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Hasselblad H4D-40 High ISO

hubertk

Member
Hi guys

I am having trouble finding H4D-40 high iso files on the web. I am interested to see how clean/noisy the files are at ISO400, 800, and 1600, especially in low ambient light situations. I would do the test myself, but I am having trouble finding a rental H4D-40 or even a Hasselblad demo here in my city. Could anyone help?

Thanks so much,

Hubert
 

Jeffg53

Member
If you are interested in landscapes, I can send you some ISO 400 examples. PM me if interested. Raw would be best. I assume that you have Phocus.
 

hubertk

Member
Thank you very much Jeff. Yes I have Phocus. PM sent.

You have some absolutely beautiful images on your website. I especially enjoy the seascape and Iceland river delta images. Are these shot with your Hasselblad?

Hubert
 

hubertk

Member
Thank you Joris! Great find. I haven't been following that thread, but I found the discussion interesting. I actually started thinking about medium format seriously after the D800 was announced. I also shoot video but I found myself quite apathetic about that camera. I ordered a D4 immediately after its announcement. Along with my D3x I think I am pretty well covered on the 35mm front. Now with the H4D, I am hoping the larger sensor and better colour depth can make more obvious improvements to my images. The high megapixel count is just a bonus. I haven't had any advertising clients complaining about my file size.
 

hubertk

Member
Thank you Nick! Yes your review is one of the few available online. Thank you so much for taking the effort to write it up. I actually just registered for your forum as well. Great resource.

I shoot lots with ambient light. Even with strobes I tend to drag the shutter quite a bit and let in the ambient. I shoot mostly lifestyle advertising. With the popularity of motion, I can see pretty soon in the future we will be running both still and motion shoots together, with the scene lit by continuous lighting. I am curious how the H4D-40 perform under these conditions at higher ISO. Strobes tend to clean things up, if you know what I mean, and I have no doubt the H4D is superb in those situations. What I am interested to see is how the camera performs under "dirty" light. Mixed lighting and dark shadows.
 

Nick-T

New member
I know exactly what you mean by "dirty light" For concert type work I think you are better off with something like a Nikon D3s. When there is a bit more light (eg.. girl in gym on your site) the H4D40 is certainly king of the hill for full resolution high ISO.

really like your architecture stuff BTW I think I see a 28mm in your future :)
 

hubertk

Member
Did you mean this image, Nick?

If so yes exactly the is the kind of situation I intend to use the Hasselblad, ideally. The gym was lit by mostly ugly fluorescent light and some day light from a couple of windows. We cleaned it up with a strobe coming from around 11 o'clock.

We also run a Nikon system so anything above 800 the plan is to revert back to the Nikon. But since digital medium format is not a small investment, I would like to buy one that I can use as much as possible.

Thanks you so much for your kind words on the architectural images. I am actually also very interested in the HTS adapter. Do you have experience with it on the H4D-40?

Cheers,

Hubert
 

Nick-T

New member
Yes that's the image, I reckon the H4D40 would be perfect for that sort of thing. Re: the HTS I haven't used one on a 40 (I don't own one yet) but I use it extensively on my ageing 31 (also microlensed). Conventional wisdom says you will experience colour shifts with movements on a microlensed back But I rarely see them enough to bother with a custom white (correction). The HTS and 28mm is a nice combo but be aware that the HTS functions as a 1.5X converter so tour 28 will turn into a 42 effectively.
Nick-T
 

hubertk

Member
Thanks Nick. A couple of question if you don't mind.

- What's the highest ISO you are comfortable with with the 31? I know everyone has different thresholds, but if it helps, as a reference point I have been really impressed by the H4d-40 iso 800 file Jeff kindly sent me.

- With the HTS, do you use shift? I asked because I see mostly still life and food images on your site. It looks like tilt is no problem at all. Beautiful images you have by the way!
 

Shashin

Well-known member
Hubertk, I use a Pentax 645D which I believe uses the same sensor as the H4D-40. I am very happy using ISOs all the way up to 1600. Now the imaging processing will be different between the two cameras, but I think you should be able to get very nice images from the higher ISOs.
 

JorisV

New member
-
What's the highest ISO you are comfortable with with the 31? I know everyone has different thresholds, but if it helps, as a reference point I have been really impressed by the H4d-40 iso 800 file Jeff kindly sent me.
Hubert,

I have discussed exactly the same question with Nick in the past. I am currently using a P30+ (same sensor as the H4D-31) and was looking into the H4D-40. My personal appreciation of the P30+ files is that ISO 400 is usable and ISO 800 most of the time is not. The ISO 1600 examples of the H4D-40 seem to be usable, so the general consensus is that you seem to gaining 1.5 to 2 stops with the H4D-40 compared to the P30+ and the H4D-31.

