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H4D/60 In Hand At Last!

fotografz

Well-known member
Finally was able to coordinate a test drive of the H4D/60 thanks to my local Hassey rep Jim Arnosky, and regional rep Gina Connors ... thank you both!

Of course it was raining and gloomy when I finally had time to work with the camera. However here is what I was able to test ... based on my needs and a comparison against my current kit ... a H2F/39 Multi-Shot. Even though I only had 4 hours to spare for the test, I didn't need to get up to speed on use of the H4D or Phocus ... so I could concentrate on shooting the whole time.


As luck would have it, I had a typical paying job shooting automotive fabric samples in studio ... boring stuff but a good test of ability to render detail. Both cameras mounted on a camera stand and tethered to my mac computer ... 180th shutter, HC/120 macro @ f/13, same lighting ... nothing changed except the camera body.

Conclusion: By sheer size of file, the H4D/60 easily has what it takes to deliver on this type of job via single shot, and blows away the 39 back when used in single shot mode.

View attachment 41375 View attachment 41376


We then set up a very basic portrait scenario with Jim as subject using a 1 to 2 lighting ratio ... hand-held ... also boring, but a good test using standard studio content. Using the (inappropriate) 35-90 @ 90mm the native file was 22.36" X 29.856" @ 300 dpi ... so the 200% pixel peeping crop represents a 44" X 60" final IQ ... as if :ROTFL:

Conclusion: the Dalsa sensor delivers skin tones as promised and rendered Jim's coloring dead on the money. Note to self ... never use the zoom for a head shot ;)

View attachment 41364 View attachment 41365

I then did some roaming hand-held ambient light stuff ... again in crappy, gloomy light, but also a good test of extremes. H4D/60 with the 35-90 ... all at ISO 800 ... but here's the kicker ... shutter speed on the Pillow shot done at 90mm was 1/45th! By using a 100ms mirror delay, I've always been able to hand-hold the H cameras better than any other MFD camera ... but was expecting more issues with a sensor this big ... a tribute to the mass of the camera combined with leaf shutters perhaps ... no focal plane shutter creating vibrations. I did NOT have my usual hand-strap on the H4D/60 demo camera, so I'd expect to do even better with one. The Tulip snap was done @ ISO 800 1/50th shutter 35-90 @ 90/5.6

Conclusion: Camera is easy to shoot hand-held. ISO 800 is fine ... the usual slight color muting but the noise structure is nice and would be easy to selectively deal with using Nik Define-2 when needed.

View attachment 41370 View attachment 41373 View attachment 41372

GENERAL NOTES:

True Focus: Absolute Position Lock will really come into it's own with this camera in comparison to the smaller sensor H4D/40 I used to have ... shallow DOF is even more of an issue with a sensor this size, and the off-center focusing issue will rear its head more frequently when using the faster HC lenses up-close ... like the 100/2.2 or 150/3.2 shot wide open to isolate the off-center subject.

Tethered shooting really puts demands on the computer. We did not have many issues, but when we tried it on Jim's older laptop it did 65 shots ... but about 20 shots into the sequence his computer slowed down to 3-5 seconds between shots ... if we tried to view images while it was still loading, the computer crashed. Conclusion: his laptop computer is to wimpy for the H4D/60 ... :) However, when we tried to do side-by-side comparisons of the 60 verses the 39MS @ 100 and 200% on my Mac Tower, Phocus got weird on us ... and sometimes never rendered the 60 file full resolution. Restarting Phocus helped, but it happened more than once. I have a 2 X 3 GHz Quad-Core Mac with 10 gigs of RAM and a brand new ATI Radeon HD 5770 GC with 1024MB of VRAM!

Hasselblad has yet to issue the firmware enabling the double resolution LCD ... which this camera desperately needs for spontaneous location work ... a style of shooting which it is fully capable of doing.

Hasselblad has also yet to enable sync work to use the back on a technical camera, so I was not able to mount it on my Rollie Xact-2 and test it with the Rodenstock/Schneider optics.

The camera has a new door on the bottom of the back which has different plugs ... the sync port is now located there, and a power inlet is there for some sort of power when shooting without the H4D body.

Lastly, the H4D/60 files are not yet recognized by LightRoom ... hope that happens :cool:

Over-all: a really, really nice camera! The images are spectacular. Needs some updates soon: LCD and Sync ... and the tethered performance needs immediate attention IMO.

