For me, I think the biggest weakness of the 907x is the aesthetics. I fear if it gets a dent or a scratch it’ll be ruined. I fear the lack of ergonomics or the form factor will inevitably lead me to dropping it. Yes the camera comes with a strap but the eyelets that take the strap are black, anodised I’m guessing, I didn’t put the strap on my camera as I feared the black finish of the eyelets would scratch off. All in all I’m treating it too cautiously, cameras are tools, they are made to be used. Maybe the 907x is just too special to use. Or maybe I can’t afford it, maybe it’s like driving a Bentley to the Supermarket. Most people would park it far away from everyone else and walk to the door to save their car from the potential of other people damaging it. Only you always see these high value cars parked as if the owner doesn’t have a care in the world. I suspect that’s because to their owners they are just tools to get around and they can afford them and they accept if you use things they get damaged and then you pay to have them repaired. I can’t afford the 907x, not in terms of monetary value but in terms of anxiety and wanting to love it. I want to look at it, not get it damaged. It is in m opinion the nicest looking camera ever produced.

As a final note, I entered a competition Hasselblad ran a while back called Hasselblad X You. The overall prize was one of these cameras. I entered about 100 images. I didn’t get any recognition for the monthly prize or the overall. I wish I’d of won this camera. I’m not so sure I’m glad I bought it.

My Main reason of buying the Hasselblad 907x was to use the Digital back section the CFVII50c on a technical camera such as a Cambo WRS1600 or a Cambo Actus. I rented the Actus along with a Rodenstock 32mm HR Lens, sadly upon trying this setup with the digital back it became instantly obvious that I wasn’t going to get along with the workflow. I couldn’t adjust exposure in live view. The Live view preview didn’t match the exposure I got when capturing an image. It didn’t stand up to the Cambo Actus XCD and my X1D. I wanted this to work, but unfortunately  it isn’t for me.

So here’s a shot locally looking over the Langdale Pikes and showcasing the extreme zoom offered by such a lens. 

Archival Quality Prints are available for purchase of all the images presented on my blog. Contact me for details…

My reasons for getting the 21mm weren’t just for the ability to capture super wide angle shots. The 21mm is about 16mm in the 35mm format. I wanted extra space around my main subject captured so I could apply perspective corrections in Lightroom and not end up with a 30-40mm shot. To explain further. I spent a good while making most of my Landscape photographs in recent years with a Canon 5DSR and a Canon 24mm TS-E Lens. This is a Tilt Shift Lens that allowed me to compose a scene with the camera and lens parallel to the floor and then shift the lens down to include more or less of the foreground without distorting perspective in the distance.

Having the ability to contain perspective in a Landscape Photograph is key for me. Nobody wants to see trees leaning unnecessarily, building, fence posts not vertical etc etc. If you use a wide angle lens yourself you’ll notice the distortion that occurs on the edges of the frame. This to me is ugly and needs fixing for the image to look real in my opinion. A wide angle Tilt Shift lens allows you to capture a true image in camera, this removing the need to correct perspective in post production and also saves you losing pixels as you distort and crop a non shifted lens that doesn’t have its lens plan parallel to the ground.

When I moved exclusively to the Hasselblad system I invested in the 30mm (24mm eqiv.) lens which is a really good lens that produces amazingly sharp images in my experience, however, I miss the shift function of my 24mm TS-E. So my theory was, invest in the 21mm (16mm equiv) and treat it like a longer focal length lens. Use the extra pixels to allow for the loss you see when fixing perspective.

So when Hasselblad announced the 21mm I placed an order on their website that same day and looked forward to my Digital Medium format system growing and covering more of my photography needs. The lens I’m really waiting for is the 135mm with 2 x extender which will give me telephoto capability I’m currently missing. As I was waiting for my order to be processed I started to have second thoughts. Do I really need to spend £3,299 on a lens I’m going to rarely use and then cut out 20% of the pixels it captures? Can I be bothered with the workflow? Besides, I haven’t shot ultra wide angle since I was starting out years ago. My focus is more 50-70mm these days. I decided to cancel the order with Hasselblad and felt I’d made the right decision. I forgot about it.

