It’s Here!

I took the plunge and made the leap into the world of medium format photography.

This is my new (2014 old) Hasselblad H5D-40, the “entry-level” model of the H5 digital series of cameras. It was sold in the condition of “like new”, and is like a bloody tank. Alongside the body, I got a 28mm prime, a 50-110mm zoom, and a tilt/shift converter, which gives me a good range of focal lengths to start off with. The H system lenses are absolutely superb, so I’ll be doing some personal work shortly in an attempt to get to grips with the camera system. The zoom in particular is as big as a puppy, and the whole shebang comes in at over 4kg when put together.

I’m used to Nikon infrastructure, so the menu and control systems are brand new to me. I thought I’d be able to pick the beast up and just be able to use it confidently and intuitively, but I was way off the mark - It’s going to need a few days of studying the manual and playing with the settings in order to be able to use this behemoth efficiently in the field.

So what’s the investment going to produce in terms of imagery and ongoing development? Good question, and one I’ve not fully answered yet. I’m definitely going to do some personal work in the architectural world. I’ve had an idea for a photo-book that I’ve been pondering for years now as well. To be fair, I could pursue both of those projects with my current working gear, but my old DSLRs don’t give me the total bloody horn when I pick them up like this thing does. Just holding this massive chunk of black and grey steel is enough to bring on the old “Austin Powers vibe”, and sometimes it’s human to have something you want rather than just something you require. Knowing that the significant cost is being (mostly) accounted for by the sale of older gear takes away some of the guilt that I could have spent the money on something else. Let’s remember that I work extremely hard and work extremely long hours, so the investment in this gear doesn’t make me feel bad.

Putting the 1.5x tilt/shift adapter on the camera along with the 28mm lens produces a combination that has a field of view similar to a 24mm DSLR with shifting capabilities - an ideal setup for commercial architectural work. There are a full set of lenses which can be bought or rented, and if I ever need to upgrade, the digital back can be replaced for one of the other H5 units which include a 50 megapixel Wi-Fi capable model, and a 200 megapixel multi-shot sensor which currently retails at over £10K second-hand.

The only extras I’ve had to buy are some CR123 batteries to power the battery-grip. It needs a fair amount of juice while being used.

I’ll wait for a sunny day to test the bad boy outside, and get those gorgeous 16-bit raw files into Lightroom to see what the camera can do. I might set up some lighting to get some new self-portraits done for the website, and may even shoot a prestige real-estate job to see how it reacts to interior conditions. It’s like Christmas has come early.