The Hassy is a nice light landscape camera with good ergonomics which its users appreciate; however quirks which are due to the old sensor used without focal plane shutter preclude fast shooting. I don’t see people complaining.
What is a bit sad about the DPR review is that the reviewers had trouble with portraits. Almost every non-professional photographer wants to do a portrait occasionally with the camera at hand. Vieri can say he NEVER shoots a portrait, because HE is a professional with iron discipline, HE never goes outside his planned project, but for the rest of us there is always a moment when the moment is magical, the camera in our hands says it wants to do a capture, and we give in.
Hasselblad have engineers, and engineers love to solve hard problems. Hassy could solve or at least ameliorate the focus problem in software, eg. by licensing the Panasonic DFD process depth from defocus, which works well on their GH and GF series of cameras.
Edmund
No need for sarcasm Edmund, no need to try and being funny, I might recommend you keep your day job instead
I never said anything of the sort about me. What I repeatedly said is that I am a professional photographer but, as such, I shoot only Landscape. I also said repeatedly that my conclusions (whether on my blog or here) apply to the kind of shooting I do, and that if someone does a different kind of photography his or her requirements might be different, and so can their choice of equipment.
Incidentally, I definitely shoot the occasional portrait, of course. I actually started working professionally as a photographer shooting people, back in 2005, and did that for 5 years before deciding to dedicate myself exclusively to landscape photography. I worked with musicians, rock / pop / classical, shoot live concerts, and had my work published by various magazines (Rolling Stones, Cosmo, Abitare, etc). I did a lot of street photography too, and my street work got exhibited a few times during thee years. In 2010, I decided I only wanted to do landscape professionally, but that said, I still do take the occasional portraits for friends and the like, sometimes "giving in", as you said, sometimes in more formal settings, with studio lights and so on. I just don't do portrait professionally, meaning I don't do it for money, don't advertise for it, and so on. In my experience, for the occasional portrait the X1D, either I or II, is perfectly fine, AF, speed and all, and if one cannot shoot the occasional portrait with the X1D, either I or II, one should probably chose a different hobby. Professionally, one might love the X1D's portrait rendition, which is superb as far as colour and IQ, and live with its quirks, or one might prefer a different camera, of course, because one values other features higher - no problem with that.
All that said, let's remember how lucky we are to be living today, with such great choice of equipment, and let's not forget the great photographers of the past, who took great images with no AF, no digital, no live view histogram, and so on. To me, all this equipment whining and bashing is just unnecessary and boring. There is so much choice out there, that if one don't like something he should just get something else that suits him better, and go take photos with whatever he chooses.
Best regards,
Vieri
