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A Few Questions and Introduction

bcooter

New member
Hello Everyone.

My first post on this forum.

First I want to thank Jack and Guy for hosting this forum.

In my brief week of reading some of the threads and sections it seems like a nice place.

My first post is a question, or series of.

I'm in the market for a new system.

Looking at (in this order) Hasselblad H5d, Pentax 645D, the previous generation Leaf or Phase back in a Contax mount.

The only commonality to this list is all are ccd sensors and all are medium format.

My real questions are:

1. Has anyone used an H4d/H5d in heavy production tethered to a thunderbolt 17" powerbook?

2. Has anyone used a Pentax 645d tethered with their $200 simple tethering software on a mac?
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Believe it or not, all 3/4 of these systems will work within what I do as long as they are reliable, tether well, have the ability to manual focus with accuracy and decent autofocus. 800 iso clean is also a requirement and in the samples I've seen the Pentax and Hasselblad seem to do this well.

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For some background:

Presently own Phase One p21+ P30+ on Contax with full lenses. Also Leica m8, Canon 1dx, 1ds, fd2, Nikon D3, D700, all with full compliment of lenses.

For video work we have two RED 1's, with PL and nikon mounts, Scarlet with Nikon and Canon mounts, Sony NEX fs100 with Zeiss A mounts for quick autofocus video.
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We shoot advertising, lifestyle, fashion and illustrative sports/portraits.

The Photography And Films Of James Russell and Ann Rutherford New York Los Angeles Dallas Miami Paris
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Thanks in advance.

BC

 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
I don't have any answers to your questions. But I'm happy you've arrived here and hope to see lots of your great work and insights posted.

You're with friends :).
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
BC welcome to the forum. Just some quick thoughts and my conclusions with regards to tethering. Now I can't speak for Hassy with Phocus tethered but I hear its good and Leica and Pentax seem to just be okay from what I hear. Your a special case with a ton of heavy production and reliability and performance is the key factor. I'm in the belief that you want great tethering than you have to have the same software that is specifically designed for the back. Otherwise its just a kludge ****. I have the Nikon with C1 and its nowhere as good as my phase backs tethered to C1 . Not even close. I never missed a frame with C1 and a Phase back. Your options are really Hassy, phase or Leaf. I have tested the S2 and again okay but not under your roof. The Pentax I never tested and from a distance not sure I would trust it given your hard use of it with tethering.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Honestly I think a great back for you and I know what you shoot and I think a 6 micron back would be the ticket but your not really needing a IQ series since your tethered and you need a brick of a back plus easily get in a Contax mount is the P65 although FireWire. Now the IQ can take USB 3 which my Nikon uses its not bad and all the new Macs are USB 3 but you need repeaters in the line for it. I wish I knew more of the Hassy but your dealer does sell both and I think its worth testing them both out. Hell I would like to try the Hassy myself.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Let me add here as I know BCs requirements which are not like a everyday shooter. He and his production team may shoot thousands of images tethered in a day and wash and repeat the next day. His systems needs to be a rock. I never get to these production levels and maybe the most is 2 thousand in a day. For the folks more at my level of production the Pentax and Leicas maybe just fine but when your in these numbers than things change.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Depends on your definition of clean. Lol

My take it can do 400 really well. But you can shoot with sensor plus at 15mpx which I have done a lot and its clean at 1600. BTW these 15mpx are more like 20 in 35 land. It's damn good.

But you want more pull out your Nikon or Canon.
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
Depends on your definition of clean. Lol

My take it can do 400 really well. But you can shoot with sensor plus at 15mpx which I have done a lot and its clean at 1600. BTW these 15mpx are more like 20 in 35 land. It's damn good
This does surprise me. I struggle to keep things clean on the IQ180 even at 100.

Which back are you referring to Guy?
 

D&A

Well-known member
I'm certainly not in a position to comment on daily tethering, especially with the 645D as I tried out two pieces of tethering software briefly (Pentax's and 3rd party) and Guy is right...with the image numbers we're talking about, the Pentax would definitely be too slow and kludgy. I've occasionally used tethering when necessary but definitely wouldn't rely on it with the 645D on any consistent basis and then again only for a small studio shoot or demonstration. The 645D is also not a speed demon with write times due to slow internal processor speed.

With regards to the high ISO performance, this is where the 645D shines among those systems mentioned. In good light and with proper exposure, ISO 800 on the 645D is remarkably clean and what noise there might be in underexposed areas of the frame, generally clean up well (if necessary). I'm not refering to baseline ISO clean, but definitely impressive when all is considered. Image quality at it's price is also it's strong suit, especially when lens selection is carefully chosen.

Dave (D&A)
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
I think you nailed it with "depends on your definition of clean" comment.

Once you've worked with the IQ180 at ISO35, it's kind of hard to accept anything less. The problem I have is that on the occasions when I tend to need to bump the ISO up, I also need to up the exposure time. In my experience, there is a huge difference in quality of 30 second files between ISO35 and ISO100.

(all with C1 of course)

Regards,

Gerald.

/edit
I appreciate that things may be very different at much faster shutter speeds, but I don't ever need to shoot anything high ISO, high shutter speed.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
This is a great forum BC thanks largely to Jack and Guy (and the posters). I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here and we look forward to your posts.

As mentioned, tethering with 645D seems anemic. I haven't used it nor seen much posted, but here's a thread:
First look at Pentax Official Tethering Software for 645D - PentaxForums.com

As for the high ISO, 1600 is usable for my puposes and I usually don't apply noise reduction to ISO 400 and below; here's a recent example @ 400 with a heavy crop, the whites and blacks are quite clean except at 100%, where some noise starts to appear. I realize that your demands are quite different than mine, but I really like the color as it comes out of this camera, although red-purple seems a have some problems. No color processing in the shot below, just some levels adjustments.

Tom

_IGP0950 by tsjanik47, on Flickr
 
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Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yes we do have a SEPARATE section for that other camera. Lol

I own the damn thing and can't even write the name down I'm so polluted . ROTFLMAO
 

Bildifokus

Member
Welcome BC!

I use Hasselblad H4D-50 and a Macbook pro 17. I'm always shooting tethered with firewire in the studio using Phocus software. I do not shoot your volumes on a regularly basis, but for me it works very well and shooting wireless through the iPad is really sweet. I think the trick to have the tethered workflow fluid is to keep your Mac clean.

However, I would not recommend shooting iso 800 with the H4D-50. I would not use anything above iso 400 for commercial work unless you are planing on using the noise in the image. :)
 
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