First experience with an HD3-39 - impressions...

[photolinia]

So I finally had my first medium format experience with an H3DII-39 demo over the weekend.

I rented the camera from a Santa Ana (Southern California) Calumet store.  They currently have a $300/day special on H3DII-39.  (The 31MP model
is $250).  Since Calumet is closed on Sundays, you can pick up your rental on Friday after noon and drop it off on Monday before noon, and only pay for one day, which is like getting 3 days of usage out of a single day's rent...  

So this sounded like a pretty good deal, and since I've had mostly good experience renting from Calumet in the past,
I decided this was definitely worth it.

The camera came with an 80mm lens, an extra battery grip, a firewire cable, and 3 Cd's - Manual, FlexColor, and Phocus.
The Phocus CD was for Macs only.  I ran into some issues installing FlexColor, but called Calumet and Calumet connected me with a New York rep who
was very helpful, walked me through all the steps and answered all my questions.
He also tried to email me a PC version of Phocus and insisted that I really had to try it to fully appreciate the beauty of the "Hasselblad system",
but the email was too big to make it through, and I decided to not waste the precious time, and just used FlexColor to convert my pics to DNG and then
used my Lightroom flow...

Also, big thanks to the people here who offered to help me through my pains!  Really appreciated!


Up until now, I have only used Nikon DSLR's, and never used anything beyond 12MP in terms of resolution.  In most cases, 12MP is actually enough
for me, but I do feel like I can use more resolution for larger prints...

Right now, D3X is something that I'm considering, but somehow I feel that it is really overpriced. My D700 was $3k (less now) and I just
don't feel it should be worth 1/3 of the D3X.  So waiting for a D700x might be one option, waiting for prices on D3X to drop
(I have no doubt that they will before the end of 2009) is another, finding a used H3D-39 (they look to be selling for $12-17k) and getting to a whole
new level of image quality is another potential option...
I guess I would almost rather pay $25k for a used H3D-II than $8k for a new D3X...

So over the weekend, we shot a lot in a studio as well as outside.  I shot together with my wife and we used the H3D along with a D700 with
some nice and fast lenses on the Nikon - mostly  the Nikkor 24-70 2.8 and Nikkor 135 2.0 DC)

Here are some impressions.


-Besides the few problems installing the software, no other problems.  Everything ran very well.  Spent about 40 minutes reading the manuals - went through the basics and after that everything seemed quite intuitive and easy to use.  No problems whatsoever.  No issues with reliability at all!

The camera alone is definitely bigger and heavier than the D700, but since the 80mm lens was a lot smaller than the Nikkor 24-70, the whole thing felt similar in size and weight to the Nikon.  I had no problems handling it, but my wife complained that the shutter speed wheel was too far for her thumb to reach when holding the grip.

The viewfinder was amazing!  I just loved looking through that thing.  It had that silky smooth quality that I only previously saw when looking through the viewfinder of a twin rolleiflex film camera.  Simply amazing!

I had no problem with the speed of the camera.  The fact that I had to wait a second between the shots actually made me more deliberate and careful when setting up and probably helped.  Obviously, shooting fast movement sequences was hard, but it wasn't a big deal for me.

The LCD is terrible!  I have read that the new H3D-II screen was on par with the Canon 40D screen in terms of resolution, but I think it is far worse than that.  
It is absolutely impossible to get any useful info out of it.  I used the histogram + used the display to check the overall composition.
The white balance of the display also seemed way off.  I kept offloading the images to the computer just to make sure I was focusing ok...
I did not use the camera in tethered mode...

the AF was fine.  Had no problems using a single AF point - I do it with the Nikon most of the time anyway.  The AF was very accurate.

We used mostly f/2.8 while shooting outdoor portraits and f/8 - f/13 range in the studio.  No problems with AF or with sharpness at all!

I did try the fast sync speed with a soft box outside, but since this was something totally new to me, I do not think I really knew how
to get the most out of it...

The 1/800 was definitely a limitation at some points during the day shooting outside.  Even with ISO50 I was running out of Sutter speed and had to
close the aperture at times where I would have preffered to keep it wide open.  Perhaps some nice ND filters could be helpful...

We loved the lowered DOF due to the larger sensor at 2.8.  It was on par with the DOF we got with the 135 2.0 on Nikon

Of course, the biggest difference was the resolution we saw with the H3D.  For people used to working with 12Mp, moving to 39Mp
is quite shocking!  We loved it!  

