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Hasselblad CFV Digital Back User report

Hi Simon.

I have to tell you that I absolutely love this back and am more excited about it than I was about the H2D/39. This is probably because the 500/200 series cameras are my MF favorites of all time and remain so. Give me simple manual functionality with me in total control and I'm a happy guy.

If someone produced a near 6X6 digital sensor @ 30 meg or greater, I would be done, and not care what came afterward. And that would only be due to using the full wide angle lenses. If there was a Zeiss lens wish, it would be for something wider than 40mm designed for a square crop frame sensor ... like the DSLR makers have produced for their crop frame digitals.

As far as metering, I love the PME45 and have to admit that I no longer use a handheld meter since they always produced the same readings. My assistant would take a reading and my reading from the PME was always the same. Plus I know what I'm doing when it comes to compensating ... shooting thousands of wedding images under pressure sharpens your experiences in all kinds of lighting situations.

No I have not made a large display print other than the 12.5" X 12.5" I can do on my Epson 2400. However, last week I delivered a 5 foot wide print to a wedding client made from a H2D/39 file that you could pixel-peep view with jaw dropping results. So, a 24" X 24" print from this back should be a no brainer.
 
Great; a pixel size of 9 micron should get realy lots of shadow details. I can call it digital chrome !
happy.gif
. Just watch the hilight areas like you do with reversal films.
Getting more sensor area(49mm instead of 36.7mm) is much more expensive than getting smaller pixels in the same area. And there is room for improving resolution(same sensor area with 6-7 micron pixels)in the future.
The cropped part is around 9X enlargement which will result in 13"X13" print @ 300DPI. More than enough.
Marc, It was great experience I've through discussion here.
Thanks is not enough; Thanks sooooooooooooooo much.
 
Somebody stop me : -)

Sorry, this is so much fun showing un-serious snapshots taken with a pro level camera.

Here's a fellow we met on our trip ... 14 month old Weatherby. I FTPed a couple of shots to his owners, who will now use it on their business website. They were so blown away by the quality of the images I sent that they went on and on about it in a in a thank-you note.

26230.jpg
 
Marc,

How does the CFV compare with your Kodak 645C? Is it significantly better? I'm still using a ProBack plus on my 555ELD and Flexbody. Can you get a usa ble ISO 400?

Larry
 
Marc this is great. Like everyone else, I appreciate you posting this. Hopefully they make software for Macs. I can go to their site to find out. I may try to secure a lease . . it seems it would make sense to trade up when they upgrade and not take a major 'hit'. Did you have considerations about lease / purchase?

Do you feel the Canon is still necessary other then size? This makes me want to get rid of my Nikon digitals (that I use under duress).

Sincerely thanks!
 
knox

If you look at the CFV datasheet at the HASSELBLAD WEB pages , you will find , that MAC OSX can be used as well as MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT , 2000 and also XP .
 
Yes thanks . . I just left their site then saw your post.
It's very tempting. Obviously auto focus / higher ISO / and some other conveniences of a DSLR like my Nikons are nice, but the shots Marc posted are very compelling.
 
No I didn't consider a lease. I charge a digital capture fee for commercial projects that usually covers the price (less residual value) with-in 2 years. I used the Kodak Pro-Back for almost 4 years, and expect to do so with this one.

ISO is now more usable with Imacon since the most recent software release. I used 400 for some of the shots on vacation when shooting the 180/4 with 1.4X in order to get the shutter speed up enough to hand hold it.

Knox, no this is not a replacement for the lightening fast ETTL, AF Canon 1 series digital cameras. I need those for photojournalistic type wedding work. I am hoping the upcoming Leica M Digital will absorb some of that type work and lighten the load.

Here's an ex&le of the CFV @ ISO 400 which is comparable to or a bit better than 400 speed film that has been scanned. ... not optimal, as I had to lift the darks due to the directional available lighting ... which can create noise in the darks with most digital capture as well as scanned film (note that the spots in the granite stand were actually there not created by digital processing).

26237.jpg
 
Marc . . .thanks again. That photo is really great. I am no huge fan of digital. The reason I shoot D1Xs (for digital) is that I can get a 'somewhat' film look out of them . . . or I should say, more then any other digital I have seen. Yet the shots you are offering are a nice combination of formats. It's making this a serious consideration for me. To be able to have the options of throwing a film or digital back on my Hasselblads (or keep film in one and a digital back on the other) with Zeiss out front and to not get the typical sterile (one dimensional / very little front to back depth) that bothers me about digital is a great thing!
 
