Hasselblad two questions

[James_Rhodes]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

 

[SrMi]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

Do not export as DNG as you lose any Phocus operation. Expost as TIFF for further peocessing outside Phocus.

Many are happy with LrC's colors, and use Phocus only in certain situations

 

[yogi4fitness]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

Do not export as DNG as you lose any Phocus operation. Expost as TIFF for further peocessing outside Phocus.

Many are happy with LrC's colors, and use Phocus only in certain situations

I only use Phocus if the scene/subject is especially colorful and I want to keep the Color fidelity, otherwise LR is pretty good. Going thru Phocus for every Hasselblad file is painful.

 

[James_Rhodes]

Glad I’m not the only one. What a relief. Thank you.

 

[jfaphoto]

Q1- no idea- I don't have either the camera or the lens. I have the zoom, and at f13, everything is in focus front to back at 35mm if I chose the hyper focal distance. The CFV 100C camera back doesn't have IBIS, so isn't so effective with this technique as you can't shoot lower shutter speeds as effectively as you can with the X2D.

Q2- Phocus takes some getting used to, but it is a powerful, effective program. I strongly advise you to watch the Hasselblad webinar on Phocus, which is comprehensive, and although very long and technical, well worth the investment if you want to get the most out of your Hasselblad camera or back.

Personally, I find Phocus perfectly acceptable to use, feel no 'pain' and recommend it to extract the best results maximising the Hasselblad colour science. YMMV. It depends on your final output and technique and your monitor setup.

I import to Phocus, apply most corrections including Curves (it does Luma, not just RGB), sharpness, exposure (clarity and detail) then export as a TIFF and adjust colour balance etc in Photoshop. I have never been able to use Lr- it works in the total opposite way to my brain.

Tip if you didn't already know- If you are on a Mac, you can preview the Hasselblad 3FR files in Finder without importing them into Phocus first and do a preliminary edit that way.

 

[Ben_Bro]

Regarding 1: It depends on what you consider to be acceptably sharp but even on the 50mpix bodies you will notice a lot of soft results when setting the 38mm to 7feet distance at f8. Even the very generous settings that a DOF calculator like Dofmaster uses by default, gives a depth of field of around 12 feet at your suggested settings.

Using a smaller circle of confusion will reveal a a much shallower depth of field.
There is no easy solution here as the distance markings are not precise enough on the lens and you will have to trade sharpness either through slightly misfocused results or through diffraction. Probably focus further into the scene if at all possible. Focus to 12 feet at f11 for example.

 

[James_Rhodes]

Tip if you didn't already know- If you are on a Mac, you can preview the Hasselblad 3FR files in Finder without importing them into Phocus first and do a preliminary edit that way.

 

[James_Rhodes]

Regarding 1: It depends on what you consider to be acceptably sharp but even on the 50mpix bodies you will notice a lot of soft results when setting the 38mm to 7feet distance at f8. Even the very generous settings that a DOF calculator like Dofmaster uses by default, gives a depth of field of around 12 feet at your suggested settings.
Using a smaller circle of confusion will reveal a a much shallower depth of field.
There is no easy solution here as the distance markings are not precise enough on the lens and you will have to trade sharpness either through slightly misfocused results or through diffraction. Probably focus further into the scene if at all possible. Focus to 12 feet at f11 for example.

I will try that. Makes sense. And Madrid is sunny and 33 degrees so no issue there.

 

[JimKasson]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

That assumes a pretty big CoC. Try derating the DOF by two stops.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

In my opinion, zone focusing with a modern high-resolution camera and then expecting sharp / detailed results is often madness. Basic optical physics says that only one infinitesimally-thin plane is actually in focus, and anything closer or father is at least a bit out of focus. The whole concept of depth of field is that the degree to which it's out of focus is small enough not to bother you. That works quite will for 4x6" or even 8x10" prints. For viewing 51 or 102 MP files on-screen at 100% or making large prints, it breaks down badly.

To illustrate--hopefully Jim or someone will check my math--if we use an on-sensor circle of confusion equal to the pixel pitch of the 51 MP, 44x33mm sensor, then with a 38mm lens at f/8 and focused to 12 ft away (my estimate based on your '7 feet to infinity' statement), the depth of field extends not much more than 1 ft in front of and behind that 12 ft distance!

But let's change to a far more forgiving standard but IMO not inappropriate for sensible uses of a medium format digital camera: a 16x20" print with a 0.14mm print circle of confusion (maybe around 180 ppi). The reasonably in-focus area is only from 2.2 ft in front of, to 3.6 ft behind, that plane of focus 12 ft away.

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

 

[Ramon Vaquero]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

Can’t explain the hit and miss thing as f8 is enough aperture to achieve some dept of field. But keep in mind that equivalence in FF would be something like f5,6 or less…so I’d try one or two more stops.

As for your processing workflow, it’s the same I usually do. I don’t know if DNG files would keep the Focus settings, but the high quality TIFF 16 bits files you get from Focus are still highly editable on LR/ACR.

--
https://www.ramonvaquero.com/en/

 

[James_Rhodes]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

Can’t explain the hit and miss thing as f8 is enough aperture to achieve some dept of field. But keep in mind that equivalence in FF would be something like f5,6 or less…so I’d try one or two more stops.

i completely forgot this. Empanada mental! Will go to F11 and that should be great many thanks

 

[Ramon Vaquero]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

2. Phocus workflow - import, lens corrections applied (automatically I think), export in TIFF then import to LR. Is this the quickest way to maintain the colours and then tweak in LR? I find phocus almost unusable to edit. Would it be ok to export in DNG instead of TIFF?

many thanks in advance.

