The Hasselblad X1D Prepares to Deliver

[Michael Erlewine]

The latest update for Adobe Camera Raw now includes the Hasselblad X1D.

[peterv]

Joe, out of a photographer's interest, may I ask: Do you feel that during the past months you've actually missed shots because of the absence of the X1D?

[etto1972]

Joe, out of a photographer's interest, may I ask: Do you feel that during the past months you've actually missed shots because of the absence of the X1D?

I don't know about Joe
but back in late October in order to buy the X1D i sold most of my Canon gears !!!
On Wednesday i am leaving to Europe Budapest-Copemhagen-Rome
and because of this unprofessionally handled "delay affair" I feel totally cheated

[fotagf8]

Very symphathetic to those who pre-ordered.  Seems like there was an element of vapor ware in this. 

The good news.  Because this appears to be software driven, when the camera finally ships, there should be a lot more in the initial balance.

[hasselbladfan]

Very symphathetic to those who pre-ordered.  The good news.  Because this appears to be software driven, when the camera finally ships, there should be a lot more in the initial balance.

The good news should be that Hasselblad offers a 10% discount on al pre-orders.

[BernardLanguillier]

but back in late October in order to buy the X1D i sold most of my Canon gears !!!

Apologies, but I cannot comprehend why you did such a thing...

Cheers,
Bernard

[mtakeda]

I share Mr. Colson's frustration. I hope  Hasselblad has been abusing customer's trust too long. I too had preorder on June 22 but cancelled it. I lost trust in that company. The worst thing they did was they kept their mouth shut regarding continuous delay of shipment.

[Michael Erlewine]

In an earlier post, Kevin Raber said he would post a review or some account today sometime. Does anyone know where that is posted?

[Kevin Raber]

Sorry for the delay in posting the article that now is on the home page of this site.  I do want to make it clear that I feel for all those that have ordered and not seen their cameras delivered.  I was loaned a demo unit to try out during my Antarctica trip.  I am in no way an ambassador for Hasselblad or any other camera company as was implied (quite understandably).  The unit I received was for doing a review.  As I explained in my article I reached out to Hasselblad and particularly Perry Osting the CEO, on my return when I saw all the posts in the forum.  He was kind enough to spend time on the phone and explain the delays.  What I share in my article is directly from my talk with Perry. 

I will now begin to shoot more images as well as prepare a write up on this camera.  There is a lot to like about the X1D and there are some things that need attention or seem to be missing.  The images are very nice but for me working with Phocus software I find to be unintuitive . The images I show in the article were processed in Lightroom.  I have also tried something new and made a few images click to enlarge.  While it is not great it is better than the 810 pixels found in articles.  We are working on some new features for the site and one of those is zoom into detail feature for select images.  Our team is working on that as well as some other new features.

I do hope that the article does explain where Hasselblad is at as far as deliveries.  It will be a tough 90 or more days for some as there is quite a backlog of cameras to work through. 

[NickT]

working with Phocus software I find to be unintuitive .

It's actually a pretty solid piece of software these days. It has nothing like the features of C1 or Lightroom, in my world it's job is to tweak tethered images as they come in or just a RAW processor. Then it's off to Lightroom to do the keyboarding rating sorting galleries etc etc all of which Lightroom does better.

Happy to answer Phocus questions if any one has any.

[cgarnerhome]

Thanks Kevin!  I appreciate the additional information.  I have an X1D on order and I will wait things out.  Hopefully, this is a good learning experience for the company and more importantly Perry.  My experience, having run a public company for many years, is that timely, direct and honest communication is the only way to build a strong reputation and customer loyalty.  All Perry had to do was to be upfront with the delay and trust that customers (camera stores and users) would rather have the facts than be left in the dark. People are generally very forgiving when they are presented with the truth.  Under promise and over deliver is always a good adage!  I wish the company great success as we will all benefit with strong product options.

[hubell]

Thanks, Kevin, Can you elaborate on what needs attention or is missing?

[BernardLanguillier]

It's actually a pretty solid piece of software these days. It has nothing like the features of C1 or Lightroom, in my world it's job is to tweak tethered images as they come in or just a RAW processor. Then it's off to Lightroom to do the keyboarding rating sorting galleries etc etc all of which Lightroom does better.

Happy to answer Phocus questions if any one has any.

Hi Nick,

A major issue, the major issue IMHO, I still see with Phocus is the lack of integrated purple fringing suppression.

Would you be able to communicate with their dev team to communicate this and try to get a plan?

Thank you.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Hasselblad]

Hi Bernard,

Thank you for the feedback. Your suggestion has been forwarded to the Phocus development team.

// The Hasselblad Team

Hi Nick,

A major issue, the major issue IMHO, I still see with Phocus is the lack of integrated purple fringing suppression.

Would you be able to communicate with their dev team to communicate this and try to get a plan?

Thank you.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Hi Bernard,

Thank you for the feedback. Your suggestion has been forwarded to the Phocus development team.

// The Hasselblad Team

Much appreciated, thank you!

Cheers,
Bernard

[etto1972]

Apologies, but I cannot comprehend why you did such a thing...

Cheers,
Bernard

I tried the camera I. September and despite being pretty  "raw" , I simply loved the concept, the felling , size and IQ
Since I don't have that kind of money I had to put many of my gears on sale !!!

[Brent Daniels]

Hi Nick,

A major issue, the major issue IMHO, I still see with Phocus is the lack of integrated purple fringing suppression.

Would you be able to communicate with their dev team to communicate this and try to get a plan?

Thank you.

Cheers,
Bernard

I have been having some heavy purple/green fringing on highlight edges on a few images lately, but with large focus movements with technical lens. As Bernard says Phocus cannot clean this up. Photoshop does not work too well either. Lightroom does a great job on 16 bit PSD files processed through Phocus first. Tried DNG but since it is a RAW format all the Phocus RAW processing such as Scene Calibration on the file does not carry through. I have some to do today.
 
I have the opposite view of many on here on the C1 vs Phocus debate. I like Phocus as a Hasselblad specific RAW image processor. To me it is very simple and does a generally great job of processing RAW images to be seriously worked in PS or Lightroom. I find C1 to be very complicated and it seems to be moving to be more of a RAW processor & PS light in one program. However I could get to love C1 if I used Phase, or actually had a 35mm format. C1 can be confusing and complicated if you use it only once a year.

Brent Daniels
[/quote]

[fotagf8]

In response to Etto1972:

I would hope Hasselblad would read this and get this person his camera ASAP.

[hubell]

In response to Etto1972:

I would hope Hasselblad would read this and get this person his camera ASAP.

How about all the people that ordered a regular X1D several months earlier? Just move them to the back of the line behind those that ordered a black X1D? This is not an easy choice for Hasselblad. Someone will be pissed off.

[fotagf8]

I sympathize with them too, but I was responding to this person.  I am particularly sympathetic because he apparently is now a photographer without a camera.  Yes, I know he shouldn't have sold till he had the new one in hand.

UPS will be delivering the new Olympus Mark II to me in about 45 minutes.  I leave for an overseas trip this afternoon.  It is all a question of irrational expectations.  I have multiple cameras and would have taken two other cameras with me had the Olympus been subject to additional delays.  i would have gotten great shots one way or the other (I am optimist).  But having placed the order months ago, I had been anticipating the new Olympus features, and would have been disappointed had it not arrived.  Recognizing that, I sympathize with everyone who ordered the X1D thinking about this trip or assignment where it would have been perfect and they had thought about how they would use it.  Most will do just fine until it arrives.