This issue ties into to the issue of your overall storage strategy. The short answer is Lightroom. The much longer answer is spelled out below.
Let me put this in the context of my H3D-39. This is a 39 meg back. Here are some basics on file sizes:
3FR - this is the format that comes out of the camera (assuming not tethered). It has mild lossless compression. File size is variable, but eyeballing a column of numbers 45 megs would be a typical number. Lightroom reads and and Photoshop translates 3FRs.
FFF - this is Hasselblad's native, uncompressed raw format. When tethered the camera saves directly to FFF format; its the native format for Hasselblad Imacon scanners. Typical FFF file size for the 39 meg back is 60 megs or so. Lightroom does not read and PS does not translate FFFs. I don't know why. Might be some kind of a licensing issue.
16-bit Tiff - the H3d-39 files expand to 234 meg tiffs.
The conventional Hasselblad workflow working non-tethered would be something like this:
1. Set up the "landing folder" for the files in you file storage system.
2. Insert the card into you computer. If you've used the instant approval architecture on the back the files come sorted into greens, yellows and reds. Use Phocus to do a rough sort of keepers and non-keepers. At this stage Phocus displays the fairly low res jpeg thumbnail in 3FR file so you can't make judgements on focus or whether the highlights are blown just a little bit.
3. "Import" the keepers to your landing folder. Phocus translates them to FFF and puts them in the folder you've specified.
4. Further editing and processing of the FFFs in Phocus, then export for further processing (I use 16 bit tiffs).
Why don't I do it this way? My context is that I use a chronological filing system and Lightroom for file management . In LR I use the key word feature to keep track of files topically, and the collections feature to keep track of projects. I'm pretty well committed to this with 80k or so files and 400 key words and many, many collections. Kind of hard to start over with another system.
My steps are as follows:
1. Copy the Hasselblad folder to the target folder. The fact that Hasselblad increments the folder name when you format means that there is no risk of overwriting when copying to the target folder - I don't understand why all camera makers don't do this.
2. Import to LR. File names reflect the green/yellow/red classification so files are shown sorted accordingly. Identify the mistakes and disasters and delete the files. Of course in LR you can examine the files at full rez in making these decisions. Also identify the most interesting files for further processing.
3. Move to Phocus and "Import" the most interesting files as FFFs to a scratch folder (I've set it up on a internal drive that I use for LR indices and as a PS scratch disk - this minimizes read write times). The scratch folder facilitates deleting the FFFs at the end of the process - all of the FFFs are always in the same place.. Further processing in Phocus and export as 16 bit tiffs - back to the same folder that the 3FRs were in to facilitate stacking in LR.
4. Import the 16 bit tiffs into LR and continue onward.
Why do I do it this way?
1. I can't manage FFFs in LR but as noted above, I can manage 3FRs in LR. (Actually at this point I can't manage H4d-60 files in LR either, but this will pass as the LR list of supported cameras gets updated.)
2. I find it very hard to make critical judgements based on the small thumbnails that Phocus provides so at step 1 in the Hasselblad workflow I end up importing just about everything.
3. 3FRs are smaller, saving storage space. This is not a major consideration - my long term working storage is a drobo with 12 terabites of storage.
4. One of Miller's points - 3FRs can be opened directly in Photoshop as well as being managed in LR. This lets you skip the Phocus step in situations where perfection isn't necessary (for example for my daily blog postings). I tend to use Phocus for serious critical work - on these I keep the output tiffs, but not the FFFs.
5. Miller's second point - that keeping the 3FRs leaves you open to realize future third party software improvements. This was my original reason for choosing this path. Compare a LR version of a Nikon D1 file with a version translated by Nikon's original software and you'll become a believer on this one.
That's it.
