Welcome to the first of an occasional series of posts called “Nick-T recommends” where I’ll highlight some of the bits and pieces I use and like.

First up and just released is James Madelin’s “ioShutter” a shutter release cable for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that controls your SLR, advanced compact and medium format camera.

You may have come across Mr Madelin before in the form of his excellent ringflash-for-flashgun the Orbis . Well now he’s done it again and I cannot believe no-one has thought of this before.

The good news is that the ioShutter will work with your hasselblad, I have tested it!

The App offers fun features like “ClaptoSnap” which as the name suggests is a sound activated shutter, I imagine with a bit of tweaking you could use this to capture splash shots for example.

The ioshutter also offers self timer and bulb settings and with the pro version, time lapse features, something that I see people looking for all the time. Now I just need a hot shoe adaptor for my 4s.

http://www.ioshutter.com/

This post comes to us courtesy of Jeff Grant who has previously featured on this blog (superstar that he is!) here.

Here’s Jeff:

Iceland has been high on my list of places that I would really like to visit, and particularly, to photograph. It’s a long way from Australia, and something that didn’t look like it was going to happen soon. Then one morning, I stumbled upon a photo workshop that was being conducted in Iceland, led by Hans Strand , focussing on landscape only, and including a morning taking aerials from a helicopter. It took about two milliseconds to decide that this was the workshop that I wanted to do,

If you Google photo workshops in Iceland, you will get a strange mix. Some sound like prison with rules about having to present your images daily for review, others talk of staying in Icelandic huts. Trust me, unless you are in your twenties and like sleeping like a sardine in a bunk house, this is to be avoided.

Many workshops try to provide a bit of everything but I don’t really want to spend time taking puffins, or houses with grass on the roof. I’ve yet to see one that I thought was much better than a snapshot. Fine art doesn’t seem to be a strong point of most workshops.

The other option has always been the standard ‘hire a car and drive around the island’ method. This always seemed a bit hit or miss to me, requiring a lot of research beforehand and relying on the internet.

So with that background, when a workshop like this presented itself, it was a no-brainer. Hans Strand is a Hasselblad Masters Landscape winner, who has been going to Iceland, at least annually, since the mid-90’s and there wasn’t a puffin to be seen.

Getting to Reykjavik from Sydney is no small feat. There are a number of options, all of which are long. I flew from Sydney to Dubai, and then on to Copenhagen, overnighted and then on to Reykjavik,

The workshop was everything that it advertised. We travelled in a small bus with a very knowledgeable Icelandic driver who took us to places that I would never have thought of going to in a four wheel drive by myself. We had an Icelandic chef along for a few days who managed to create restaurant quality lunches and dinners. You really haven’t eaten in Iceland until you have dined in a tent in a lava field on superb food and French wine.

The photography was excellent. We were blessed with a mix of weather from sleet to sun but we managed to shoot most of the day. Having Hans Strand around was an experience in itself. My previous experience with workshops has been mixed. Often very little real information passed from leader to attendees.

Hans is the best photographic instructor that I have encountered. He is very willing to share his knowledge and has a very relaxed style without any hype. His ability to create an excellent composition in any situation was enlightening. It was a revelation to see what he had produced and what the rest of us had done. Every day was a Masterclass that I really enjoyed.

If you are contemplating an Icelandic adventure, I would recommend these guys unreservedly. They are www.better-moments.com. If I could just get my hands on the family fortune, I would be back there next year in a flash.

This post is about new ways to raise funds for projects, it’s not news but a few people I have been talking to had not heard about it so I thought I woould share here.. You might have seen shows on T.V like ‘Dragon’s Den’ were inventors present their ideas to a group of venture capitalists who then decide wether or not to support the project. Well this is now taking place on the web with anyone free to invest (don’t worry we’ll get to the photography bit in a second) The first project I saw was “TikTok and LunaTik”:

TikTok and LunaTik simply transform the iPod Nano into the world’s coolest multi-touch watches. The idea to use the Nano as a watch was an obvious one ever since the product was announced. But we wanted to create a collection that was well designed, engineered and manufactured from premium materials and that complemented the impeccable quality of Apple products.

It’s a great idea but the developers needed $15000 US to get the project off the ground and that’s where the site “Kickstarter.com” comes in.

