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Hassy Owners new e-mail from Hassy

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thought you guys maybe interested in this. Just got this e-mail


Hasselblad Customer Care.


The Hasselblad H1 and H2 cameras helped redefine top-end photography. But as the proud owner of one of these camera systems, you already know all that.

The H System story doesn't stop there, however. We at Hasselblad continue to develop new products, continue to push the technological envelope, and continue to produce the best cameras in the world. Now, with the release of the H3DII, the H3DII-39MS, and the H2F - and the discontinuation of production of certain older H System models - we are taking the H System even further. All well and good, you say, but where does that leave you? Naturally, we will continue to support older H System products, and continue to produce new lenses and accessories even as we release new products.

But here comes the really good part.

At Hasselblad, we feel strongly that being a cutting edge photographer, an early adopter, or just having the boldness to follow the latest in photographic advances, should never have to mean being left behind at some later date. That's why we're launching the Hasselblad H System Customer Care Program.

This program that will provide a foundation for upgrades, trade-ins, and refurbishment/replacement options to ensure that your Hasselblad investment retains its value for many years to come.

The first stage of this program is being targeted directly towards H1 and H2 owners and includes extended service/replacement options, an attractive trade-up offer, and special Hasselblad "obsolescence insurance" in the form of a fixed rate refurbishment plan. We will begin by offering this program to all H1 and H2 users and will expand the program in the near future to include all Hasselblad digital products as well as V System cameras.

Under the extended service option, in addition to standard Hasselblad service policies, you are guaranteed service and spare parts for all H1 and H2 products for a minimum of 10 years from the date of purchase. It also includes a product renewal/replacement guarantee for 5 years from time of purchase covering catastrophic situations where your camera is lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair.

The Trade-up Program allows all existing H1 and H2 camera owners to trade up to one of a variety of the most recent model configurations for a special price.
Please note that the Trade-up Program also includes very favorable trade-up options for owners of H1 and H2 cameras and third party digital backs.

The refurbishment program provides a factory check of the camera body consisting of maintenance and cleaning as well as repair or replacement of any components that require attention. All electronics will be replaced or upgraded to the most recent H2 standards and this service includes a 12 month full product warranty from date of refurbishment. After registering your camera body at www.hasselblad.com/hcare, you will receive a voucher giving you a one-time-only option to have your camera body refurbished for only $1,349 at any time through December 31, 2011.


By registering before February 29th, 2008 you will receive a voucher that entitles you to sign up for any and all of these programs. And registration is free for all H1 and H2 owners!

NOTE!
You are under no obligation to register. Registration simply gives you the opportunity to receive a "fixed price" refurbishment of your camera at any time between now and December 31, 2011, qualifies you for the lost/stolen/irreparably damaged replacement guarantee, and gives you access to the trade up program. It is up to you whether you actually wish to utilize any of these options. We hope you will think of the refurbishment coupon you will receive upon registering as an "insurance policy" that entitles you to a fixed price H1 or H2 camera refurbishment at any point during the covered period.

So, log on to www.hasselbladusa.com/hcare to register and keep your photographic edge with the latest Hasselblad gear.

Sincerely,
Hasselblad USA

www.hasselbladusa.com/hcare
 

Jim Stone

Workshop Member
Guy,

I received this email several days ago. Obviously they'd love their current owners to trade UP to the new 39 series so they can add more customers to their closed system. I read that it works very well and have considered it myself (as you may recall from our workshop discussions) but there is just something about being in a closed system that bugs me. I would definitely be unhappy if I owned a number of their older lenses that now couldn't be used ! Actually this whole thing prompted me to look at alternatives such as the Alpa. And that's now what I'm lusting for but my body parts are all still in place.....however, keep your eye on ebay!! :eek:

Jim
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
Guy,

I got to (briefly) try the new H3DII-31 in studio on Sunday.

The camera didn't sync properly at 1/800th. The files were slightly underexposed versus shooting at 1/125th. Flash duration really shouldn't be an issue as this was in our studio using Profoto Pro-7a power packs, which have a duration of 1/2,200 - 1/12,000 sec. Strange, really.

The handling was nice. The back interface was fast and easy to use. AF was decent speed, but I was able to MF the Mamiya 645AFD more accurately than the H3. The screen appears brighter on the Mamiya (both cameras had "kit" 80mm 2.8 lenses).