Marc,

After spending a lot on film and processing, I realized how much I need a CFV digital back for my lonely 503CW. I begged my wife to let me get the CFV, and she asked me that I already have the H2 and H1D, why would I need another digital back? I told my wife that 645 and 6x6 format are just not the same. She told me that SEX is SEX no matter how I look at it. I just have to wait until Christmas
happy.gif
. I am just hoping that Christmas comes sooner this year.

Fantastic images, and a lot of information for us to learn and appreciate.
 
Jurgen:

My wife just don't understand me. She said that sex-for-five(645) or sex-by-sex(6x6) is all about sex, so there is no need to try something new until Christmas. I even promised my wife NO sex for 1 year if she let met get the CFV digital back now, but still NO GO.

At the mean time, I have to settle for my H1D's 645 format to capture this image of my car wash:

26240.jpg
 
Paul, its not about sex, its about quality dependable transportation. Tell her you need a 4x4. (4Mp x 4Mp = 16MPixel)
 
Paul,
I must be missing something here.
Why would you expect a promise of NO sex for a year with your wife, should reap you a reward?
Surely, you have this backwards!
 
Your guys must be married to experience what I go through. During honeymoon, it was three times a day. After honeymoon, it was three times a week, and 6 months later, it was three times a month. After 5 years of wonderful marriage, it became three times a year. Now on my 6th year, it is once a year. What were you guys thinking about??? I was talking about my wife cooking for me
happy.gif
.

Since my wife started to lose interest in the Big Bang theory, I took up another hobby, PHOTOGRAPHY, to keep me from pesting her all the time for more frequency of intimacy. So to reward me what I begged for, my wife wants to wear the pants in the house, I have to take trash out every week, and only get some intimacy when SHE is in the mood(once a year).

What am I talking about??? This is not a psychotherapy forum, I am in the wrong forum. Really, this is a photography forum where we exchange our knowledge and experience about photography, not personal struggle in life.

All jokes aside, I almost got rid of my Hasselblad 503CW system since I was using my H1D and Mamiya 645AFD w/Kodak Pro digital back a lot.

What Marc has shown us today is that Hasselblad V series is not dead, and with the intergration of digital backs(hopefully price will soon start to come down), our manual Hasseys can surely survive in this digital world and will be around for a long time.
 
Paul, I think the chamois you use on your car is just the perfect thing for the job!

By the way given how you shoot "sex-to-five" and "sex-by-sex", I thought for a moment that you may be a New Zealander!
 
Thanks Marc, each next image you post shows more and more impressive capabilities.

That shot of the black dog is amazing when I think how even carefully exposed film black dog shots make it hard to see the dog's lines and details.

If this back's performance and forthcoming media reviews lead to it being a roaring success, maybe Hasselblad will begin to produce new back options and even get Zeiss to produce a couple of digi-very-wide angle cropped frame lenses for the V series cameras expecting a solid demand for them from 6x6 users. Here's hoping.

Of course that EOS 1DsMkII is a very different horse for a very different course, but you comments of comparative performance between that and the CFV back are a helpful benchmark since the full-frame high res EOS sensor is really the standard by which all other 35mm format DSLR are compared.

Clearly that "film or digi" option available with Hasselblad MF is a major bonus to users. Interestingly only Leica has had the foresight and customer respect to engineer into the superseded R8 and current R9 bodies the necessary data buses etc. so the user could make a choice of what media to use. They respected and protected customer's huge investment in Leica equipment. The only major constraint Leica faces with the R cameras is the absence of AF, so logically useful to 35mm SLR users as a weapon of speed and convenience.
 
Two basic questions: 1) How is the power supply--i.e., battery life? Do you juggle batteries, or does one last all day? 2) Will this back work on my 903swc? I can imagine that the focus limitations with the SWC would be compounded (but perhaps not insurmountable) with a digital back.

Marc, these are very fine images and this thread has me all aflutter. Quite exciting.
 
Hi Timothy. Battery consumption is okay, depending on how much LCD review you do. One battery isn't enough IMO and a second should be with you at all times. I have 3. But I got a charger that replenishes using the outlet in my Volvo, which I used while on my driving vacation. So, I really don't know how many shots one battery will do. I DO know a depleted battery will cause garbled shots even though the LCD preview says it's okay. Gotta watch the power levels.
 
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