David Schneider
New member
Thought I'd start a thread about my experiences going mf digital. Feel free to join in with your own experiences, any suggestions, comments, advice.
So I bought this H3dii/39 and four lenses (see http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19659). Printed out the manual. Read some of it. Took a few test images and went through some of the menus. Then took it out for the first time as second shooter for a wedding. Canon 5dmk2 was main camera.
Well, I can say with certainty that mf digital is a lot like sex. You can read the manual, but it's not the same as when you go out there and do it!
First thing I noticed Hassie gets heavy quickly if not on monopod or tripod. That's not a problem in the studio, but it is if you have to hand hold. (I had the Canon over one shoulder and Hassie on the other.) It's a lot heavier with the 100mm than my old Bronica 645 with 250mm. A lot more like my old RB67, but with batteries, menus, and a thousand options. I know it's not designed for handholding, but this was a nice opportunity to play....and get paid for it.
Second thing I noticed was I totally forgot how to delete the last image taken. lol. Gotta go back and read the manual again.
Old rule is if using, say, 100mm lens, you shouldn't handhold at less than 1/100th sec. That's a lot harder to do with this camera. I think I turned the wrong wheel a few times and took a few frames at 1/45th sec. and even 1/20th sec. That doesn't work. lol.
The rubber eye cup on the Hassie is not meant for use when carrying over your shoulder. Get's knocked off all the time. But it does fit nicely into your pocket for safe keeping.
Speaking of over your shoulder, I couldn't figure out how to get the neck strap on the camera. I needed to have the strap because, hey, I'm getting paid to bring back some wedding images and needed the Canon too. But as messy as my strap was, while totting the Hassie around, no one at the wedding came up to me and showed me their Canon Rebel and said they are using the same camera as me and there were over 250 people at the reception.
I took a very few images with the 35mm and it's a chubby lens. Don't know what else to call it. Used the 100mm most of the time.
It's easy to forget what you have the white balance set to. Sometimes I dialed in my guess using the Kelvin settings, sometimes I did the Cloudy, Shade, Flash, etc. settings. Sometimes I forgot to change it. Got a some nice blue tints I didn't mean to get. lol
As my Daddy always said, the right tool for the right job. For formals and semi-formals, images we took at the NJ version of a castle, for the group of Civil War re-enactors I ask to form an arch with their swords for the bridal couple, the Hassie is the right tool. But maybe my favorite image of the day was taken with the Canon at iso 5000 outside late at night in the parking lot of the reception venue just propped against a sign in the driveway for support. For that, Hasselblad is obviously overmatched.
Can't decide whether I like metal lens hoods. Not sure I care if metal or plastic. But metal is cool.
Camera bag that says Hasselblad on it is nice. I covered it with blue painters tape right away. Hasselblad = steal me......if they know what a Hasselblad is.
Didn't use strobe at all. Thought my friend, the primary wedding shooter, was going to put up a studio strobe or two to light the background at the reception, but he didn't.
So first impression using the Hassie is it's a bit like driving in England or Japan or India for the first time. You have to remember to keep left. After awhile it becomes natural. Need to use the Hassie more to feel comfortable. It will take a few outings to get in full command of the controls. That's harder to do out of the studio when you have to move quickly.
I had downloaded Phocus, but didn't look at the manual. So copied images onto computer to have a copy if I screwed something up and looked at Phocus. Personally, I HATE learning new software. Anyway, figured out how to import and export so I had some tiffs to look at. The rest will have to wait.
First thing I did was look at the images I screwed up and figured out why. Slow shutter speed, sometimes that with too large f-stop. Need to get use to seeing the info in the camera better. Then I looked for an image or two that were about the same taken with the Hassie h3dii-39 and the Canon 5dkmk2. Found a couple and put them side by side. Found one taken at iso 400 with Hassie that was about the same as one taken with 5dmk2 at iso 500. Detail of the Hasselblad image was strikingly better. I'll have fun testing at iso 800. Then testing after running Noiseware on images.
Have a few family sessions out of the studio coming up and hope to get up to speed. Can't afford to make toooo many mistakes. But you don't get better without make some mistakes. Just best if client doesn't know.