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.
We believe that:
• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide. 
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.
Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

The TikTok boys made their $15 000 and then some, the final amount invested was, wait for it; $941,718, that’s right nearly One Million dollars. You can see their page here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-multi-touch-watch-kits

And yes I supported the project and am now the proud owner of two straps. Now for the photography bit! This method of crowd sourcing is a great way to gauge the potential of new products before committing to them can anyone say Vertical Grip for H system??

Here’s another example from a similar website called ‘indiegogo’ where the developers are making a motorized base for iPhone that will track you as you move around, and yes I ordered one:)

This will allow people to make videos with the camera tracking your every move, here’s the link:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Mobile-Video-Accessory

No for one last example of the crowd-sourcing model, this time a photographer who wants you to fund his trip to Chernobyl:

Here’s the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gerdludwig/the-long-shadow-of-chernobyl

Just think… maybe you could finance your own photographic project.

Here’s a short piece on Singapore based photographer Jace Tan, I really like his style and I think he’s doing some great work.
Here’s Jace:

Where other students between 13 and 16 were studying maths, science and such in school, one of the elective for me, was Arts. I studied classical art such as Leonardo, to Renoir and such. One day, one of the teachers for the school magazine needed some pictures for the school magazine and passed me her trusty Nikon FM when I was 14. The sound of the camera clicking and the images were irresistible. I started to take more pictures for my Arts elective and developed pics in the school lab.

Despite promising beginnings Jace struggled to find work as a photographer but worked successfully as a designer for ten years after graduating:

End of 2007 (12 years later), I bought my first digital camera because the photographer/ artist in me was calling out so loudly. I got a Nikon D80 and started shooting. Then in middle of 2008, i submitted my pictures for stock and switched to Nikon D300. Then submitting for Stock Pictures started to force me to become even better (or face rejection of the pictures). In 2008, I bought the Hasselblad. So all in all, to do it for myself is less than 3 years.

Jace says that his background as a designer taught him to recognise quality and that he wasn’t getting the quality he needed from Nikon, I think his images reflect that search for quality and some decent post production:

Jace says that his real passion is sports and lifestyle and working with people:

I think photography is meant to be a ‘freeze-motion’ tool. Thats what a camera can do and should do. I try to capture a fleeting moment or to stop time.I hope to create visually stunning works that includes multiple composites and sculpting the human form to show its 3-dimensional quality. I hope to create pieces that show the human form in its peak performance.

Te image above reflects the direction his work is taking with a self published blurb book: http://www.blurb.com/books/767099

And more of Jace’s work at:

http://www.1000words.com.sg/words/

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Will Ophuis is an extremely talented Australian based landscape photographer working with an H4D40. I asked Will to share some thoughts around his system and why he uses Hasselblad:

Before shooting with the Hasselblad H4D-40 I was shooting with a Canon 5dmkII and a bunch of L lenses, I started to feel that the gear was limiting me in certain aspects, with the extra dynamic range and sharpness I have taken photos that probably weren’t possible with the 5dmkII. This works both ways and I’ve found that you need to take much more care setting up the camera making sure its steady and that your focus is spot on as Medium Format Digital is much more unforgiving than 35mm digital.

Looking for a medium format system I wanted something that worked as a whole system with many options, I found the Phocus Software and the lens lineup and also the availability of the HTS gives you a lot of options.
Shooting landscapes I wanted a camera that could still perform fairly long Exposures which is why I chose the H4D-40 being able to shoot exposures up to 4min 16 seconds pretty much noise free unless shooting in really hot conditions and taking multiple shots in a row, I’ve had really good results. Here is a shot taken at 4min 16 sec:

The way the camera picks up the subtle tones in the sky is something I didn’t see shooting with my Canon and it makes me want to catch those colours more often.
I spent 3 weeks shooting in New Zealand in January in all kinds of conditions living out of a 4×4 camper and the camera never let me down, people often think that Hasselblads aren’t a camera that can be used in more extreme conditions but mine hasn’t let me down, This was shooting in Arthurs Pass in New Zealand, I had an awesome view I wasn’t going to not shoot but it was raining intermittently the camera got wet several times but I wiped it off and it was fine.

Overall I think its a versatile camera which you can shoot handheld quite easily and True Focus makes it a pleasure to use not having to switch between focal points which can be a pain, the buttons are laid out well and I picked up the controls very quick its all the buttons you need and the menus are simple and easy which I like especially when you’re in a hurry to shoot. I shoot with the 35-90mm and 28mm at the moment and both are very sharp, I love that I can shoot at any focal length with the 35-90mm and know that the shot will be sharp, the 28mm is as sharp as the 35-90mm and I cant fault either lens to be honest, the focus rings are smooth but are not easy to turn so you know your focus wont be moving.

