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Author Topic: X1D US preview tour  (Read 6310 times)

mtakeda

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X1D US preview tour
« on: August 04, 2016, 06:04:23 pm »

Can anyone who has had opportunity to participate the even post your impression of this camera? They said you can shoot but no images leaving the place but how was the images and general impression of the handling?
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Joe Towner

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2016, 10:46:51 pm »

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NickT

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2016, 11:03:20 pm »

They said you can shoot but no images leaving the place but how was the images and general impression of the handling?

I've helped out on a bunch of camera demos over the years and one of the reasons they don't normally let people take images away is that they are under often under-exposed/blurry/whatever (due to the location) which people then post as examples of the quality being lousy...
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bpepz

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2016, 03:45:56 am »

I wish they were going through Vegas.
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Royce Howland

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2016, 09:21:51 am »

Yesterday, The Camera Store in Calgary did a launch event for the X1D and H6D, with a rep from Hasselblad Bron​ in attendance with a bunch of gear. This included an X1D pre-production unit with the 45mm and 90mm lenses. I got a chance to play around with the camera, but couldn't really do much. The pre-prod unit still was running early firmware that wasn't feature complete, and not fully stable yet. Plus we were not permitted to shoot any take-away photos, as described by others. So it was just a matter of making a few snapshots around the store environment and looking at them on the back LCD.

I do have some provisional feelings on the camera. Some of them come from the fact that I printed the promotional photo prints for the TCS event. With permission, I made a pair of 30x40 inch prints (I work at the Resolve Photo​ print shop), from example X1D files provided by Hasselblad. They were JPEG's only, and not optimal for large printing as received. But I did a quick bit of tweaking to them and in the end they looked very good on paper at this size. I have a baseline of expectations based on my Pentax 645D and 645Z, so this early print result is very promising.

Handling the camera itself, my initial reaction is that I like it. The body is solid, and still carries a bit of weight from its size and construction, but it has an excellent grip. The grip on my Pentax 645's also is nice but they clearly have more mass and bulk. The X1D grip is nicely inset front & back for secure clasping in reasonably sized hands, with a slightly giving rubberized coating that's easy to hang onto. The lenses are moderately sized for their focal length and aperture, compared to most of my Pentax 645 glass.

The camera's hardware controls are minimal and cleanly designed, as can be seen in the promo photos of the body. It's all very well finished, the buttons & knobs are solid with good feedback. The bare minimum of physical buttons are present, I imagine / hope at least a few will be reprogrammable in the final iterations of the control system. The rest of the functions in the menu system (which in turn are relatively minimalist, at least at this stage of pre-production unit we were playing with) are cleanly laid out. The LCD looks great and feels great in use as a touch control mechanism. Standard smartphone conventions have been effectively employed for the most part -- tap, swipe, pinch, etc. gestures seem to be working as one would likely expect based on familiarity with modern iPhones or Androids. Nothing seems overly gimmicky, it all seems functional and responsive, with some good attention paid to both styling and ergonomics.

The viewfinder is an EVF and I don't have much of an opinion on it yet. We couldn't take the camera outside of TCS, so really all I was doing was aiming around different areas of the store environment. The EVF seemed clear and reasonably responsive. It has a diopter, hopefully it will adjust sufficiently for my aging eyes with their annoying progressive focal glasses. I'm not fond of most EVF's I've ever tried out, so hopefully this will be usable.

The lenses are compact, with a giant rubberized focus ring and no other controls. Everything is electronic, fly-by-wire under control of the body. Test shooting with aim-focus-shutter seemed responsive enough, the weight seemed okay, and it felt good and well-balanced in my hands. I've done some extensive periods of handheld shooting with my digital Pentax 645's, and I can easily see that doing the same with the X1D will be less fatiguing.

The X-to-H adapter should ship concurrent with the body, allowing adaptation of the current generation of larger H system lenses. Indications are that this may well include support for the HTS, an adapter the provides full tilt & shift movements with most H system lenses. The X1D plus the HTS adapter plus the H 24mm or 28mm would be a compelling combo all on its own for me, addressing an important and gaping void in the Pentax 645 system -- no lens movements.

