I wonder if the majority of Hasselblad H system detractors here have ever actually used the equipment to any degree? Experiences (or lack of such) of a few, against the working professionals like Nick and many thousands of others who use it daily and don't post here?
While I also admit to a fondness for Zeiss optics, many excellent photographers I know have come to grips with the fact that there are also some stellar H lenses... a conclusion I've also come to through extensive use in many different situations.
No matter the prejudice because, as mentioned above, every Zeiss C, CF, CFi and CFE lens works with full aperture automation on the H cameras when I wish it via the ingenious and very well built CF adapter. A FACT continually glossed over in these discussions.
Backwards compatibility with the advantage of a gain to 1/800th sync speed, TTL digital metering, in-viewfinder focus confirmation, and excellent flash control of the H camera. Which is no small thing when it comes to added versatility and speed for multiple applications. Adding the H camera to my 503CMs, has extended the use of these optics across camera platforms ... thus extending their value as useful photographic tools even as their value plummets on the used market.
Also as mentioned, the loss is one of not being able to take advantage of the increasingly useful H3&H/C data transfer to the Flexcolor software to correct distortion and C/A. These software applications currently work on H/C lenses from 80mm on down. ( I have NOT used the new 28mm, so cannot speak to it, nor would I until thoroughly using it for a number of applications ). I HAVE used it for all the current H/C lenses to 80mm and it indeed does work exceedingly well with just a click of a mouse.
I would have to agree that Hasselblad is no longer the same company. Were it not, it may well have been on the same track as the Dodo bird ... or Contax 645, or Bronica, or ( insert the next MF casualty). In that regard, I wonder how many here have bought NEW Zeiss optics for their V cameras? Or a new Hasselblad V camera?
The point is that Hasselblad isn't a charity, they are a business. The customers are the ones voting, and the message was clear ... become a different company fast, or die ... like Kyocera/Contax did ... leaving customers like me holding the obsolete bag and no further lens development as had been promised. The H system is much more than the Contax was, and the better AF, advanced digital interface, and integrated flash control was worth it alone. Contax MAY have stepped up, but now we'll never know.
The wishful notion that Zeiss and Contax may do this or that in future is vaporware talk. Could have, should have, would haves, don't put photographs on the table. Amateurs and semi-professionals can afford to pontificate, and wax poetically ... but they aren't the factor they once were in MF anymore. A MF company has to win the professional market in order to survive now ... and that means digital system cameras and electronic optical interface. In my real job as an ad agency CD, I buy hundreds of thousands of dollars of commercial photography. All of it in the past 3 years (except one job), was digital capture, a number of which was accomplished with the H system.
I now use the H system in my wedding work as well as for advertising applications. It has made an impact due to speed, controll, versatility and the pictorial qualities of certain H/C lenses.
Below, H2D/39, HC/100/2.2 AF @ 2.2, Metz TTL fill flash controlled in camera. This image is being printed to 5 feet wide for display in my studio ... despite web uploads the strawberry is tack sharp in the massive file even when pixel peeping.