You can see more of Will’s work at http://www.williamophuis.com/blog/

In this post I wanted to share the work of California-based photographer Barry Goyette who is doing some lovely work replicating the Tin-Type photographic process. Trained on traditional film based cameras, Goyette began working on the hasselblad digital platform with the introduction of Imacon’s 132c. “I was always obsessed with image quality, even in school, and the Imacon was the first system that I felt matched what I was currently getting from medium and large format film. I had tried several 35mm digital systems available at the time, and none of them left me feeling good at the end of the day.” Whether the work was for a client or himself. The imacon back, mounted to the hasselblad h1, changed all that. “In fact it changed photography for me in a profound way. The taking of the photo has always been just a starting point for me. As someone who designs and prints almost all of my own work, I spend a tremendous amount of my energy “finishing” my images, and so having a tool like that first hasselblad/imacon solution (and now the h4d-40), allowed me to get there so much quicker, without compromising an inch on quality.”

But it was on a trip to Cuba a few years ago that Goyette met his match in a young photographer who he lovingly describes as “a dinosaur”: Lisa Dodge, a young protege in the highly obsessive world of large format wet collodion photography. She introduced him to a number of skilled practitioners of this antique technology, and he was very impressed with the Ambrotypes and tintypes they produced with their wooden cameras, stopwatches, and mobile darkrooms. “There is something incredibly rich about the finished product whether on tin or ruby glass. I could definitely see the attraction”. Yet after sitting through a session where the photographer was able to pull 7 or 8 plates over 3 hours of shooting under ambient light, most of which were ruined due to camera movement, wind, or the delicacy of the process, Goyette was quite sure he had no interest in returning to the 1860′s. “I’m too lazy for all that I guess. But it got me thinking about how I could achieve a similar type of work using nothing but contemporary digital processes.”

For many photographers, this means adding a few layers of texture in Photoshop and calling it a day. But Goyette was after something more like the experience of holding a finished tintype. “There’s something cool about a photograph on steel. You pick it up, and its a whole new experience. The first time I showed the work, I’d watch people keep their distance like a normal gallery show…but then I’d go over and pull one off the display shelf and hand it to them. There were a lot of “oohs” and “oh my gods”‘ because a tintype (and certainly a contemporary one) is something that most people have never seen or held in their hands.

Goyette began experimenting with several of the new metallic inkjet papers on the market. “Pearlescent is a better description. These papers are mostly used to add snap to color images and mimic Kodak’s popular metallic photographic papers, but they look surprisingly similar to a tintype when the printing in black and white”. Once mounted on thin gauge steel, and varnished properly, Goyette’s tin “types” look amazingly like the real deal. Goyette handed a few of his finished prototypes to Dodge, his suspicious-about-anything-digital mentor, “after critiquing the varnish on one, she looked at the next and just started shaking her head. Success by any other measure, I guess”.

Additionally, the historical context of the technique led Goyette to begin experimenting with how to train his Hasselblad H4d-40 to act more like a a 19th century large format camera. First off, the wet plate process was orthochromatic, (blue sensitive) which causes skin tones and foliage to darken, and makes the skies extremely light. Goyette experimented with black and white conversions and blue over-the-lens filtration to mimic orthochromatic film. But there was also the issue of depth of field and exposure time. He began asking around and found out that his wet plate friends were getting exposures of 2-10 seconds wide open in full sun. This meant adding 8-10 stops of neutral density to the front of his 100mm f2 lens. It’s nearly impossible to manually focus the camera with that much ND on the lens, but to Goyette’s surprise the autofocus in the h4d functioned perfectly. And he likes the sharpness he can get nearly wide open with the 100mm f2.

Goyette feels the technique could be improved with the addition of an h4d-60 and Hasselblad’s innovative HTS/1.5 to his arsenal, “that and if they could design a few lenses with tons of distortion for me” laughed Goyette, referring to the antique lenses prized by his collodion loving friends.

Not content to merely reproduce the look and feel of an antique process, Goyette has been adding more obvious digital distortions, bits of color, and contemporary subject matter to his tintypes. “Trying to duplicate the tintype was a lot of fun for me, but once you get there you realize how limiting that approach is. I’m just now starting to bring elements in that challenge the “form” of the tintype on a lot of creative levels. “We’re installing a large format, multiple-panel tintype in a few weeks, I think it’s going to be spectacular when it’s done.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrygoyette/

You know when you’re up there in space and you can never work out which lens to put on?
Or how about you decide you want to grab a shot of the Space Shuttle with it’s cargo bay
doors open and earth in the background?

