Staffan, you are not alone.
Here is my history so far: Purchased a H2D/22, and immediately had much difficulty with it's consistency of shooting despite good attention from the very knowledgeable reseller and his contacts with Hasselblad technical help, who sometimes worked with me directly. All the lenses were new and had current firmware (confirmed by tech folks). So, I came to totally distrust the camera. Finally, everyone just admitted that it was "possessed".
Then the H2D/39 came out not long after. I decided to pay for the upgrade, and Hasselblad just swapped out the whole rig for a new one rather than having me send my 22 in to be altered to a 39. That was a good thing.
Got the new HD2/39. It also has proven to be inconsistent in shooting, although far less so than the HD2/22 was. I have gone through whole jobs with no issues. But when it does happen, I also have to field strip the camera, wait a few seconds and reassemble to get it back "on-line". Here is the BIG problem, sometimes when it happens, there is no warning. The LCD shows that the shot was captured so you think all is well. When you get back to the studio and download in Flexcolor, some of the shots in a group are gibberish, or all black with a few "electric" looking blobs of color. It simply didn't write the file correctly, even though the preview appeared correct on the LCD.
I am not inexperienced in digital. I shot for years with a couple of Kodak ProBacks on various cameras. I also use a Canon 1DsMKII. I have done 100 weddings and numerous commercial assignments with that array of gear, with zero issues and no lost images.
Here are my suspicions concerning the H digital camera: It is a profoundly complex piece of equipment, but it cannot be pushed beyond certain limits and suffers NO user errors without punishing you in return. Like any computer, it can suddenly become an idiot.
I am currently "investigating" all possible errors I could have made before blaming the camera. I also have become suspect of one of my grip batteries as being flawed (yes, I have reset the "fuel gauge"). Power can be a big issue with these cameras if not monitored properly, and even if the battery says it is okay, sometimes it just isn't enough if pushed hard and the draw on it seems to exceed the supply.
I also suspect that if you push the captures beyond the buffer capacity shoot rate, you can cause issues ... this is an easy thing to do when shooting unteathered and in the heat of battle. I have had an Error Code appear on the camera's LCD, and even though I removed the battery and restarted, it then wouldn't purge the error code.
Lastly, I suspect the cards themselves. I have isolated the cards where I have the problems and won't use those CFs again in that camera. I have decided to totally clean my San Disk 4 gig Extreme IIIs using the SanDisk utility and will reformat in the H2D ... then only use those cards in that camera.
Once I do all of that, and IF I still have issues, Hasselblad will get an ear full.
Plus, when the camera works (which is a vast majority of the time), it is magnificent .
Here is my history so far: Purchased a H2D/22, and immediately had much difficulty with it's consistency of shooting despite good attention from the very knowledgeable reseller and his contacts with Hasselblad technical help, who sometimes worked with me directly. All the lenses were new and had current firmware (confirmed by tech folks). So, I came to totally distrust the camera. Finally, everyone just admitted that it was "possessed".
Then the H2D/39 came out not long after. I decided to pay for the upgrade, and Hasselblad just swapped out the whole rig for a new one rather than having me send my 22 in to be altered to a 39. That was a good thing.
Got the new HD2/39. It also has proven to be inconsistent in shooting, although far less so than the HD2/22 was. I have gone through whole jobs with no issues. But when it does happen, I also have to field strip the camera, wait a few seconds and reassemble to get it back "on-line". Here is the BIG problem, sometimes when it happens, there is no warning. The LCD shows that the shot was captured so you think all is well. When you get back to the studio and download in Flexcolor, some of the shots in a group are gibberish, or all black with a few "electric" looking blobs of color. It simply didn't write the file correctly, even though the preview appeared correct on the LCD.
I am not inexperienced in digital. I shot for years with a couple of Kodak ProBacks on various cameras. I also use a Canon 1DsMKII. I have done 100 weddings and numerous commercial assignments with that array of gear, with zero issues and no lost images.
Here are my suspicions concerning the H digital camera: It is a profoundly complex piece of equipment, but it cannot be pushed beyond certain limits and suffers NO user errors without punishing you in return. Like any computer, it can suddenly become an idiot.
I am currently "investigating" all possible errors I could have made before blaming the camera. I also have become suspect of one of my grip batteries as being flawed (yes, I have reset the "fuel gauge"). Power can be a big issue with these cameras if not monitored properly, and even if the battery says it is okay, sometimes it just isn't enough if pushed hard and the draw on it seems to exceed the supply.
I also suspect that if you push the captures beyond the buffer capacity shoot rate, you can cause issues ... this is an easy thing to do when shooting unteathered and in the heat of battle. I have had an Error Code appear on the camera's LCD, and even though I removed the battery and restarted, it then wouldn't purge the error code.
Lastly, I suspect the cards themselves. I have isolated the cards where I have the problems and won't use those CFs again in that camera. I have decided to totally clean my San Disk 4 gig Extreme IIIs using the SanDisk utility and will reformat in the H2D ... then only use those cards in that camera.
Once I do all of that, and IF I still have issues, Hasselblad will get an ear full.
Plus, when the camera works (which is a vast majority of the time), it is magnificent .
