How does the IQ3 50 cope in the studio?

[Massive Si]

I almost exclusively do landscape work with my IQ3 50, on a tech cam and I am reasonably happy with it. But I am looking at some possible studio work and I just wondered if anyone has used the 350 for portraits/fashion?

I would be tethered to Capture one and I will most likely have to struggle on with my old DF+ body, as I dont have an XF.
I know that is going to hold me back, I've had issues with the back/body/lens needing to be taken apart and back together again in the middle of a shoot when the body locks the shutter open and taking everything apart and removing the batteries being the old way to solve it

but the body aside, how does the back perform? I went for the CMOS because of live view on location, obviously thats not such a concern when tethered and under studio lighting.


I am half tempted to buy an old Hasselblad H3d . I loved how that camera felt in my hands, but thats not a very sensible thing to do lol

 

[huyu]

Be confident cos the IQ350 files are amazing! I'm using DF+ too (the back is IQ1-100), the workload is quite slow compare to my DSLRs but I enjoyed it. I've never experienced those issues that you had..

 

[Steve Hendrix]

I almost exclusively do landscape work with my IQ3 50, on a tech cam and I am reasonably happy with it. But I am looking at some possible studio work and I just wondered if anyone has used the 350 for portraits/fashion?

I would be tethered to Capture one and I will most likely have to struggle on with my old DF+ body, as I dont have an XF.
I know that is going to hold me back, I've had issues with the back/body/lens needing to be taken apart and back together again in the middle of a shoot when the body locks the shutter open and taking everything apart and removing the batteries being the old way to solve it

but the body aside, how does the back perform? I went for the CMOS because of live view on location, obviously thats not such a concern when tethered and under studio lighting.


I am half tempted to buy an old Hasselblad H3d . I loved how that camera felt in my hands, but thats not a very sensible thing to do lol

The DF+ behavior you describe is not normal (shutter locking up frequently and having to pull the batteries to restart everything and reset). Now, understanding that DF/DF+ (and even XF) bodies are not super robust, bullet-proof tanks, what you're experiencing is still not normal behavior and would have benefitted from some diagnostical intervention. These cameras are prone to focal plane shutter failure at a sooner point than the cameras most are used to. That is the primary most likely issue to encounter with one of these camera bodies. Otherwise, we've not seen any prevalent issues. But what you experienced wasn't a failure, it was a behavior, and there could have been many (resolvable) reasons for this.

If you would produce your portraiture/fashion work with auto focus (presumably), I would not recommend DF/DF+. For that work, you really should be in an XF body, or if you move to HxD, an H4D or higher, as both these bodies do provide a focus/recompose tool. The tools work quite differently, the HxD tools is more of a reactor tool, while the XF is more of a predictor tool.

If you're shooting tethered, then you'll also be looking at a Capture One vs Phocus issue, and many have told me that not having Capture One is a hard line deal breaker. But for some, taking some extra learning time to have more muscle memory in Phocus can go a long way toward making the program more user friendly.

If you didn't have the technical camera landscape workflow, I would even move this discussion further into additional options (Fuji or Hasselblad mirrorrless bodies), but these would be limited in a tech cam/landscape workflow.


Steve Hendrix/CI

 

[Massive Si]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your comments

I really miss my old H body, but going back to an Hx would mean having to get another digital back in H mount, that would allow me to keep my C1 workflow if I went for an older back.
I would probably go for a P65+ if I could find one
Alternatively I could go for a Hassy H4 or H5 and keep C1 for landscapes and Phocus for my portrait

The final option is to find an XF. That would let me have just one body, but I still have the unknown quantity of how well the IQ3 50 performs in a studio, with skintones etc

 

[Steve Hendrix]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your comments

I really miss my old H body, but going back to an Hx would mean having to get another digital back in H mount, that would allow me to keep my C1 workflow if I went for an older back.
I would probably go for a P65+ if I could find one
Alternatively I could go for a Hassy H4 or H5 and keep C1 for landscapes and Phocus for my portrait

The final option is to find an XF. That would let me have just one body, but I still have the unknown quantity of how well the IQ3 50 performs in a studio, with skintones etc

If you really miss the H camera, you'd need to go to an H mount digital back, plus also pick up an H4/5/6 X body. The digital back could easily go back and forth from H camera to tech camera, that's just a matter of swapping out tech camera interface adapters. If you're intent on shooting with strobe, then yes, a P65+ could be a consideration (or ideally an IQ1 60 so that you have USB for tethering support).


Steve Hendrix/CI

 

[plastic]

I've used the IQ2 50 since it was released in 2015. I use it with a H5x.
It is by far the best camera I have ever used, in and out of the studio. I recently found a H-mount IQ3 100 after years of looking, and am debating whether to keep the IQ2 50 or not. Such great quality with both backs, far superior to the p65+/IQ160 in my opinion. I shoot advertising, mostly fashion and lifestyle.

 

[Hasslebad]

I've used the IQ2 50 since it was released in 2015. I use it with a H5x.
It is by far the best camera I have ever used, in and out of the studio. I recently found a H-mount IQ3 100 after years of looking, and am debating whether to keep the IQ2 50 or not. Such great quality with both backs, far superior to the p65+/IQ160 in my opinion. I shoot advertising, mostly fashion and lifestyle.

What did you like about the IQ250 over the IQ160? Is it colors, tonal transitions?

 

[plastic]

What did you like about the IQ250 over the IQ160? Is it colors, tonal transitions?

The significant increase in dynamic range of the IQ250 was the most important change for me, coming from the P65+. Also, I prefer the colors and skin tones of the IQ250.