OK, OK. Part 1000-something for those following the saga. If you have used the GFX and/or X1D, your comments in particular are welcome. I rented the GFX, the 63 and 120 a few weeks ago. My post here is not so much about the GFX as about what I am finding with my version of the X1D in contrast. Just shot sunset shots with the X1D and that experience may be the final straw for me. I'll sleep on it a few days and keep testing to be sure. The camera physically is a true work of art. I want to love it. I really do. But using it so far leaves me wanting.
Bottom line, I have the feeling that the X1D (and Phocus, as an aside) would be fantastic with studio lighting but can suffer outdoors in landscape or street use. Further, I worry a bit that Hassleblad may not have the same full attention to support X1D owners re firmware updates, supplies and lens roll out as their Fuji or future competitors may. Here are a few major issues for me that I am running into shooting the X1D. Suggestions/comments welcomed. Hopefully I have missed obvious adjustments and will eat some tasty crow.
1. Maximum shutter speed vs minimum ISO is 2000:1/100. The X1D has only a mechanical shutter, and I am unaware of any electronic shutter firmware update promises. Practical landscape consequences, for example, you cannot take pictures of the setting sun without stopping down to at least F16 and still correcting a lot in Photoshop. Advantage, Fuji GFX or just about any contemporary premium FF camera.
UPDATE 5/22/17: This point is not a super bad problem and should be retained, but moved further down the list. The GFX has an EFCS which should gain a stop or two and that helps. One should stop down even more and use exposure bracketing or ND filters to resolve the sun's orb and highlight details around it. Bright lights, same thing.
2. Even with today's updated firmware, the X1D seems still to have bugs, or at least my particular camera does. When trying to adjust the aperture or shutter speed via the LCD, for example, the camera occasionally freezes and flips back to the prior screen without being able to make the adjustment. I simply turn the camera off and back on and it fixes the problem. A nuisance, but it occurs several times a day and isn't confidence inspiring. I don't know whether this is the firmware or my particular camera. Are others having this problem?
UPDATE: These bugs are an issue with the camera as of today. It is not perfect and one has to have confidence the issues can and will be resolved through firmware updates. I'd add they pop up only occasionally when shooting in my camera and are not crippling. A 10 second or so reboot has solved all of my problems with bugs.
3. If you like bokeh, there are issues at least with the XCD 90mm -- the only lens I have so far. I'm waitlisted for the 30 and 120 so can't tell about those. These issues have been well documented so I expected it, but it effectively ruined my favorite image outdoors earlier today (no lights, no sun, just high contrast flowers). There are many good things about this otherwise excellent lens in lower contrast, all-in-focus environments or against my test charts. I worry about wide open bokeh in lenses to be released.
UPDATE. This is a real issue with the 90. It appears to be caused by the facts that the aperture blades are straight and form a visible octagon when one looks down the barrel with the lens wide open. This design could extend to future lenses, we'll have to wait and see. However in natural light (where lightbulbs are not in a deep out of focus background) it appears to be manageable in high contrast scenes. One must take great care reviewing images shot to ensure that no part of the image is overexposed, because any overexposure touching bright bokeh highlights will basically flatten out the colors and tones there and call out the octangular bokeh (we are all spoiled now by Raw Developer highlight recovery sliders - you can't rely on that to save a picture from overexposed octagons and simply need to err toward underexposure in deep out of focus rearward bokeh shots). Actually, if you follow this, the straight blades introduce a pleasing Monet-like feel. For shooting with bright lights in the background, this will likely be a composition issue you will have to keep in mind as depending on the shot, the lights will turn octangular.
4. There is no histogram or highlight blinkies available in the X1D's EVF or in Live View when composing that I have found. I may have missed an obvious adjustment but have double checked and reread the manual. If this is right, it makes ETTR difficult. For landscape use this is almost unacceptable in today's Live View camera world and forces exposure bracketing, and that's even an wholly unreliable blunt tool if one hopes to reliably have a file with the whole dynamic range or manage mechanical wear. Is there an update coming?
UPDATE. If you are an ETTR person, you want highlight blinkies. With the X1D at its firmware state today, one has to review shots just taken to make sure the image isn't overexposed before leaving the scene or otherwise be very safe erring on the side of underexposure (and then even taking a chance). This plays into the octagon issue above, so for me it will force a recheck of images shot against the histogram that is available in review mode. I contacted someone at Hasselblad about this and they are working on a firmware update to install blinkies (and seem optimistic that it can be done), though timing of that seems uncertain.
5. Once the X1D is activated, there appears to be no way to turn on live view except for halfway depressing the shutter button or using the EVF. My particular shutter button is quite trigger happy. Wasteful timewise and in shutter wear if you use Live View to set up.
UPDATE. H is aware of the issue and is working on a firmware update. Hopefully coming soon.
6. Hasselblad advertises the files as something like "14-bit dynamic range, 16-bit color". Check with their website on the words. Fuji's GFX is advertised basically as operating in 14 bits, as all premium camera files do (P1 may have something more). I've stretched both the GFX and X1D files out in post in LR, PS, and several plugins and personally see no difference. Some have attributed this to marketing hype as I'm inclined to do without numbers, graphs and data showing something to the contrary.
UPDATE. There still are no convincing numbers, graphs or data showing anything to the contrary that I have seen, even in another thoughtful post here on LuLa. Only speculation that the camera bakes in some adjustments to 14 bit data in its hardware that could improve what the sensor captures. I imagine that baking in process, if this is right, and I am speculating on this, would better be done in post on a computer.
I hope I am completely wrong about all my observations here with the X1D or that firmware enhancements are certain to come. And hopefully lenses to come won't have the same wide open problem that the 90 has. This machine physically is a work of art. But for my work and my particular copy anyway, I may need to move on. My first thoughts for a substitute, as a photographer that doesn't want a studio, are back to the GFX.