Best, Joris.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Thanks Nick. A couple of question if you don't mind.

- What's the highest ISO you are comfortable with with the 31? I know everyone has different thresholds, but if it helps, as a reference point I have been really impressed by the H4d-40 iso 800 file Jeff kindly sent me.

- With the HTS, do you use shift? I asked because I see mostly still life and food images on your site. It looks like tilt is no problem at all. Beautiful images you have by the way!
The H4D/40 was at least a full stop ISO improvement over my previous H3D-II/31 ... maybe even a little more.

ISO 800 is a no-brainer for the H4D/40 ... and 1600 is very usable not just passable ... but you have to attend to craftsmanship more diligently ... like good white-balance and no cheating on the exposure ;)

Here are few ... the red room was at 1600 (hand-held @ 1/15 shutter using the mirror micro-delay feature!), the church was 800, and the Deer is a major crop-in to fill the frame ... shooting the 210mm @ ISO 800 (in case it ran on me :))

I have a bunch of HTS/1.5 Shift H4D/40 pics somewhere ... used shift to build some panoramic stitched shots ... some might be in my Gallery here.

Great camera ... hated to lose it, but I now shoot with a H4D/60 for proprietary commercial applications which I can't show due to a NDA :( (2014 car stuff).

-Marc
 

hubertk

Member
Fantastic information. Thanks guys.

Shashin I was able to find some 645D high iso files online. I was blown away by the quality! I can totally use it up to the maximum sensitivity. I don't find it that different with my D3x, noise wise. If the 645D was in rental houses I would definitely consider it.

Joris, thank you again. I think in this case it's worth it to pony up the extra cash for the H4D/40, compared to the 31. The extra stop is going to come in handy and help us move a lot faster. My favourite lighting gear are the Profoto 600Bs and Lite Panels. None of them high power, but very portable and easy to use.

Marc thank you for the great examples and information. Any chance you could send me the ISO1600 red room raw file? I would like to push it around and see how far I can take it. This is exactly the kind of dirty light I love shooting with.

Regarding the HTS, 33mm equivalent is going to be a bit tight for architecture. Is it possible to position the shifts at say for example, one at around 10 o'clock, and the other one at 2 o'clock, and stitch them together? I typically shift up for my work.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Fantastic information. Thanks guys.

Shashin I was able to find some 645D high iso files online. I was blown away by the quality! I can totally use it up to the maximum sensitivity. I don't find it that different with my D3x, noise wise. If the 645D was in rental houses I would definitely consider it.

Joris, thank you again. I think in this case it's worth it to pony up the extra cash for the H4D/40, compared to the 31. The extra stop is going to come in handy and help us move a lot faster. My favourite lighting gear are the Profoto 600Bs and Lite Panels. None of them high power, but very portable and easy to use.

Marc thank you for the great examples and information. Any chance you could send me the ISO1600 red room raw file? I would like to push it around and see how far I can take it. This is exactly the kind of dirty light I love shooting with.

Regarding the HTS, 33mm equivalent is going to be a bit tight for architecture. Is it possible to position the shifts at say for example, one at around 10 o'clock, and the other one at 2 o'clock, and stitch them together? I typically shift up for my work.
Sorry, I don't even have the original on that Red Room file ... it was just a vacation snap while visiting family in Pennsylvania. The only reason I even kept anything was as a demo of 1600 ... but more importantly a hand-held 1/15 shutter example ... which even shocked me ;)

-Marc
 

Nick-T

New member
Hi Hubert
As others have said the 40 certainly has a full stop advantage over the 31 IMO closer to two. In other words if you are happy wit a file from the 31 @ 400 then you will be happy with the 40 at 1600.

As for shifting you are right, I don't do it that often but yes a you can shift stitch and it works well.
 

hubertk

Member
Thanks Nick. 1-2 stops will make a huge difference on location. Regarding the HTS, do you have trouble focusing with it? As far as I know all AF is disabled when using the HTS? This may impact my lens choice if I can't focus reliably with the adapter. One of my favourite things about shooting architecture with the Nikon is the ability to punch in 10X to focus precisely with live view. Without love view, having some kind of focus confirmation in the viewfinder will be nice.
 

Nick-T

New member
Thanks Nick. 1-2 stops will make a huge difference on location. Regarding the HTS, do you have trouble focusing with it? As far as I know all AF is disabled when using the HTS? This may impact my lens choice if I can't focus reliably with the adapter. One of my favourite things about shooting architecture with the Nikon is the ability to punch in 10X to focus precisely with live view. Without love view, having some kind of focus confirmation in the viewfinder will be nice.
Yes the AF is disabled, (has to be because of the angle light hits the mirror) so yeas it is a bit tricky to focus but not impossible!
 
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