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Hassy H4D gear help me spend my money :)

TomSteele

New member
Hey everyone,

hope you are all well

just about to step up to digital medium format mainly shot wildlife pro but am moving away from that now to deal with the needs of my commercial clients more aptly
will be for a mix of things from promo shots for race teams to some indoor portraits and a few of race and road bikes on location. and the usual bread and butter bussiness portrait stuff and some self directed studio/location shots with people that I fancy pushing into a bit more.


Am looking at the hassy h4d-40 just trying to decide on which lens tossing up between the 100mm f2.2 which comes in at about £15,000 ish or the 40 + the 80mm for about £13,900.


Or whether to go for a h4d-31 and get a few more optics maybe a 35-90 to compliment the 80 that comes with it looking to spend a max of about 15 grand gbp at the mo unless stock market stuff picks up on my savings


Also if you were to pick 3 lenses say up to 8 -9 grand in value what would be your top picks? for further down the line

open to more suggestions to

mainly going to be for commercial work as my clients are after me stepping up in file size

one quick question what is the major differences between the 31 and the 40 apart from the obvious file sizes is the technology in the back older on the 31? anyone used both and how did you find them any observations

Many thanks in advance,

Tom Steele
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
Hi Tom,

I've owned both and aside from a few anomalies, the camera's are great. My first shoot with an H3DII was on a mountain in snow and cold temps, for a travel/destination magazine. The camera was perfect. The H4D also performed excellent, but I found batteries to need a charge rather quickly. Actually, that was an issue I had with both camera's, but others have mentioned here, that was not the case with theirs. I liked the H3DII more because the file size was perfect and personally, I saw little difference in quality. I also think that the current lens line-ups resolving power has a sweet spot at these megapixels. The 28mm lens is great, but does have some vignetting when using a filter holder system. The 80mm /2.8 that usually comes bundled
is a great lens too...very useful for portraits and general use. The 100 f/2, would be my first choice for portraits though, very nice lens. I 'll also add that in MU mode, the camera has virtually no vibration, when shooting with long throw lenses. There's just a secondary (fabric) curtain that moves and the leaf shutters do the rest...nice.

I forgot to add that these are not recommended for tech camera's w/ movements because of the use of microlenses and the extreme angles of light on the sensor that can create color cast issues. The advantage though, is great high ISO photographs.
 

David Schneider

New member
Also if you were to pick 3 lenses say up to 8 -9 grand in value what would be your top picks? for further down the line
35mm, 100mm, 210mm if you're talking primes. I have them and think that might work for you. However, my favorite lens in studio for portraits is the 150.
 

Laurent

New member
I do have the 35-90 and love it. I would love to add the 100 as I tried it and it is very nice. I also have the 80, 120 and the 28.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
28 and 100 is what I am using wit my H3D39 and these lenses are just perfect. Would add a 150 and the 35-90 if I wanted to expand my arsenal.

Also would question the H4D40 and rather go for the H4D50 or 60 because of the larger sensor size - not the MP as my finding is that 40MP are already more than enough even for very demanding work.
 

Giorgio

Member
Once I got over the sensor size issue (who cares, does not matter to me) I bought the H3D II 31 and just fell in love with the files it made. Last summer I upgraded to the H4D + 35/90 to augment my 35, 50, 100, and 210. They are all great I have no issues, but I have noticed that the focus of the H4D is amazingly accurate.

If my subject is moving and I don't have enough control of the light, I still reach for the Canon though. Medium format is not one size fits all, not for me anyway.
 

Professional

Active member
I had H3DII-39 before and loved it, but i took a plunge and upgraded to H4D-60, it is a phenomenal camera, can't talk about any MF digital camera because i am sure all will give me great results if i know how to use and on what to use.

Hope you will enjoy with whatever decision you will make, CIAO!!!
 

TomSteele

New member
thanks for the replies everyone a massive help :)

just got to wait for the darn stock market to pick up now so I can get one bought haha

Thanks,

Tom
 

fotografz

Well-known member
The H4D/40 has about a stop better ISO performance. 1600 looks like 800 on the 31, and 800 like 400.

Get the 100/2.2 ... it's the stand out lens in the system IMO. If you get the 150mm, look for a newer one ... the 150N.

The 35-90 is absolutely stellar, but it's big, heavy and with a max aperture of 4.5 is kinda slow. Focuses pretty quick for a 4.5 though.

Ideal set up IMO is a 28, 50-II, 100, and 150N with the 1.7X.

The only reason I have a 80 is for use on the HTS/1.5 which is the equivalent of a 156mm FOV when used on a 31 or 40 camera. It is the classic 120mm FOV equivalent on my H4D/60.

-Marc
 
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