Files look okay, but do require a fair amount of sharpening. Flexcolor is still not great for workflow (more like workslow). No other option for 3F files. You can convert them to DNG, but you lose all the benefits of the 3F file. If I was shopping around this alone might push me to Mamiya ZD (uses LR or CS3) or PhaseOne (C1), both of which have the software end much better covered than Hassy.

We did a head-to-head of the H3DII and the ZD. Firstly, not a huge resolution advantage of 31 vs. 22 MP. Kind of like 10 vs. 8 MP. For portraiture at least, there wasn't a noticeable advantage to 16 vs. 14 bit. Tonality looked great in both. The ZD file looked crisper by default. This might just be an effect of Flexcolor vs. LR. Bottom line: they both looked good. Asking the occasional passerby which 100% crop on screen was taken with a $7K back and which with a $20K back, 50% guessed the "one on the left" and 50% guessed the "one on the right". What the H3 picked up in shooting speed advantage, it lost miserably in PP speed to the ZD/LR combo. Hasselblad is supposed to come out with their new Phocus s/w soon, but we all know how these things go.

Just my 2 cents. If anyone else here has any experience, please share. Especially on the sync speed issue...

Thanks,

David
 

PeterA

Well-known member
I feel compelled to state my serious grievances with Hasselblad - the latest 'offer' statement above is indicative of just how far the new owners are pushing teh envelope. I bought an H1 and a Leaf 75 with 35/80/150 fuji/blad lenses. I have no problem with the lenses actually - I like the contrast bias and if I want teh V lens ( Zeiss look) I can use an adaptor.

but HEY!!! lets get serious...

if you read teh fine print what Hasselblad are saying is that an owner of an H1 or H2 can get a full service at any time in teh next 10 years for 'only' 900 odd Euros - man that translates to half teh cost of a new body - gee thanks...

As for the company's attitude to people who bought into an 'open' architecture which has now become closed - it is reprehensible behaviour.

these guys could care less about customers - they are pushing teh envelope for as long as they can regarding the prices they charge and teh way they have turned their backs on previous policies.

Photography is NOT computers. MF digi bcks and cameras and lens syetms that go with these are very expensive. The product cycle has to be very long - every year with BS so called upgrades....SHEESh

they have lost me man..seriously lost me.

I have been doing quite a bit of research into alternative systems - and when I get more information down - I will post a thread on my thoughts/findings re the various 'options' we MF shooters have to consider - as alternatives to the company that calls itself Hasselblad but is a disgrace to the brand name.

I am so angry with the H people I cant even bring myself to use the H system I have. Lucky Alpa and Leica offer me some pic making stress relief !! LOL
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Hi David, I'm working with both systems as of now ... H3D/31 & H3D/39 ... plus a Mamiya 645AFD-II and an Aptus 75s (recent upgrade from an Aptus 75). Lots of real world applications using both systems in studio and on location ... commercial and portrait/wedding as well as personal work ... Profoto strobes, Hensel Porty, and Metz on-camera 54MZ and 70MZ ... not to mention available light work.

I've not experienced any sync issues with my previous H2 or current H3 cameras except one: 1/90th is buggy when using second shutter sync. They may have addressed that issue with recent firmware updates ... I haven't checked. 1/800th is spot on on both my cameras.

The AFD-II is a focal plane camera and sync is limited to 1/125th ... so 1/800th sync is definitely a problem with that camera : -) I also have an unresolved issue with the AFD-II/Aptus and on-camera Metz flash ... the camera defaults the shutter speed to 1/100 and I cannot choose to "drag the shutter" to capture background ambient lighting combined with flash on the foreground subjects. Metz? Leaf? Mamiya? No one know why.

In my experience, the H3 camera Auto focuses faster than the Mamiya AFD-II in every application. The Mamiya was definitely an improvement over my old Contax 645, but the H3 cameras are even faster with minimal hunting, if any. It ain't a Canon 1DMKIII, but the H/3s have proven themselves in some dim conditions like wedding receptions and early morning commercial shoots of running horses.

In contrast, for example, I tried a session shooting an elusive pet with the Mamiya in bright conditions and the camera's AF would NOT lock-on for most of the shots ... I quickly switched to the H system and completed the job.

As a result of these long term experiences, I swapped out the focusing screen in the Mamiya 645 for a manual focus micro-prism and secured an adapter to use Zeiss V lenses ... this opened up a new world of available light imaging in bright conditions for that camera because of the fast FE glass and the Mamiya's top shutter speed of 1/4000th ... restoring it's value as doing something the H system cannot do. Horses for courses.

