Hi again, guys!
Today I finally had some time to shoot some sample images with the H4D, this time with the HCD 35-90 (it finally arrived yesterday). Sorry for the delay, but I had a really busy week Unfortunately none of the jobs I've shot since last week is out yet, so can't show any fashion photographs until they are published! In the time being, my backyard will have to do the job
The .rar file contains 12 FFF files, with settings ranging from f4 to f11, 100 to 800 ASA, at both 35 & 90mm. Again, I am not the testing kinda guy, so I just snapped some pics in my backyard, handheld (managed to stay out for 5 mins, it's freezing cold out here!), of course without any artistic intentions. I was choosing situations which would give me an idea of what the camera is capable of in terms of DR, detail and noise in real-life use on location.
Some quick first impressions on the 35-90: the AF is WAY, and I mean
WAY faster than the other Hasselblad lenses that I've used (50-110, 80, 120, 150). Much more comfy than the old zoom. Completely handheldable, it's shorter than the 70-200/2.8 IS, a little bit fatter and a little bit heavier (or maybe it feels so because of the all-metal construction, I haven't compared the specs on paper). I would have no problems in shooting handheld with it all day, but on the other hand I'm not very petite, your mileage may vary. I was just checking the samples, the IQ at both the wide and the tele ends is amazing, I guess it's worth all the bulk and weight.
A propos, did I mention that TruePhocus is brilliant?
It works flawlessly, my worries from last week were in vain. All the 290 shots I took during the first shoot with the H4D last week were tack sharp, and all of them were shot at a close distance and shallow DOF, with recomposing. I love the guy who invented it, really. Finally a usable AF on a MF system, yey. I take back everything that I've said in the past about the lousy AF in the H3DII - this solution is much better than the multi-point AF systems, you can literally focus anywhere in the frame. For my kind of work it's simply the best I could possibly want. It doesn't even need any time to get used to - I simply enabled the "true phocus in af-s" option, et voilà - no additional button pushing required.
While waiting for the files to upload, I'm randomly browsing them and just noticed the huge difference in the file size - from 58 to 78 MB (Hasselblad having specified around 50?). Well, the more-the better
I am utterly impressed with the noise level at 800 ASA. I had to double-check the noise reduction sliders to make sure they are at 0. Fantastic! I wouldn't hesitate to use it for commercial shoots.
After having spent a week and a half with the H4D, I can safely say that I've found my perfect camera, exactly what I needed and wanted. H3DII wasn't it, but TruePhocus and the usable high ISO filled the gap :-) If it only could shoot raw+jpg and have a wifi option... aaaah....
CLICK HERE for the FFFs , 700 mb:-)