[...]I used the 150mm Sonnar for most of the shots – now this is a lens which I know to be first-class and which has given me great results on the CFV in the past. Despite taking what I thought was a great deal of care over framing, focusing and exposure, to my horror when I got home and downloaded the card into LR about 90% of the shots were incorrectly focused. In fact, some of them were so bad I could not find a point of focus anywhere in the frame at all. Out of about 12 frames, only two were crisp. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, because the 150 is actually quite an easy lens to focus, and I knew I had taken care to “pop” the focus precisely for each shot.[...]
"some of them were so bad I could not find a point of focus anywhere in the frame at all"
As stated above I would really look into camera shake / mirror-slap. Especially since both issues would be easier to come across with a longer lens (e.g. your 150) than a shorter lens (e.g. your 65) and presumably your interior work was done on a tripod).
Even with all the experience I have teaching/trouble-shooting I often allow my shutter speeds to creep down into a no-good zone when shooting a DB with a longer lens. Depending on a lot of factors (your hands' steadiness, how you hold the camera, the mirror slap etc) you may find that you need 1.5x the focal length all the way to 3x the focal length in shutter speed to get consistently sharp images.
I mention this because it's hard sometimes to remember (while focusing on the important stuff like composition, and emotion etc) what the requirements are for your particular gear, especially when switching between 2010 dSLRs with image stabilized lenses and 1960s manual bodies with a known penchant for mirror-slap*.
Even if you've got years of experience - It's not a bad idea some times to go back to your Photo 101 class curriculum and do a test with your system with multiple lenses where you take a few shots at each shutter speed, with different holding stances, and with different combination of hand holding, tripod, and monopod, to see where your hands, your mirror, and your resolution allow you to shoot consistently. I find I have to do this with regularity because in my position with Capture Integration I have the great luck to shoot with a huge variety of bodies, lenses, and different resolution digital backs.
*to anyone who just looks for ways to be offended, this is not meant as a slam on Hasselblad; most large-frame cameras of that era have a penchant for mirror slap including the Mamiya RB, Fuji 680 etc.
Doug Peterson
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