Well worry no more because there is a manual for that :

Download a PDF of the hasselblad/NASA manual here.

You might remember Peter Lorber from this post on Hasselblads underwater.

Peter is something of a pioneer in the way he is using Hasselblads so I thought I’d share some of his images here. Here’s Peter:

There is a myth that Hasselblad is a studio camera and can’t be used for much else. I hear it all the time, and whenever you see photographs taken with Hasselblad, they are portraits or a
advertising images. I am not a studio photographer, but have built my reputation on panoramic photos using 360 degree rotational cameras. Once I became a Hasselblad digital owner, I applied
my knowledge of panoramas to shooting with Hasselblad with the help of VR drives and stitching programs. I wanted to spread the word on Hassselblad versatility and am hosting panoramic workshops for Hasselblad exclusively.

Not only did apply my knowledge of panoramas to Hasselblad, I picked up underwater photopgraphy again using Hasselblad H4D50 and Ultima Digital Housing for it. I had a workshop in the Caymans this past January and the attendees were in awe of how well the Hasselblad performed. Now I can honestly say that Hassselblad is the only camera that has been to the moon and to the bottom of the ocean.

You can see more of Peter’s work at Peterlorber.com

What follows are some of my thoughts around the Hasselblad H4D40 and the Phase One P40+. This is not intended to be an independent or in any way scientific review because I’m really quite biased; I love my Hasselblads. The photographers that I assisted in London (back in the film days) all shot Hasselblad and it seemed only natural that I would shoot with one when I started shooting professionally some 20 years ago. I’ve shot both V and H for many years and currently use an H3D31 and an older multi-shot back pretty much every day.

I do also shoot with Canon and Nikon when I’m shooting out and about or looking for a faster, looser approach but medium format is my mainstay and I really see the difference in quality with minimum post processing required to get my files deliverable.

I have been very keen to get my hands on an H4D and to compare it with Phase One’s P40+ as many people seem to think they are equivalent when in fact they are two very different beasts. A few weeks ago the good people of Hasselblad USA finally got sick of my whining and gave lent me an H4D40 to play with.
Here’s what was in the box:

Sadly I didn’t get the H4D40 in stainless which is the best looking medium format camera I have ever seen, the stainless version is a limited edition and demand means there are none to spare for testers like me.

The H4D was supplied with an 80mm lense, the ‘standard” focal length for medium format. I’ve always thought standard lenses were, well a bit boring to shoot with and I’ve often bought cameras not bundled with a standard lens for that reason. I have to say however that the HC80 is a great little lens, it’s very sharp (check the MTF charts on Hasselblad’s site if you like), nice and fast at 2.8, and light to handle, I recommend you have a play with one.

So why the 40 you ask, why not the 50 or even the 60? The thing is I think the H4D40 is a seriously underrated piece of kit and much better than the P40+ from Phase One. Based on the name you’d probably assume that the P40+ is a 40 megapixel product and you’d be right, (however that’s not always the case, see below). So two forty megapixel products at very similar price points (the P40+ on a mamiya body with an 80mm lens is $1000 more than the H4D40 with HC80). The thing is these are two very different products and anyone looking at either system need to be aware of those differences.

A note on naming conventions.
Back in the Imacon days you had backs like the ‘132C’ where ‘132’ represented the file size (in 16 bits) and ‘C’ represented ‘colour’ as in colour (yes colour!) screen. These days Hasselblad naming conventions are much easier to decode. For example the H4D40 breaks down as follows.The ‘H’ is for Hasselblad’s 645 format cameras (V designates the older square cameras). The ‘4’ after the ‘H’ designates the generation (you guessed it this is the fourth generation built on the H series of cameras). Finally the ‘40’ which is the megapixel count.
Phase One however, have had a rather odd way of naming their backs, the P45 for example, uses the same 39 megapixel chip that is in the (no longer current) H3D39.
I guess 45 sounds bigger than 39. With the P40+ however Phase seem to have changed the naming convention and given the back a name that reflects it’s pixel count, much more sensible in my opinion.