Other observations: The H/3 provides all power through the singular grip battery... which runs both the camera and the back. They have proven themselves on extended assignments like an 8 hour wedding shoot. The Mamiya uses an AA battery holder that clips into the bottom of the grip and only runs the camera ... but dissipates the battery level at a ferocious rate rivaled only by the early Contax 645 "battery eater". Then the digital backs have to have a separate battery hanging off bottom to provide power for it. The Hasselblad solution is WAAAAAAY better and more efficient.

Viewfinder: the H3D31 comes with a smaller viewfinder that more closely corresponds to the capture area of the 31 meg sensor (1/3X crop factor). For a brighter view the standard sized H prism finder can be employed like that of the Mamiya. I have both for the HD3/31 because I also shoot film with the camera and need the full finder.

H3D/31 verses Mamiya ZD: The ZD is slooooooow. Small buffer, slow load. ISO 400 verses 1600. Those are deal breakers for me for my work. 22 meg verses 31 ... you're probably right, for portrait work printed to a certain size it may be hard to detect differences ... but I don't know how you were processing. There is a difference when shooting other types of subjects like clothing and detail work. 100% comparisons will reveal them pretty quickly.

Flexcolor is a learning curve just like any post program. Many don't know how to use it to it's full effect, including some of the demo people I've seen in action. Like any post program, practice makes for speedier processing. The color and DAC corrections make Flex the weapon of choice for most every Professional HD camera user. I've seen the new Software "Phocus" in action ... which had a couple of developers that were also responsible for work on Lightroom, so it's resemblance to that program is not surprising. For critical work I use Flexcolor, for large quanities of images that won't be printed much larger than 8X10 or 11X14 like weddings, I convert to DNG (which is very fast), and process in Lightroom.

Remember, I own both and paid my money for both ... so this isn't a case of defending a purchase decision. IMO, based on regular use of both, the H3D is far and away the better system .... and if closing the system makes it better, I could care less .... all I care about is on the job performance.

However, I am pissed the way Hasselblad is treating the H3D owners with their recent upgrade policy.
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
The AFD-II is a focal plane camera and sync is limited to 1/125th ... so 1/800th sync is definitely a problem with that camera : -)
Very true. One of the biggest advantages to the H3 outside for location work. In studio, not a big deal. That is what short duration flash is for. You can compensate for the 1/125 max sync on the Mamiya by using ISO 50, which I would do outside anyway. 1/125 at ISO 50 = 1/500 at ISO 200. Granted, you need 2 more stops of power on your pack to get same f-stop at ISO 50. But hey, isn't that why we have 1200 Ws battery packs? :)

In my experience, the H3 camera Auto focuses faster than the Mamiya AFD-II in every application. The Mamiya was definitely an improvement over my old Contax 645, but the H3 cameras are even faster with minimal hunting, if any. It ain't a Canon 1DMKIII, but the H/3s have proven themselves in some dim conditions like wedding receptions and early morning commercial shoots of running horses.
As I mentioned before, AF is not important to me at all. It is obviously important to the type of work you do. Yes, the H3 definitely focuses faster. No argument there.

... and the Mamiya's top shutter speed of 1/4000th ... restoring it's value as doing something the H system cannot do. Horses for courses.
I didn't even consider the 1/4000 vs. the 1/800. If I was shooting available light outside, this would be a big plus.

Other observations: The H/3 provides all power through the singular grip battery... which runs both the camera and the back. They have proven themselves on extended assignments like an 8 hour wedding shoot. The Mamiya uses an AA battery holder that clips into the bottom of the grip and only runs the camera ... but dissipates the battery level at a ferocious rate rivaled only by the early Contax 645 "battery eater". Then the digital backs have to have a separate battery hanging off bottom to provide power for it. The Hasselblad solution is WAAAAAAY better and more efficient.
I haven't personally found the AA batteries in the camera to dissipate too quickly. Certainly not in one shoot or two or three. Then again, I'm not stressing the AF motor. ;) The ZD back uses a battery similiar in size to a Canon 5D battery that goes in a compartment, more like a 35mm DSLR. The ZD Lion battery has lasted an entire day in studio. Better than my DMR batteries, that's for sure.

