Hasselblad H2 test drive

[kevin_waterson]

So, today the Hasselblad World Tour came to Sydney Australia.

>From midday to 6.30pm the doors were opened to industry folk to see,

hear

about and try out the newest offering from Hasselblad. It was a rather

casual, yet well attended affair with industry heavy-weights Adobe and

HP

demonstrating their wares also and how they integrate with the new H2.

 

Upon entering we were greeted and given a goody bag to stuff the

advertising

material in. Light refreshments were available and of course, a

generous

amount of H2 bodies to use. A temporary studio with flash and of

course some

attractive models on hand to help get the feel of the camera. A second

'studio'

was next to this with a make-shift product table and a H2 tethered to

a computer

so that it could be operated remotely and the files saved directly to

the hard disk.

This is a very snappy way to operate a camera and improve digital

workflow.

 

There was imho three groups, the tyre kickers who wanted to see what

the big

boys use, the middle wieghts who were bordering on taking a finacial

leap (myself)

and the folks from the big end of town where money seemed not to be an

object and they

just HAD to have the latest and greatest. Presumably this last group

could afford

these not cheaply priced tools.

 

Also mingling were print shop folks, photo magazine types (Better

Photography putting

in an appearance), and graphic designers. So what is all this fuss

about?

 

The H2 and H2D are the successors to the Hasselblad H1 digital system.

The H2/D boasts

an Imacon digital back of 39 Megapixels. So what you say, more

megapixels are just a

matter of time and money and prices will fall as technology overtakes

todays standards.

 

This seemed to be the crux of the marketing, those few who will buy

today and update

again when the next leap in technology happens. Talking to one of the

reps I was informed

the chip could only stretch to 45 Megapixels.

 

Having previously trialled the H1 system, I was a little familiar with

the use of the H2.

It is basically the same camera with some bug fixes, and of course a

39Megapixel back.

Unfortunately the 39 Megapixel Imacon backs were not available as they

are yet to be

released, coming in March, so we had to make do with the 22 Megapixel

offering. The H2D

of course is a fully integrated unit and both bodies are fully

compatible with Hasselblads

H series of lenses.

 

In the firmware department punters are treated to the latest in "IAA"

(Image Approval Architecture)

making a very nice interface to classify and sort images. The

amazingly bright OLED viewing panel allowing

easy access to all features. The menu system I thought was not too

intuitive. When I tried to insert

my own CF card to format it I had hit a bump, then a wall. I could not

easily find my way to the format

function, although I am sure with practice this would become easier.

Then when I inserted my own card

an error was displayed because my CF card was not SanDisk brand card.

Only SanDisk CF cards can be

used currently by this system.

 

As mentioned Adobe were on hand to provide some excellent working

solutions and it would seem they have

worked well with Hasselblad which now saves images in Adobes DNG

(Digital NeGative) format. This allows

images to be imported directly into Adobe Photoshop CS. Bundled with

the H2 is Hasselblads "FlexColor"

software which is really quite a nifty tool for improving digital

workflow. This I thought was a great

time saving tool which could really catch on.

 

So, lets get to the crunch, how did it perform? Keeping in mind this

is the leading edge in Medium Format

Digital technology, I was a little disappointed. The excellent auto-

focus is sharp and fast, but I found

the skin tones abysmal. Our studio model wearing a red top produced

redish skin tones that needed to

fixed by software. When shooting on the table top a green pair of

shoes was used. I then had the model

place her hand on the shoe and the resulting image gave a greenish hue

to the skin tones. So what? This

is common in digital photography. This is true, but at $AUD 60,000.00

I was hoping for a little more than

what everybody else is offering at 20% of this amount. Where I found

the skin tones best was when I took

a model out into the midday sun and snapped of a few images under

quite harsh lighting. These tones rendered

quite nicely and what was even more surprising was the latitude of the

digital chip. I was expecting the

usual 2-2.5 stop before blow-outs occured. The H2 handled the 4 stop

diffences between light and shadow

magnificently.

 

Once again, this is the leading edge in Medium Format technology.

Others players will need to rally to

meet this standard. But technology moves quickly and todays leading

edge is tomorrows eBay bargains.

Any company thinking of joining the Medium Format digital race need

not match or better the benchmarks

set by Hasselblad with the H2, I believe that price is what will be

the deciding factor for many

who are waiting to join the Medium Format digital era.

 

Kind regards

Kevin

[mark liddell]

Most MF digital back have serious issues with the workflow right now reading stuff from the guys that use them. You'd think hassy would have spent teh time to sort this out at a demo day though!

[dglickstein]

I've been working with an H2 for 2-3 months now and, overall, I'm impressed. However, I only shoot film and I haven't thought 2 seconds about digital.

 

The H1/H2 is excellent for someone moving out of 35mm and into MF. There has been a lot of negativity about the lenses/body parts being made by Fuji. But the H1/H2 is a fantastic camera that is worlds apart from anything else I've tried. There is nothing negative about Fuji being a partner with Hasselblad.

 

I considered writing some form of review here but I'm not sure how good it could be since I'm new to MF. My angle would be as a former Canon EOS uaer. And I'd have nothing to contribute about digital.

 

I hope more here use the H1/H2.

 

dG

[jn02]

Kevin, great review and one of the few that really gets down into what the H2 is about.

 

Derek Rader

[theokeijzers]

Kevin, it's always nice to dream about this stuff.

 

No way I can ever buy this, but it would be nice to see some results from this. I'm curious what comes out of a machine worth a nice sportscar. So please, show us some pictures.

[dglickstein]

What's wrong with debt?

dG

[simonpg]

Thanks Kevin for taking the time to post your extensive comments on the event and what was shown. I'm hoping it will happen here in Melbourne. But I will fall into the tyre kicker group!