First off lets look at the two bodies. I haven’t spent much time with the Mamiya body but I didn’t like it much, the version I tested had pretty bad shutter lag although I do believe that lag has been reduced in the latest model.
The Hasselblad system offers a number of benefits thanks to the integration between lens body and back like being able to power the whole system with one battery, being able to power the whole camera on as one, and clever software tricks like remote focus and distortion correction. One of my favourites is ‘True Focus’, Hasselblad’s clever method of compensating for focussing errors caused by ‘focus-recompose’ the technique used when you are relying on the centre (and most accurate) focus point. I wrote about that feature when it was first announced so I won’t repeat myself, you can find that article here:

http://www.hasselblad.com/nick-t-column/introducing-nick-t

The H system just seems to offer so many technological advantages over the Mamiya (it is a much newer design) and combined with the HC lenses (a much wider range than the Mamiya offers) I think the camera side of things puts the H4D ahead of the Mamiya. Of course you could always put the P40+ back on an H2 but you would be missing out on all the advantages described above. Here’s a list of features that the H4D40 has over the P40+:

• 11 High performance lenses – all with lens shutter and in-built AF motors
• Fully automatic digital lens corrections for all H lenses – no manual lens selection. Uses actual capture conditions reported automatically by the lens
• Instant manual focus override – no need for manual switching of focus mode
• HTS 1.5 Tilt/Shift converter with 5 lenses including automatic digital lens correction
• CF lens adapter for Carl Zeiss C/CF lenses with full lens shutter operation
• Digital lens correction for all Carl Zeiss lenses
• Advanced auto-focus system including gyro based True Focus
• Interchangeable viewfinders
• Larger and brighter viewfinder image
• Excellent ergonomics
• Camera mirror-up mode, for zero vibration captures. Mirror remains UP between captures.
• 4 User programmable buttons, for short-cuts to the most used functions • 7 user profiles storing complete camera set-up, for fast and safe access to different modes of operation
• Convenient single battery solution – only one battery type and charger required
• DC Power Grip, for powering the camera from mains power
• Full camera remote control via Phocus and Phocus Mobile for iPad and iPhone. Remote camera control includes focussing via control of the AF motor
• Fully user upgradeable camera firmware for viewfinder, camera and lenses. No need to return to the service centre
• GPS accessory
• Multi-shot functionality option
• IAA – Instant Approval Architecture for manual or automatic classification of images in the camera
• Rollei- and Schneider electronic shutter control for View Camera use
Single color profile delivering outstanding colors – no need for profile selection depending on the subject.
11 High performance lenses – all with lens shutter and in-built AF motors

Speaking of lenses, if you’d like to see sample images from every single HC lense then look no further than the site I run for Hasselblad Digital users and the lens review section:

http://www.hasselbladdigitalforum.com/index.php/board,20.0.html

So camera-wise and feature wise I think the H4D40 is a clear winner, and pretty much every photographer I speak to agrees. So what about the two sensors? They are the same right? Well no they are not, they are in fact VERY different!

The H4D40 uses a micro-lensed (for increased ISO performance) chip from Kodak giving it a maximum ISO of 1600 and good long exposure abilities. The sensor in the P40+ is a Dalsa sensor, and Dalsa sensors just don’t have the same long exposure/high ISO abilities.
Don’t believe me? Here are some comparisons for you, but first off a couple of comments.
I’m not a huge fan of brand A versus brand B comparisons because most of the time the person comparing the two brands has a vested interest in brand A or brand B, I know I do. The other problem is that in my case I know very little about Phase One’s highly rated software, ‘Capture One’ meaning I’m unlikely to be able to get the best from the files. However I am lucky enough to know a photographer who knows both products very well, so I got some high ISO and long exposure samples from him so you can see the difference between these two chips, and what a difference there is.

Here’s a 100% crop from the H4D40 at 1600 ISO:

I’ve deliberately chosen to look closer at a shadow area where you would expect to see noise. The file above is certainly grainy but the colour of the parsley has held up well and there is plenty of detail in the file, to my eye this sort of quality is the best I have seen from any full resolution medium format system at 1600 ISO.

Now let’s look at the P40+ with a 100% crop of the same area:

I’m sorry but his file is a mess, and what’s more this was taken at 800 ISO (the P40+’s maximum ISO at full resolution) a full stop below the H4D40. The image above shows what most photographers would call the “painterly” effect or smearing which is due to the system trying to suppress noise. You can also see how the colours have suffered with the parsley losing most of it’s green. These two systems are just not the same and I would not deliver a file from the P40+ at 800 ISO to my clients.

The bottom line?