H3D/31 verses Mamiya ZD: The ZD is slooooooow. Small buffer, slow load. ISO 400 verses 1600.
Yup. The ZD is slow and I sincerely hope that a ZD2 (?) would keep the same IQ while drastically improving operatioal speed and buffer size. I have the same hope for the R10 incidentally. My key to happiness with it is treating it like a film 120 camera. I don't take 100 shots when 10 or 15 will do. I also try not to chimp. I've only really used it in studio or on location with strobes. I'm limited to about 1 second between shots anyway for recycling and don't shoot for speed. My needs are not the needs of everyone, and I fully appreciate that. If you need something faster and are shooting less predictable subjects the Hassy is the better solution by far. I love shooting at low ISO in studio and have always been allergic to high ISO (the M8 is changing this as I now use 640 a lot).

22 meg verses 31 ... you're probably right, for portrait work printed to a certain size it may be hard to detect differences ... but I don't know how you were processing. There is a difference when shooting other types of subjects like clothing and detail work. 100% comparisons will reveal them pretty quickly.
I was comparing 100% crops on my Eizo 24" display. In all fairness, I should print them out to have a better comparision. Today I'll make some 20x30 prints and show them around the shop.

Flexcolor is a learning curve just like any post program. Many don't know how to use it to it's full effect, including some of the demo people I've seen in action. Like any post program, practice makes for speedier processing.
I've used Flexcolor for about six years with the Imacon 848. I used it initially back in 2005 with the DMR when that was the only choice. Time to convert a single file to TIFF from the H3 was about 45 seconds. That is really long. C1 converts DMR files in about 3 seconds. Lightroom in about 8 seconds. I know the files are smaller, but 45 seconds is crazy. Also the lack of a decent zoom function is really awful. I work at 100% alot. Flex only has the Detail window which is not a great solution.

For critical work I use Flexcolor, for large quanities of images that won't be printed much larger than 8X10 or 11X14 like weddings, I convert to DNG (which is very fast), and process in Lightroom.
I'll try this.

Rember I think both systems produce excellent results. I'm not justifying one versus the other. I'm just posting my observations and experiences. I appreciate your responses, especially since you have experince with so many of the products. My usage of the H3 was only for a few minutes, yours is daily.

David
 

fotografz

Well-known member
"Flex only has the Detail window which is not a great solution."

Totally agree on this. Plus the previous lack of a full resolution preview has been a complaint for some time with Flexcolor.

The preview window is much more useful when shooting commercial work to the computer... for checking critical focus and DOF. Use it that way all the time.

Conversion of 3F files to DNG is really fast with Flex ... the conversion to Tiffs is not ... which I think may have to do with all the minute detail and DAC data traveling with it. But they need to address this pronto ... supposedly it has been dealt with in "Phocus". We'll see.

One of the other mitigating factors with Flexcolor has been it's speed when shooting to the computer which is faster than it was with the Aptus 75. The software is quicker and the H3 cameras are Firewire 800 as opposed to 400. The Aptus 75s is quicker now that they went to Firewire 800. Granite Digital firewire cables and repeater hubs have helped in both cases.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Peter, DO publish your thoughts and findings. I, for one, would be very interested in them. I'm sure I'm not alone.

BTW, Leica has lost the loyalty and confidence they built up with me over 30 years. My M8 system is FKed up and it is beyond my patience threshold to sort out all the problems.

Canon 1DMKIII has a focusing issue in need of a recall ... so, more BS to deal with.

My Hasselblad CF to H mount, CF adapter stopped working this morning ... even more BS to deal with.

The ONLY thing I can really count on is my 503CW. A 50 year old design !!!
 

mark1958

Member
You have had your share of bad luck. There is even some talk that the 1DmkIII fix does not really fix the issue.. well there have been a couple of peoople who have had issues. I am awaiting Rob G's post and evaluation due this week

Peter, DO publish your thoughts and findings. I, for one, would be very interested in them. I'm sure I'm not alone.

BTW, Leica has lost the loyalty and confidence they built up with me over 30 years. My M8 system is FKed up and it is beyond my patience threshold to sort out all the problems.

Canon 1DMKIII has a focusing issue in need of a recall ... so, more BS to deal with.

My Hasselblad CF to H mount, CF adapter stopped working this morning ... even more BS to deal with.

The ONLY thing I can really count on is my 503CW. A 50 year old design !!!
 
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