Digital BW, The Print

For what it¹s worth, I used to shoot my black and white landscape work with
large and medium-format film.  For some time now I¹ve been going with direct
digital capture, currently using a Nikon D700 and a Hasselblad H3D.  I got
the latter primarily for my freelance work, where I specialize in
photographing artwork for museums, galleries, and artists.  But I¹ve been
really pleased with how easy it is to carry it around and use it in the
field.

Having said that, though, I would add that it is indeed a steep investment,
and that there are both rewards and limitations.  The obvious reward is the
size of the sensor; mine is 39 MP.  They also have a 50 and are about to
release a 60 MP version, though I believe that those sensors have more but
smaller megapixels, which is an issue with regard to image quality.

The lenses are very nice.  Their rendering of out-of-focus areas is very
smooth; they are very sharp, and I also appreciate the option of autofocus,
now that my eyes aren¹t as young as they used to be.  I especially
appreciate the 28 mm, which is equivalent to about a 20 mm lens on a 35. The
80 is actually sharper than the 120 macro.

On the minus side, the camera only creates RAW files, and they have to be
worked with in Hasselblad¹s Phocus or Flexcolor software ­ ACR, etc. won¹t
open them.  The software is quite sophisticated.  You can have it
automatically correct for each particular lens¹s distortion, vignetting, and
chromatic aberration if you choose.

Depending on what/how you shoot, it can be great to work with the camera
tethered to a computer and operated through the software.  For the landscape
work it¹s not a problem to shoot onto a CF card, do some work to the file in
Phocus, and then export as a 16-bit TIFF for final editing in Photoshop.  I
enjoy CS4¹s ability to control conversion to black and white using the
slider equivalent of filters.  It¹s like being able to decide later on
whether to use a yellow or orange filter without having to miss what¹s going
on in front of you in the landscape while you pull the filters out and try
to get them on the lens before the light changes.

The native files are 18 x 24² at 300 ppi, and the software allows you to
export the files at larger sizes (within reason) with little or no apparent
loss of quality.  It¹s not as fast to use as something like the D700, and
it¹s camera that you should try to use below freezing or above 100 degrees,
but hey, you can¹t have everything...

Stephen Petegorsky



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