-Marc
 
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Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
Nicely observed and written. Totally consistent with my experience. Reason for not using the 35-90 for headshots? Relentlessly sharp?

I would add to the "must have soon" category a battery pack the plugs into the DC in connector that you identified on the bottom of the back.
 
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J

Jim Arnosky

Guest
Hey, that's the best looking model I have ever seen! I have a great face for radio.

The firmware to enable the higher res screen and to enable the flash sync mode is scheduled to be releases right around April 15.

I found a small misprint in your review. While tethered to my underpowered mac laptop, after 20 shots the time between captures was 3-5 seconds, not 3-5 minutes.

I was with Marc during this evaluation of the H4D-60 and we were both amazed at how well this system rendered the details. In the past 13 years of using and selling digital camera backs (originally Phase One, then Phase One + Imacon/Hasselblad, and now just Hasselblad), I have never seen this much detail. Before the evaluation I honestly just expected another great looking image that was just bigger. But once we started looking at the fibers of the fibers of the treads in the fabric swatch, I was convinced this was much more than that.

Thanks
Jim Arnosky
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Nicely observed and written. Totally consistent with my experience. Reason for not using the 35-90 for headshots? Relentlessly sharp?

I would add to the "must have soon" category a battery pack the plugs into the DC in connector that you identified on the bottom of the back.
I think the 35-90 is a bit too wide for a head shot Woody ... at 90mm it may be okay for some faces, but in general I think it's just a bit too much distortion for the average facial structure. I did one of Jim at full length, and the 35-90 was perfect around 70mm.

-Marc
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Hey, that's the best looking model I have ever seen! I have a great face for radio.

The firmware to enable the higher res screen and to enable the flash sync mode is scheduled to be releases right around April 15.

I found a small misprint in your review. While tethered to my underpowered mac laptop, after 20 shots the time between captures was 3-5 seconds, not 3-5 minutes.

I was with Marc during this evaluation of the H4D-60 and we were both amazed at how well this system rendered the details. In the past 13 years of using and selling digital camera backs (originally Phase One, then Phase One + Imacon/Hasselblad, and now just Hasselblad), I have never seen this much detail. Before the evaluation I honestly just expected another great looking image that was just bigger. But once we started looking at the fibers of the fibers of the treads in the fabric swatch, I was convinced this was much more than that.

Thanks
Jim Arnosky
My bad jim ... not enough coffee yet when I wrote this ... thanks for the correction. 3-5 minutes would be ridiculous :ROTFL:

I corrected my original post.

Thanks again for all your help and time.

-Marc
 

leicashot

New member
I think the 35-90 is a bit too wide for a head shot Woody ... at 90mm it may be okay for some faces, but in general I think it's just a bit too much distortion for the average facial structure. I did one of Jim at full length, and the 35-90 was perfect around 70mm.

-Marc
So for a second lens for headshots, I guess the 100mm is still too short right?

Is the 120mm or 150mm better? I'm still trying to work this one out
 

Dustbak

Member
I think the 35-90 is a bit too wide for a head shot Woody ... at 90mm it may be okay for some faces, but in general I think it's just a bit too much distortion for the average facial structure. I did one of Jim at full length, and the 35-90 was perfect around 70mm.

-Marc
This is a general experience I have with the 60, sometimes problematic. Every lens has suddenly turned into a wide-angle. I find I use the 150 and 210 much more often now. I would love to have a HC180/4.0.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
So for a second lens for headshots, I guess the 100mm is still too short right?

Is the 120mm or 150mm better? I'm still trying to work this one out
Some use the 120 because the way it renders fits their style ... I think fashion shooter Marco Grob uses the 120 for a lot of portrait work, and it's hard to argue with his results.

Personally, I prefer the 150n for a bit more reach, compression and faster max aperture ... not to mention the size of the 150 lens compared to the 120.

IMO, the perfect 3 lens portrait set is the 50, 100 and 150 (+ 1.7X) ... 50mm for full length environmental shots and groups, 100mm for mid-thigh or waist-up, and 150mm for head shots. All are small and take the same filter size so you can bring one Polarizer or ND filter for when shooting outdoors in bright light and want to limit the DOF with a max aperture.

My 2¢

-Marc
 

leicashot

New member
Some use the 120 because the way it renders fits their style ... I think fashion shooter Marco Grob uses the 120 for a lot of portrait work, and it's hard to argue with his results.

