is a slight green cast toward the left, which could have been corrected in Phocus with a gray frame exposure. I've include crops moving further and further to the left. Image quality in the center is outstanding. It drops once you leave the central area (which is what you would have seen without the crops) - but once it drops it remains more or less consistent all of the way to the far edge.
Center crop:
Further out:
On the edge:
I've printed the funky right edge at a number of resolutions. Native image height is 22 inches at 300 dpi. Printed at 22 inches high the optical issues are clearly visible; at 15 inches high they have generally disappeared. This amounts to downsampling by a multiplier of .7. The effective downsampled file size would be 45 megs. So this is a way of getting a different aspect ratio but not any additional resolution.
At the next opportunity I'll try this with the HC 100 - probably with much different results.
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Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
So Guy - is that enough images for you?