Gripes or issues? A few were obvious, and have been mentioned elsewhere. There's no support for any sort of cable release currently. Remote control is initially going to be achieved with a smartphone app over WiFi (which is built in, along with GPS). I don't really care about that, I just want a wired cable release. Hopefully something will be produced for this purpose, perhaps by jacking into the USB 3 Type C port. Probably it will be a bit of a space issue to support an L bracket, due to the location and size of the port & SD card hatches on the left side of the body. An L bracket is an essential tripod accessory for me; presumably RRS will figure something out that leaves the option open for a future cable release.

I'm still going to try to get my hands on some real shooting time with a production X1D as soon as possible. The Camera Store may have their dealer demo unit around the end of this month. But for now, my early look at files and camera reveals mostly positive factors to my way of thinking. I suspect this is a genuine hot prospect for Hasselblad, and they will sell a ton of them. It might even become something almost "mainstream", for a medium format (ish) camera system, at least equaling and perhaps surpassing what Pentax has been able to achieve.

Certainly I can see one of these coming into my kit. As much as I dislike the idea of going back to shooting two systems, this appears to be a well thought through camera, one of the most interesting launches to me since the Pentax digital 645 system came out. I won't be getting rid of my Pentax kit any time soon because it has too many strengths, and I still love almost everything about what it does. But the Hasselblad X1D system will offer some compelling differences, likely strong enough to go back to shooting two systems again.

Fotophil

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2016, 12:44:33 pm »

The use of Hassy V lenses on the X1D is appealing to folks with an inventory old lenses. The Flexbody had a compact mechanism for cocking and releasing the V shutters as well as providing for wide open viewing. The PC flash terminal is used to trigger the CFV-50C back when used on the Flexibody.  Currently there has been no official discussion of  V Lens Adapter for the X1D but at least there is a path for handling the shutter on the V Lens. From a technical viewpoint what is missing is the interface between the digital sensor and camera body shutter release.  From a marketing viewpoint what may be missing is Hasselblad's interest in a V Lens to X1D Body. I guess time will tell.
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mtakeda

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2016, 03:26:06 pm »

I enjoyed reading your well detailed report and thank you so much.
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uaiomex

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2016, 11:54:34 pm »

If I'm not mistaken, I think it is possible to design and develop a Flexbody type bellows to accept the X1D and CF glass. It could be used for flat stitching or shifts.



The use of Hassy V lenses on the X1D is appealing to folks with an inventory old lenses. The Flexbody had a compact mechanism for cocking and releasing the V shutters as well as providing for wide open viewing. The PC flash terminal is used to trigger the CFV-50C back when used on the Flexibody.  Currently there has been no official discussion of  V Lens Adapter for the X1D but at least there is a path for handling the shutter on the V Lens. From a technical viewpoint what is missing is the interface between the digital sensor and camera body shutter release.  From a marketing viewpoint what may be missing is Hasselblad's interest in a V Lens to X1D Body. I guess time will tell.
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tcdeveau

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2016, 01:14:27 pm »

I went to a preview about a week and a half ago.  The camera felt great in the hand and the controls are really well thought out.  It has a nice weight to it, heavy but not too heavy, and felt well balanced with the 45mm and the 90mm.  I don't really have more to add than what Royce said above.  The firmware was definitely pre-production and was buggy, so I can't really make any useful insights on the EVF/performance/etc until I get my hands on a demo with production firmware.  That being said, the EVF seemed fine to me.  AF speed also seemed fine, not lighting fast but not too slow either.  The interface and screen is a HUGE step up from the interface on my H4D-40.  It's very well thought out and looks great.  The camera got really warm, but the rep said this would be addressed in production firmware.  Focus ring on the lenses felt really smooth, and the lenses had a little more heft to them than I was anticipating.  They are a lot more compact than the H lenses though which is very nice. 

The rep didn't have any info about a wired shutter release just yet, but said that the request is being pushed up the chain.  I'm sure we'll see something in that regard.  The rep also said they were hoping to have a tripod mount on the H->X adapter to take stress off the lens mounts when using combos like the HTS/H lenses or the 35-90mm, etc.  I also talked to Really Right Stuff who said that they have a camera on order and that l-plates should be coming. 