Personally, I prefer the 150n for a bit more reach, compression and faster max aperture ... not to mention the size of the 150 lens compared to the 120.

IMO, the perfect 3 lens portrait set is the 50, 100 and 150 (+ 1.7X) ... 50mm for full length environmental shots and groups, 100mm for mid-thigh or waist-up, and 150mm for head shots. All are small and take the same filter size so you can bring one Polarizer or ND filter for when shooting outdoors in bright light and want to limit the DOF with a max aperture.

My 2¢

-Marc
Marc your 2c is much appreciated
 

dick

New member
The firmware to enable the higher res screen and to enable the flash sync mode is scheduled to be releases right around April 15.
It will be nice to have a fully functional camera... I would have thought that a high proportion of top-end photographers buying this camera would want to use it with flash on a tech camera - so why is it taking so long?
I have never seen this much detail. Before the evaluation I honestly just expected another great looking image that was just bigger. But once we started looking at the fibers of the fibers of the treads in the fabric swatch, I was convinced this was much more than that.

Thanks
Jim Arnosky
Many have said that the 60 is much better than a 50 with a proportionally bigger sensor.
 

dick

New member
I think the 35-90 is a bit too wide for a head shot Woody ... at 90mm it may be okay for some faces, but in general I think it's just a bit too much distortion for the average facial structure. I did one of Jim at full length, and the 35-90 was perfect around 70mm.

-Marc
My 50-110 + 300 seems a good combination, but it would be nice to have a 200 as well.
 
S

Shelby Lewis

Guest
Thanks for this Marc... as a newbie to all this MF stuff, I'm finding that any info (even about the other platforms) can be helpful.

Looks like you've got a winner there!
 

fotografz

Well-known member
My 50-110 + 300 seems a good combination, but it would be nice to have a 200 as well.
Maybe Hassey needs a 90-170/4 zoom now that the 35-90 is here?

The 35-90 and 50-110 have too much overlap and 110mm isn't quite long enough on the near FF sensors.

It'd probably be too big ...

-Marc
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
One should also think about a computer upgrade when getting to these file sizes too. As Marc mentioned being tethered can have interesting results on your computer. I also agree that handheld shots in low light are very easy due the weight and CG. Although the 35-90 is a bit of a beast for handheld, the fast, 100 f/2 renders nice, fairly tight portraits with shallow DOF. The H4D/60's 200% crop is indeed impressive, given that the file is scaled for the internet and it still looks fantastic.
 

dick

New member
Maybe Hassey needs a 90-170/4 zoom now that the 35-90 is here?

The 35-90 and 50-110 have too much overlap and 110mm isn't quite long enough on the near FF sensors.

It'd probably be too big ...

-Marc
They could start by scrapping the 35-90 and inventing something to replace it that does not clip the corners of the 60Mpx sensor...

And make remptly operable power zooms, and lenses that feed back their focus disrance to the computer for auto-DOF merge...
 
They could start by scrapping the 35-90 and inventing something to replace it that does not clip the corners of the 60Mpx sensor...

And make remptly operable power zooms, and lenses that feed back their focus disrance to the computer for auto-DOF merge...
Not everybody owns a 60MP dick.

The market for a remotely operable zoom lens is most likely a little small.
 

Dustbak

Member
Not everybody owns a 60MP dick.

The market for a remotely operable zoom lens is most likely a little small.
Not only that but I prefer focus stacking via a track anyway (certainly when working upclose), much better results.

Anyway. I do use a 60 and also the 35-90. I am starting to believe that the people that are complaining about the 35-90 and it's 'impossibility to use on the 60 often don't own one or have never actually experienced the 35-90 on the 60. True the 35-90 was designed to be used with in mind smaller sensors, in actuality it is much more useful on a larger sensor than the specifications on paper would make some believe.
 

Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
Not only that but I prefer focus stacking via a track anyway (certainly when working upclose), much better results.

Anyway. I do use a 60 and also the 35-90. I am starting to believe that the people that are complaining about the 35-90 and it's 'impossibility to use on the 60 often don't own one or have never actually experienced the 35-90 on the 60. True the 35-90 was designed to be used with in mind smaller sensors, in actuality it is much more useful on a larger sensor than the specifications on paper would make some believe.
Amen on the 35-90 and the H4D 60.
 
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