By: Erik Vlietinck
Tue, August 07, 2007 - 6:06:00

http://www.hasselblad.com

IT Enquirer had the opportunity to test a Hasselblad H3D. Antwerp and Amsterdam based reseller and consultancy firm Digi Care provided for the camera, the lenses and the explanation of the H3D’s features. For a whole afternoon, we went photographing with the Hasselblad. Digi Care sells Hasselblad cameras in Belgium and Holland. My test of the H3D was to become a great experience, but also an interesting one. The H3D was heavyweight, but ergonomic nevertheless, and while the weather wasn’t exactly cooperating to make the experience wonderful, it rapidly became clear the H3D is more than a studio camera.

Commercial photographers who want to shoot photos for glossy magazines, art books and lifestyle marketing collateral need a camera that has a large sensor to print large format, high-resolution images. A software application that creates very fine skin tones is a plus, especially in fashion photography. Hasselblad claim they have those capabilities in-house. The H3D combined with FlexColor 4.7.1 further adds value to the camera. I was particularly interested to see if it’s more value than what you get from for example Capture One Pro.

The H3D is a sturdy camera. The housing includes the auxiliary shutter mechanism (the actual shutter is in the lens) and the connectors that connect the digital back, the battery-grip, the viewfinder and the lens fitting. The digital back is one of three models of the H3D platform: the H3D-31 has a 31 million pixel capacity, the H3D-22 has 22 million and the H3D-39 has a 39 million pixel capacity. 

The three backs differ in more than one respect. They not only differ in pixel-depth, but also in ISO sensitivity with the 31 being capable of ISO 100 to 800 speeds, and the others capable of 50 to 400 ISO. Both the 22 and 39 are full-frame backs with a capture speed of 1.4 sec/capture. The 31 has a capture speed of 1.2 seconds.

The sensor area measures 36 x 48 millimeters which explains why the Hasselblad isn’t capable of rotating the image from upright to sideways without actually turning the camera itself on its side. One square-sensor medium-format camera with a sensor that equals a 6 x 6 inch surface claims this feature to make handling the camera much easier. To be quite honest, just like any 35mm camera, I didn’t feel like the H3D was any more difficult to handle on its side than it was in the upright position.

But let’s first round up the feature set of the Hasselblad. There’s a new lens available made especially for this platform. It’s a 28mm lens and it’s simply one of the most impressive lenses (in terms of image quality that you can get out of it) that I’ve ever seen. The Digital APO Correction function further enhances this lens’ value.

I was a bit wary of handling the Hasselblad H3D, not only because it’s an expensive piece of gear, but especially as I had weighed it with the zoom lens before, and it seemed very heavy to me. However, when we got out and I had the experience to carry it around while outside, the weight wasn’t too bad. The H3D is designed to rest on the battery grip, and its natural position in your hand is to have the battery grip carry the camera.

The Hasselblad H3D Ergonomics

The form factor of the camera makes carrying the H3D around this way a comfortable business. It never felt like the camera weighed too much to be able to shoot steady pictures. That being said, the zoom lens is not something that I would recommend carrying around for hours on end. This lens is, apart from its versatility, no less than a heavy-weight and using it for more than half an hour would give me the cramps.

Handling the H3D’s controls was a mixed experience to me. I’m not used to medium-format cameras and I hadn’t read the manual before setting out to test it, so I didn’t know well enough where all the controls were. The Digi Care consultant who carried the hard case with all the lenses that we were planning on using, had to jump in on a number of occasions as I couldn’t find the right controls by myself.

This is no criticism of Hasselblad. Almost every digital device has so many controls, buttons, sliders, knobs, etc, that it would be hard to make a camera that laymen would be able to handle in a blink of an eye. Controls that were immediately clear to even an unexperienced user, included the shutter button, the rating button (after briefly reading through the FlexColor manual) and the rotary knobs to set aperture and shutter speed.

What I found disturbing was that the H3D goes to sleep very often to conserve battery power --the setting can be changed-- and that only the shutter release or on/off button would wake it up. What I found particularly good was the low-light performance of the auto-focus. Digi Care’s own offices are very dark, and even in these low-light conditions, the camera focussed correctly very fast.