Still Photography

[ndwgolf]

Popped out this morning, grabbed a few bits and bobs and put this together in my dining room with the help of a couple of Profoto B1 heads and the amazing Hasselblad X2D II w/. XCD 135:2.8

 

[40737029 10]

Hi There,

The whole image is very soft. Bordering on Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) on the feathery things at the back, was this deliberate??
I assume 1/125 is the flash sync speed of that camera. It obviously is not fast enough. It looks like this was hand held, if it was get the camera on a stand of some sort and use a delay timer so that your hand is not on the camera when the shutter is activated.

Great idea but could do with a bit of optimisation.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[smoke665]

The whole image is very soft

While it's close, I didn't see a specific focus point in the image either. Maybe missed focus or inside the minimum focus distance for that lens/camera combo? The X2D is an amazing camera and they've supposedly improved it's low light focus ability, but the reviews still claim it struggles in low light.

In any case its its still a great image that most casual observers wouldn't notice the softness.

assume 1/125 is the flash sync speed of that camera

I've drooled over that camera model many times. Hassleblad uses a leaf shutter built into the lens which gives it a flash sync speed up to 1/4000. When using flash, typically the shutter is irrelevant as the flash controls the speed and will stop action. However when trying to match light with ambient you can drag the shutter (use a slower speed) to allow some ambient light to add to the exposure.

 

[40737029 10]

As I know nothing of Hasselblad gear I did a bit of review hopping and it seems that body / lens combo does indeed struggle a bit in low light and suffers from tiny DOF even at distance. The reviews specifically mentioned lens softness above F11 so F16 as used in the pic would explain the diffraction type distortion on the background elements.

There is quite a distance between the front slate and the feathery things. Maybe a wee bit of focus stacking would help.

PS: What's a leaf shutter?????

CHEERS
JBO

 

[smoke665]

PS: What's a leaf shutter????

The most common focal plane shutter, consists of two metal or fabric bands that sit just in front of the sensor that operate in unison one opens, and one closes to form a traveling gap that exposes the sensor as it moves across. Because the sensor is not exposed equally it has a maximum sync speed.

The leaf shutter in the Hasselblad is inside the lens and operates similar to the iris in your eye. It consists of multiple blades (leaf shaped), mounted on the outside of a circular plate and is triggered by a mechanism consisting of gears, levers, and springs to open and close in perfect sync with all the other blades, exposing the full sensor all at once. My old Yashica 124 has a leaf shutter.

 

[greybeard59 32]

I have no problem with the sharpness or lack thereof. And, the lighting works too. It is the composition of the subject just doesn't resonate with me, but that's just me.