Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Brian Hirschfeld on January 21, 2012, 10:09:19 pm
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p3XhLf_OF4
here is my video review of the Hartblei Hcam. A full review with in-depth samples from the Canon 24mm TS, 90mm TS, 17-35mm, 8-15mm and Nikon 24-70mm, 14-24mm, and 50mm 1.4G will be on my site soon. Thoughts are welcome. Since there had been some interest about this camera and my sample images on other posts, I thought i would post this now before the full review.
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Brian,
youtube blocks the video for german viewers. Message is below.
Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.
Rgds
Jan
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Hello Brian,
Beside the video you made, I had a look on your blog.
I must say that you are VERY wrong about your analysis of the SD1 (not about the price of course) and very wrong about foveon technology and Sigma lenses.
Mabe because you are very young too.
You must do your homework before saying such biased statements.
No offence intended.
Kind regards.
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I appreciate the info on the Hcam as I find this a fascinating camera system for MFDBs, in particular addressing the wide angle shortcomings of the Phase body---and where tech cams really shine. I think I must be getting old, as the video quality (constant bumbling movement) left me near sea sick about half-way through! I'll wait for the written review. ;)
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Thank you Brian!
Nice video of a revolutionary camera.
Henrik
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Brian, could you perhaps provide a music-free version for those of us who can't view your video because of copyright problems? Thanks!
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Yes, I didn't realize that would be an issue, I found some royalty free music, and its uploading now. Sorry about that.
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I appreciate the info on the Hcam as I find this a fascinating camera system for MFDBs, in particular addressing the wide angle shortcomings of the Phase body---and where tech cams really shine. I think I must be getting old, as the video quality (constant bumbling movement) left me near sea sick about half-way through! I'll wait for the written review. ;)
yeah sorry, I think in the future, especially once I have my D4 and D3s, I will just set them both up on tripods instead of the current method, since even though I wasn't filming, I know I would've had the same issue, since I AM NOT a video person...at all....sorry for that if it bothered you
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Here is the link to a universal version of the video without royalty free music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__AQefmaeaQ
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Brian,
thanks for the thoughtful review. I am really looking forward to your write-up. Hope you've had a chance to compare the Hcam/35mm wides with tech camera/LF wides, both on IQ180. This, for me, would be the real thing if the Hcam can with Canon 17/24 TSE can hold its own against lenses like the Rodie 23/40 etc.
Cheers.
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Sorry, I have been rathe sick lately, but here is my in-depth write up; http://brianhirschfeldphotography.com/2012/02/24/in-depth-review-of-the-hartblei-hcam-b1/#comments
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Brian,
Great Review. Any direct comparison of Hcam/Canon vs. Tech cam with same back (IQ180)?
Cheers
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I had hoped to do a comparison between the camera and an arca Rm3di but this fell through. From what I experience, the 35mm lenses give you great performance, minimal vignetting and excellent detail rendition, and as Stefan mentions in one of the sections where I quoted him, there is no need to use LCC profiles because the sensor, lens, and shutter are all so well aligned and calibrated.
That said, I would imagine, certainly in micro contrast SK and Rodenstock lenses may have a bit of an advantage. However, for all practical purposes, I would say from my experience the camera and 35mm lenses (and remember you can use adapter to access all medium format lenses as well: Hasselblad V, Pentax, Mamiya M to name a few, which all have tilt shift lenses and bellows type systems in their mounts among others) that they lenses preform very very well. While in a side by side, pixel peeping, the LF lenses may have a bit of an edge, I believe the difference would be negligible, and certainly canceled out when considering factors like fast apertures, no need for center filters which suck light, and convenience of lens choice.
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it is all about the flange focal distance. A Schneider 24mm has 9,7mm distance from the back lens to the chip- their design is usable only on film and has heavy color casts on 60- more on 80 Mpix, the Rodenstock 23mm has already 22 being retrofocus design (Rodenstock saw this cumming but on my opinion at the time when they planned this 40-60 Mpix were about the max they expected on 645), the Canon mount has 44,3mm and the TS mechanism adds up so the back lens is about at least 60mm away from the chip.
Just use Pythagoras and calculate the angles of the beams in the corners for the Schneider, the Rodenstock and the Canon (and also Hartblei) TS lenses.
As light falls off in the square of the distance this mostly eliminates light falloff. It also prevents color cast, color fringing and overall improves uniformity of the files which is a huge advantage for signal processing in post. A real(focal lenght) wideangle lens may in theory be sharper, but in practical usage retrofocus is superior, actually it is the only way today to get to even larger image angles like with the 17mm (126,3 degr. on the HCam/IQ180-Leaf Aptus 12) or even 180 degrees as with the 8-15mm Canon Fisheye zoom spherical.
Thats the idea behind this camera !
Regards
Stefan