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Any Landscape photogs shooting Hasselblad digital

Bigger sensors are needed to make full use of the angle of view of the lenses we already have, particularly the wide angle ones.

The H-System 28 mm lens made sure that system at least has a wide angle option. The V-System, with any of the available backs, has not; you still need film when you want to shoot a wide angle picture.
So bring on the bigger sensor, even if one doesn't hold more pixels!

Jürgen,

The H-System too is 'open to' bigger sensors.
Not 6x6, but 6x4.5.

The Hy6 will not take anything larger than 6x6.
Just like the V-System.

Stitching works where a scanning back would not be a problem too.
Scanning backs are rare, and there is a reason for that.
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Gilbert said - <<if>>

Fantastic
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Very interesting discussion gentlemen. I'm happy to just keep reading and learn.

But I will comment that as I wander about locations wedding photographers like to take their clients to for a shoot, I cringe as I watch "newbie" wedding photographers pretend to be "professionals". I can see by their behaviours that they are at best opportunists who like photography and can drag around 5D and equivalent midrange Nikon DSLR cameras. It is often so obvious that the digi-machine gun operators have NO IDEA on style or lighting.

This is one element of digital photography (yes, more confined to the 35mm and P&S segments) that I dislike - it's called: the lowest common denominator!

To my mind and for my needs, there is NO benefit in shooting landscapes digitally - there is no need for immediacy - no time benefit (nobody I must upload into cyberspace who needs to publish an image the next day); no technical benefit (if I am competent, I know quite precisely how my images will turn out and I can bracket to be sure); nominal financial benefit (I'd have to be doing a lot of landscapes to make a digi-back pay off). Finally, much of my 6x6 landscapes are shot with 50mm and 60mm lenses - wide angle is quite important. So I am happy with film for my landscape shooting which is about 70% of my 6x6 shooting.

But, for the other 30% of my shooting..... now that's a different story.
 
"Unless photographers are progressing huge poster c&aigns it is not seen why they need to go any further than the general magazine format."

Carl, the higher meg backs tend to mitigate the issue of Moir&eacute; for one thing. They also allow more flexibility for cropping and composition ... which some here may not be in need of, but is a desirable option for advertisers that synergistically use images in a multitude of different media from the web to in-store posters and billboards, often cropped, sometimes severely. We have to remember, it isn't landscape shooters, wedding and event shooters or even advanced amateurs that drive the MF business anymore.

As far as further development, most professional photographers I converse with basically agree that the top end backs available now are approaching being "enough" resolution, and would prefer other R&D developments ... like multiple auto focus points, faster in-camera processing, bigger buffers, higher ISOs, continued firmware/softwear improvements, etc.

This desire is being met as we speak. The Leaf Aptus "s" series is faster and their software/firmware improvements have be impressive; the Phase One "Plus" series are faster and better; the Hasselblad H3D/39 multi-shot is now being shipped (imagine a 4 shot X 39 meg file! ), the H3D/31 is faster shooting/loading and produces stunning ISO 800 files ... their newer 28mm is so wide and the DAC software corrections for distortion and chromatic aberrations so amazing, one wonders what's next?

What wonderful photographic times we live in... and I am thankful it includes film, which as Simon says ( : -) is more than enough for him and most of us who like it's look, and are comfortable with the medium and its process ... which can be via the darkroom or the digital domain. Say yes to options !!!

As far as the wedding photography situation mentioned by Simon, I tend to agree. I am reprinting a number of wedding shots on my new Epson 3800 for display use ... the vast majority of shots I'm using were shot with MF and film ... and I am a PJ style shooter! Like this one ... Contax 645 and Zeiss 45/2.8 lens:

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Michael:

I've actually been shooting more landscape with my Hassie V system & Phase One back than my 4x5 in the last 6 months. If I need wide angle, I'll use my 75mm on 4x5. I currently use 50mm, 80mm and 180mm. I have use of a SWC, but haven't used it "seriously" yet.

I find that the Hassie is great for backpacking. I drop to two lenses and don't look back. Some of my best landscape images have been made with the V system.

I would invest in a back with a larger sensor. Having a 1.1 or 1.25 crop factor makes a big difference. Generally, you can step back a few feet and be OK. If you're looking for extreme wide angles, then you'll need to invest in a special purpose camera.

BTW, Charles Cramer is doing more medium format landscape with a Phase One back. Bill Atkinson has been using digital medium format for awhile now.

Here's a recent image shot with the CFi 180mm...no touchup [yet], just sharpened a little. This was about a 3.5-4 second exposure.

Rich
NGOphotographer

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Nice post RP - love the isolation of the branch. I began a love affair with my 180mm lens as soon as I saw the first image I had made with it! And what's more the out of focus blur is lovely.
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Digital landscape

Sure, some of us shoot Hasselblad digital for landscape! H3D22, 39 and now 50. Much of the time. It makes beautiful pictures and has more or less replaced my 4x5 and 8x10 (which I still use at times).

The new tripods (carbon) are also a good change. I used to haul a wooden survery tripod around with my 4x5 and Hasselblad for decades. My back feels better these days.
 
Does nobody else plan to use a HD back on a view camera with a stitching back? 130 Mpx (three shot) should look good out of a 7900?

(The H4D-60 just fills the width of 24" @ 360 original pixels per print inch.)
 
I don't have a view camera but I do compile panos of 2-3 and more shots with my humble P20 on the H2. There are some cloudscapes in my album.
 
HD and 4x5

I started moving on that direction but opted for a Betterlight on my 4x5 which does extraordinary pans. But so does my XPan and it is featherweight compared. I shot pans with my H3D-39 in Machu Picchu earlier this year. They stitched well and were worth the guards screaming because I had a tripod.
 
I will be upgrading to the H3D-60 in January, I have 3 V system Hasselblads and three Sinars. and I intend to do landscapes with double or triple stitch on the P3 or P2.
 
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