Advice on Hasselblad H1

[Bob Stevenson]

The Hasselblad H1 is a completely new camera system,..as far as I know nobody has used it as yet.  Here in the UK it is not even available until the summer although it was heavily featured on the Hassy stand at last weeks 'Focus' show in Birmingham.  Some of the parts of the system such as viewfinder options were not available to view.   this is very much a new and unknown product/area for Hasselblad,...they have not made a 6x4.5 camera before and in my view it raises major issues about the future of Hassy which, as you know has recently been bought out by a Hong Kong operation.  Quite simply, it may be the wrong camera at the wrong time since there must now be a question mark over the future of coventional MF slr cameras like the H1 (Contax, Bronica, Mamiya, Pentax)  Digital '35mm' models such as the Canon 1Ds offer a cost effective alternative once a collection of lenses is added to the cost since image quality is on a par/better than Mf film images.  There are several digital backs on the way for H1(and its competitors) but although they will offer staggering quality/pixel count they will also be staggeringly expensive into the forseeable future and few users will need that kind of image size.  How medium formt makers respond to digital slr's is one of the great photo unknowns for all us MF users at the current time.  It might pay you to wait and see what the next few months bring to the market place.

[Phil]

Bob, John,

Thank you for the good advice.

phil

[jerseycouple]

Dear all,

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.  I own a Fuji s2 Pro DSLR with few nikon lenses.  I recently came across a review of the Hasselblad H1 with digital back option.  I am aware of the cost and this is not an issue.  I am looking for advice on the H1 camera.  It comes across as a great match, film as well as the posibility of digital.

My photography interests are family, travel, and people.  

This is what I am planning: Sell my s2 (while I can still get good monet for it), purchase a film based 35mm like the nikon N80, (which I would use for sports).  In addition I'd purchase the H1. Once the economic situation permits I'd purchase the digital back.

Has anyone used/owns the H1?

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Phil
S2 Pro
Nikon 24-85 f/3.5-4.5
Nikon AFD 50 f/1.4
Nikon 80-200 AF f/2.8

[John]

The one thing that I always loved about Hasselblad was the square format. 645 no thanks. AS Dr. Phil would say, "What where you thinking?"

If $ is not the issue then I would look at how useable the format is. I personally think that the H1 is a waste of time in that it needs a digital back. So much has opened to us in photography with the new digital SLR's. It should have been made as all one unit to be just digital like the 35 mm cameras. The file's that come out of the 35's are now hugh and the cameras are a fraction of the price of the H1. All the serious Hassey owners I know have more than 1 camera (I had 2 until I went digital). Will everyone really drop everything to pick this system up? To me it looks like they just made the new camera without asking anyone what they were looking for in a digital camera. I caught a review of the H1 and the big point was how it feels which it got top marks. I agree with Bob about the great unknown, we are in it.

In art, film will really never die. In business, I think it will and is. Hasselblad should have realized this.