I am now planning to do a similar demo of a P1 with P45+, and then do some thinking - a LOT of thinking!

With the size of the prints we currently do, D700 is usually enough.  More resolution is always nice, but do we REALLY need it?

But needing it and wanting it is different, and after playing with it for three days, going back to Nikon was
tough.   I guess I'll have to do some soul searching.

We could probably spend something within $20k for a new toy like that, but I'm also worried about how fast it's going to lose it's value and how soon
we're going to want something even better.

thanks again for all your help!!
-ilya
 

[Professional]

Congratulations on your testing demo camera, ilya!

I agree with you about the LCD, the AF is really awful, i had difficult time with AF, about the shutter speed still i didn't tested it outside enough, but i am thinking to buy 28mm for landscapes as i am into landscapes more, but seems this camera is dedicated for studio and indoors photography more.

I bought it by leasing option from a local store here in UAE, and still i have final payment to pay soon this month i hope, so i don't worry about my payment, i know it is very very expensive, but the salesman convincing me to get it these days [i got it on Jan 2009] as the Euro is down, so i got my hassyII-49mp kit for about $20750, great price.

about IQ, i got used to use my Canon 1DsII which is 16mp and 5D 12mp, and not so long time ago bought 1DsIII which is 21mp, so even 50 will not be something unreal, but i saw the IQ of that Hassy, incredible and blown my mind, non of shots are less IQ than any of my Canon DSLRs, i didn't use ISO 200-400, so i am happy with ISO 50-100.

The weight is not an issue with me at all, at least i feel i am holding a real camera, and with that camera i am thinking to try film camera mostly MF, but even LF if i can find and afford will be my top dream.

In all cases, i tried that Hasselblad H3DII-31 on the store before i finalize my mind and with that price and payment way offer so i went with H3DII-39mp, i was upset as i was looking for 50mp instead of 39, but as a new user of MF for first time ever i don't want to be rush with 50 and 60mp now, and i wish to find more photography opportunity to use this Hasselblad for, but even no i am more than happy to own a MF for first time in my life, and Hasselblad was my top dream camera after my 1DsII.

[tho_mas]

With the size of the prints we currently do, D700 is usually enough. More resolution is always nice, but do we REALLY need it?

If the D700 (currently) is enough there is no reason to "upgrade" Megapixel from my point of view... unless there is not "somehting" else about the look of the MFDB captures.

But needing it and wanting it is different, and after playing with it for three days, going back to Nikon was tough.   I guess I'll have to do some soul searching.
We could probably spend something within $20k for a new toy like that, but I'm also worried about how fast it's going to lose it's value and how soon
we're going to want something even better.

With regard to the price... why don't you consider to buy a refurbished back (Phase or Leaf or whatever) and a second hand camera? 1 1/2 years ago I moved to MFDB, too, and I didn't want to bring up the price for a new system. I picked up a Contax (body new) some lenses and a refurbished P45. Meanwhile I have all the lenses and accessories for the Contax I need... didn't take too much time and effort to get it all except for the waist level finder and the lens bellows lens hood (these two pieces took longer to find). Too, I use a small view camera with the P45.
And I feel totaly "safe" with regard to upcoming upgrades. When I look at the speed of development in MFDB I actually feel very very safe for the next 10 years. Seriously! Though there are limitations (lens wise! not back wise) I can get everything I want for large printing (currently mostly 120x 160cm or 120x180cm when cropped to 3:2) and if I want bigger prints I'll do some additional stitching. "Bigger" is not "better" in any case. More megapixles means smaller pixelpitch means less lens performance at the edges (and means less movement on the view camera). And ISO? I don't care for the things I do... it's almost always ISO50... rarely ISO100.
But the "worth" is hard to tell. Back in the days, when Phase One gave me the P45 for a week or so (without charge btw), the first shot I did was a "remake". Light was perfect and I decided to shoot a subject again I did once before. Now the remake is the original ;-)

[BobDavid]

Hasselblad H3D39s and H3DII39s are going for fairly short money these days. I know a dealer in Connecticut that seems to have a steady supply of reasonably priced barely used Hasseys -- Ulsaker Studio in East Hartford Connecticut. I'm sure you could Google it and get a phone number and website.