So I bought this H3dii/39 and four lenses (see http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19659). Printed out the manual. Read some of it. Took a few test images and went through some of the menus. Then took it out for the first time as second shooter for a wedding. Canon 5dmk2 was main camera.
Well, I can say with certainty that mf digital is a lot like sex. You can read the manual, but it's not the same as when you go out there and do it!
First thing I noticed Hassie gets heavy quickly if not on monopod or tripod. That's not a problem in the studio, but it is if you have to hand hold. (I had the Canon over one shoulder and Hassie on the other.) It's a lot heavier with the 100mm than my old Bronica 645 with 250mm. A lot more like my old RB67, but with batteries, menus, and a thousand options. I know it's not designed for handholding, but this was a nice opportunity to play....and get paid for it.
Second thing I noticed was I totally forgot how to delete the last image taken. lol. Gotta go back and read the manual again.
Old rule is if using, say, 100mm lens, you shouldn't handhold at less than 1/100th sec. That's a lot harder to do with this camera. I think I turned the wrong wheel a few times and took a few frames at 1/45th sec. and even 1/20th sec. That doesn't work. lol.
The rubber eye cup on the Hassie is not meant for use when carrying over your shoulder. Get's knocked off all the time. But it does fit nicely into your pocket for safe keeping.
Speaking of over your shoulder, I couldn't figure out how to get the neck strap on the camera. I needed to have the strap because, hey, I'm getting paid to bring back some wedding images and needed the Canon too. But as messy as my strap was, while totting the Hassie around, no one at the wedding came up to me and showed me their Canon Rebel and said they are using the same camera as me and there were over 250 people at the reception.
I took a very few images with the 35mm and it's a chubby lens. Don't know what else to call it. Used the 100mm most of the time.
It's easy to forget what you have the white balance set to. Sometimes I dialed in my guess using the Kelvin settings, sometimes I did the Cloudy, Shade, Flash, etc. settings. Sometimes I forgot to change it. Got a some nice blue tints I didn't mean to get. lol
As my Daddy always said, the right tool for the right job. For formals and semi-formals, images we took at the NJ version of a castle, for the group of Civil War re-enactors I ask to form an arch with their swords for the bridal couple, the Hassie is the right tool. But maybe my favorite image of the day was taken with the Canon at iso 5000 outside late at night in the parking lot of the reception venue just propped against a sign in the driveway for support. For that, Hasselblad is obviously overmatched.
Can't decide whether I like metal lens hoods. Not sure I care if metal or plastic. But metal is cool.
Camera bag that says Hasselblad on it is nice. I covered it with blue painters tape right away. Hasselblad = steal me......if they know what a Hasselblad is.
Didn't use strobe at all. Thought my friend, the primary wedding shooter, was going to put up a studio strobe or two to light the background at the reception, but he didn't.
So first impression using the Hassie is it's a bit like driving in England or Japan or India for the first time. You have to remember to keep left. After awhile it becomes natural. Need to use the Hassie more to feel comfortable. It will take a few outings to get in full command of the controls. That's harder to do out of the studio when you have to move quickly.
I had downloaded Phocus, but didn't look at the manual. So copied images onto computer to have a copy if I screwed something up and looked at Phocus. Personally, I HATE learning new software. Anyway, figured out how to import and export so I had some tiffs to look at. The rest will have to wait.
First thing I did was look at the images I screwed up and figured out why. Slow shutter speed, sometimes that with too large f-stop. Need to get use to seeing the info in the camera better. Then I looked for an image or two that were about the same taken with the Hassie h3dii-39 and the Canon 5dkmk2. Found a couple and put them side by side. Found one taken at iso 400 with Hassie that was about the same as one taken with 5dmk2 at iso 500. Detail of the Hasselblad image was strikingly better. I'll have fun testing at iso 800. Then testing after running Noiseware on images.
Have a few family sessions out of the studio coming up and hope to get up to speed. Can't afford to make toooo many mistakes. But you don't get better without make some mistakes. Just best if client doesn't know.
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