The system has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to playing around with a production model and seeing how the platform develops. 
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mtakeda

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2016, 10:47:33 pm »

Thank you for another positive review. I have been very frustrated for no definitive delivery information from H. They have been quiet too long even to me who put in preorder a month ago.
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NickT

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2016, 11:16:13 pm »

Demos are shipping by the end of this month then they will start reliving on orders. They have been blown away by the number of pr-orders that far exceeded expectations, so are scrambling to keep up!
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2016, 11:23:40 pm »

Demos are shipping by the end of this month then they will start reliving on orders. They have been blown away by the number of pr-orders that far exceeded expectations, so are scrambling to keep up!

That's a good problem to have. I am sure that the Kumamoto quake hasn't helped either.

It's really uplifting to see the genuine enthousiasm the X1D has been generating.

Cheers,
Bernard

rent

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #12 on: August 18, 2016, 12:07:28 am »

As of yesterday, B&H still had allocation available to ship on 8/30. Can't wait to get mine. -alex

Jager

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #13 on: August 18, 2016, 06:41:41 am »

As of yesterday, B&H still had allocation available to ship on 8/30. Can't wait to get mine. -alex

Alex, curious how you know B&H has sufficient allocation to ship all current pre-orders on 8/30?  The notifier on their web site states "Subject to availability" (and has had that there since they began taking pre-orders) and I would have guessed they (B&H) have no idea how many cameras they will get in that first shipment.

In any case, exciting times in the Hasselblad universe.  Here's hoping everyone gets their camera soon!

Lust4Life

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #14 on: August 20, 2016, 05:24:12 pm »

Any idea on how the X1D will affect the price of the used H5D-50c WiFi?

pflower

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #15 on: August 20, 2016, 07:40:52 pm »

I would have thought the H6 system is the one that will affect the price.  The H5D-50c is already on sale at about half price (at the Pro Centre in the UK - other UK retailers - i.e. Wex - don't list it at all) - so I suspect it will eventually be phased out completely in favour of the H6D-50c.  With the trade in prices of the H5D as against the H6D I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't pick up a good second hand one after the H6D-100 ships for about the same price as the X1D (unless of course Hasselblad decides not to put the trade ins into the market).
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tcdeveau

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #16 on: August 22, 2016, 09:11:57 am »

I imagine you'll be able to find used H5D-50c wifi's at about or less the price of a new X1D more regularly in the near future.  I saw one on ebay in the US a little while ago sell for between $8-9k, and there was an H5D-50c (no wifi) that sold on ebay last week or the week before for $6k (kinda kicking myself for not bidding).  I haven't seen any CPO's from Hasselblad yet on their CPO site and the rep at the X1D preview event said that Hasselblad was maybe waiting to release them after X1D shipments had commenced.  He expected they'd be "about the same price [as the X1D]", but he didn't have any official information from Sweden so take that with a big grain of salt.  With the trade-up program they've got going on with the H6D-50c and H6D-100c (http://www.hasselblad.com/us/h6d-50c-to-h6d-100c-trade-up-promo), they're going to have excess stock of used H6D-50c's after the 100c starts shipping as well.     
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rent

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2016, 01:22:12 am »

I talked to their sales personnel on two occasions and specifically asked about if there were more preorders queued up than their initial allocation to be shipped on 8/30. Both times I was told there were sufficient allocations.

I did place an order (body + both lenses). Guess we'll find out next week.

-alex

Alex, curious how you know B&H has sufficient allocation to ship all current pre-orders on 8/30?  The notifier on their web site states "Subject to availability" (and has had that there since they began taking pre-orders) and I would have guessed they (B&H) have no idea how many cameras they will get in that first shipment.

In any case, exciting times in the Hasselblad universe.  Here's hoping everyone gets their camera soon!

mtakeda

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #18 on: August 26, 2016, 03:25:57 pm »

I have tried to get the latest status of the delivery and neither  Hasselbrad nor B&H give me info. Are they really shipping them next week?
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rent

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Re: X1D US preview tour
« Reply #19 on: August 27, 2016, 01:36:49 am »

B&H is now showing preorder shipping date of Sept. 15.  >:(
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