Can’t explain the hit and miss thing as f8 is enough aperture to achieve some dept of field. But keep in mind that equivalence in FF would be something like f5,6 or less…so I’d try one or two more stops.

i completely forgot this. Empanada mental! Will go to F11 and that should be great many thanks

Thanks for your reply.

Un saudo desde Vigo.

 

[yogi4fitness]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

I've not used zone focussing but I see the appeal in manual focus applications with street photography esp with wide angle lenses. But from what I have seen most street photographers aren't concerned about hitting critical focus on their subjects but more about capturing the moment. Most famous street photographs I've seen lack pin sharp focus on the subject.

Fast reliable AF is the only way I'll trust pin sharp focus on modern high MP cameras.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

I've not used zone focussing but I see the appeal in manual focus applications with street photography esp with wide angle lenses. But from what I have seen most street photographers aren't concerned about hitting critical focus on their subjects but more about capturing the moment. Most famous street photographs I've seen lack pin sharp focus on the subject.

Fast reliable AF is the only way I'll trust pin sharp focus on modern high MP cameras.

I think we largely agree on that. To me the question is: then why use a medium format digital camera? In the film days, medium format could make sense even where sharpness / detail wasn't important if you wanted to reduce grain and/or get smoother tonality, especially in decent-size prints. With modern clean CMOS sensors and sophisticated raw conversion software, even smaller sensors can produce very nice, clean, smooth results. So I'm back to thinking there aren't many applications where using a modern medium format digital camera with zone focusing makes a lot of sense. JMO and maybe I'm showing my ignorance.

 

[yogi4fitness]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

I've not used zone focussing but I see the appeal in manual focus applications with street photography esp with wide angle lenses. But from what I have seen most street photographers aren't concerned about hitting critical focus on their subjects but more about capturing the moment. Most famous street photographs I've seen lack pin sharp focus on the subject.

Fast reliable AF is the only way I'll trust pin sharp focus on modern high MP cameras.

I think we largely agree on that. To me the question is: then why use a medium format digital camera? In the film days, medium format could make sense even where sharpness / detail wasn't important if you wanted to reduce grain and/or get smoother tonality, especially in decent-size prints. With modern clean CMOS sensors and sophisticated raw conversion software, even smaller sensors can produce very nice, clean, smooth results. So I'm back to thinking there aren't many applications where using a modern medium format digital camera with zone focusing makes a lot of sense. JMO and maybe I'm showing my ignorance.

Agree

 

[James_Rhodes]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

I've not used zone focussing but I see the appeal in manual focus applications with street photography esp with wide angle lenses. But from what I have seen most street photographers aren't concerned about hitting critical focus on their subjects but more about capturing the moment. Most famous street photographs I've seen lack pin sharp focus on the subject.

Fast reliable AF is the only way I'll trust pin sharp focus on modern high MP cameras.

I think we largely agree on that. To me the question is: then why use a medium format digital camera? In the film days, medium format could make sense even where sharpness / detail wasn't important if you wanted to reduce grain and/or get smoother tonality, especially in decent-size prints. With modern clean CMOS sensors and sophisticated raw conversion software, even smaller sensors can produce very nice, clean, smooth results. So I'm back to thinking there aren't many applications where using a modern medium format digital camera with zone focusing makes a lot of sense. JMO and maybe I'm showing my ignorance.

I agree in principal. It is more a case of leaving my monochrom Leica at home and taking the 907X with me to shoot colour in the street. I am so used to zone focussing that it would make things easier for me, especially in bright sunlight. But yes. Medium format is better suited to other situations as a rule.

 

[JimKasson]

Loving my new 907X but am hoping wiser minds here can help with two points:

1. Zone focusing. With the 38v I set it to F8, SS1/500 and manual focus (effectively my Leica M setting with a 28mm for street). The figures on the lens body imply that anywhere between 7 feet and infinity should be in focus but my results are hit and miss. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not the right system for zone focussing?

To be clear, I'm not saying that zone focusing has no place. But I am saying that its reasonable place is for photos where a fair amount of blur is acceptable and maybe even desirable, or for situations where you have a pretty good idea how close the main subject will be.

I've not used zone focussing but I see the appeal in manual focus applications with street photography esp with wide angle lenses. But from what I have seen most street photographers aren't concerned about hitting critical focus on their subjects but more about capturing the moment. Most famous street photographs I've seen lack pin sharp focus on the subject.

Fast reliable AF is the only way I'll trust pin sharp focus on modern high MP cameras.

I think we largely agree on that. To me the question is: then why use a medium format digital camera? In the film days, medium format could make sense even where sharpness / detail wasn't important if you wanted to reduce grain and/or get smoother tonality, especially in decent-size prints. With modern clean CMOS sensors and sophisticated raw conversion software, even smaller sensors can produce very nice, clean, smooth results. So I'm back to thinking there aren't many applications where using a modern medium format digital camera with zone focusing makes a lot of sense. JMO and maybe I'm showing my ignorance.

I agree in principal. It is more a case of leaving my monochrom Leica at home and taking the 907X with me to shoot colour in the street. I am so used to zone focussing that it would make things easier for me, especially in bright sunlight. But yes. Medium format is better suited to other situations as a rule.

I don't have any issues using zone focusing on MF, provided the DOF markings are derated according to the circumstances.