365cameras.com

Every once in a while, I find myself on Rob Skeoch’s site, The Picture Desk.

I enjoy this blog for a few reasons. For one, Rob is into film and digital photography and is a working pro. For another, he has his own company selling photography equipment – rangefinder cameras and lenses, large format cameras (Toyo and Canham) and lenses and manual focus lenses for DSLRs, such as Zeiss lenses for Canon EOS bodies and Zeiss lenses for Nikon bodies

Now, I’m not so much into sports photography, and he shoots a lot of it. What I like, though, is that he is not afraid to buck the trends.

When everyone else is only shooting a Nikon or Canon DSLR, he’s out there with a Sony A500, Sony A550, or Sony A850. Sometimes, he shoots a Leica or has even borrowed a friend’s Nikon D700 to try it out with one of the manual Zeiss lenses he sells.

The good people at Zacuto put together this year’s DSLR shootout comparing Kodak and Fuji movie films with video footage shot on some top DSLR cameras.

This year’s shootout used the Canon 7D, Canon 5D Mk II, Canon T2i, Canon 1D Mk IV, Nikon D3s, and Panasonic GH1.

They compared the same footage shot with each camera. To take away as much variability as they could, they used Zeiss lenses on all the cameras.

The commentary about each was provided by top film industry people. The Zacuto site says “The test results were projected in a 2K theatrical environment at three screening locations: Stag Theater at Skywalker Ranch, LucasFilms Ltd., AFI (American Film Institute) Theater in Hollywood and the FilmWorkers Astro Color Timing Theater in Chicago. Hear commentary from the screenings by top ASC, Hollywood, Indie Film and Event & Convergence Photographers.”

I have to say that I generally hate film and digital comparisons. I love them both. I have an admitted bias towards film, but I think digital is very cool. I loved this comparison though. Not so much to see if digital beat film. (So far, it didn’t, but it’s pretty darn close.) I really liked seeing the kinds of tests that top notch people in the industry performed, the observations they made, and the awesome video they shot. I’m looking forward to more episodes of this.

My only regret is that I would have liked to have seen as many Nikon models as Canon, but other than that, this was very good.

Click here to see the Zacuto DSLR Shootout

To see products made by Zacuto, click here
Some examples are the Zacuto Z-Grip and the Zacuto Z-Finder

Wow, Hasselblad has a new digital medium format camera. This is a pretty stunning camera. It has a 40, 50, or 60 megapixel back with fantastic Carl Zeiss glass, shutter speeds of 256 seconds to 1/800 second, bright viewfinders, waist level and eye level finders, and a CCD sensor measuring 33.1 × 44.2mm.

One of the most intriguing things about the new camera is the focus. It has True Focus and Absolute Position Lock which allows the camera to be focused then locked on that focus position so if the photographer tilts or swivels his position, the camera stays focused on its original subject.

It’s new Phocus technology provides for live video, remote capture, moire removal, GPS functionality and more.

It has software providing the new 3FR raw file format as well as Hasselblad’s Natural Color Solution (HNCS).

If you’re into view camera work as well, then the Hasselblad H4D has an adapter that allows it to be used as the back for a view camera. It also has a nice tilt/shift lens available.

First, here are the links to find Hasselblad H4D cameras for sale

Since I’m not the kind of guy to just regurgitate features, be sure to check out the data sheet at Hasselblad’s launch site

It’s always worthwhile to check out the Hasselblad H4D on Amazon

Here are 3 of Hasselblad’s promotional videos. We get a little glimpse of Steve McCurry, Kevin Then, and Michael Grecco using their H4D cameras.

Steve McCurry with his H4D-40

Kevin Then with his H4D-40

Michael Grecco with his H4D-40

Here is a launch interview showing some of the features a little better. If I find some other good ones over the next few days, I’ll post them here.

H4D40 Launch video from London

More Hasselblad cameras for sale on the web