A few days later DHL turned up with a box containing a Hasselblad XCD21mm lens. I’d had my refund by this point, so clearly I was sent the lens in error. I considered tweeting Hasselblad and letting them know but decided that was probably not fair to publicly highlight an issue with their system so I sent an email to customer services to let them know. In the meantime I took a look at the lens. Initially I thought the lens was second hand as it was covered in fingerprints and dust. None of my previous purchases of Hasselblad gear arrived like this. Disappointing.

Rightly or wrongly I decided I’d take a few shots with the lens and thought to myself if I like it, I’ll pay for it and in a roundabout way it’ll all work out. A few days went by and I hadn’t hear back from Hasselblad, then finally I got a reply saying please can you post it back to us in Sweden. I thought this was a bit off as I had been honest here and ultimately didn’t expect to have to pay to return the lens myself. After a few emails back and forth Hasselblad arranged collection and I sent it back.

While the Hasselblad XCD21mm produced some beautiful images and handles flare very well in my limited time using the lens I just couldn’t justify its place in my bag. I tested out the perspective correction idea and while it worked I felt the difference it offered was minimal. I’m happy with the 30mm and a little tilting of the focal plane doesn’t result in too much distortion, either way it’s easily fixed in Lightroom and I’m £3,299 better off. Hopefully when the Hasselblad XCD 135mm comes out I’ll invest in that and hopefully that will complete my digital medium format setup.

I wish Hasselblad would produce a 24mm Tilt Shift lens for the X1D. I’ve looked into adapting a lens from the H series but the cost of the adapter alone would buy me a Nikon D850 and a 24mm Tilt Shift lens so I can’t justify it and I’m not interested in complicating my set up with even more gear.

Here are a few images I made with my limited time with the Hasselblad XCD21mm thanks to an admin error.

]]> https://www.jamesbellphotography.co.uk/blog/shoots/testing-hasselblad-xcd-21mm-wide-angle-lens/feed 0 https://www.jamesbellphotography.co.uk/blog/shoots/leica-m10-summilux-35mm-vs https://www.jamesbellphotography.co.uk/blog/shoots/leica-m10-summilux-35mm-vs#respond Fri, 02 Feb 2018 14:44:05 +0000 https://www.jamesbellphotography.co.uk/blog/?p=18012 Today I got the chance to try out a new camera. The Leica M10. Last year I pre-ordered the Leica M10, but the frustration of waiting got the better of me and I cancelled my ordered and chose the Leica M-D instead. This was a great decision for me. Last year I got back into shooting 35mm film with a Leica M4-P. However the novelty of film soon worn off for me with the expense of processing film every 5 minutes.

With the Leica M-D you don’t get the LCD screen so in effect you are shooting film. I have a huge collection of presets in my Lightroom Library from VSCO and others. So I can apply a chosen film stock filter to the images as they import into Lightroom and tell myself Ive shot film. It’s perfect for me. In fact with the number of images I take I reckon the M-D has paid for itself is film development costs already.

Anyway, the Leica M10 is a camera I’ve been interested in trying out since its launch and now in February 2018 I get a chance. So I took the M10 with the Leica 35mm Summilux down to Crosby Beach with my Leica M-D with the old Voigtländer 35mm F2.5 from my M4-P and my Hasselblad X1D and 45mm lens, this giving a 35mm equivalent.

I’ve mentioned before I’m a self confessed pixel peeper and rightly so, I am all about capturing maximum detail so I can present my images in the best quality prints here on my online gallery.

The Leica M-D is the sort of camera I just point and shoot, I don’t see it as a technical camera, however it does produce really beautiful images. In fact I think it produces better colour than the Hasselblad and that is really saying something. So, where would an M10 fit in my system. It would have to replace the M-D.

Here are several images taken with all three systems and while the M10 images are slightly different to the M-D images for me there’s no real advantage to swapping. I won’t say upgrading as I don’t see the M10 as an upgrade to the M-D.

My observations are as follows. The shutter sounds better on the M-D. I don’t like the screen on the back of the M10. Nothing wrong with it, I worry I’ll scratch it or it’ll catch on the buttons on my coat and damage it. The images look good, I’d say cooler than the M-D images. Easy to fix though. The menu system and extra features over the M-D are great, however, I don’t need them. What I love about the M-D is its simplicity. That is why I use it so much. I sling it over my shoulder and go, no worries about bumping it, scratches etc. It’s solid and as I’ve already defaced it with wet and dry, which I regret now, I’m thinking what more could go wrong. I’d be too scared to treat an M10 like this.

For me, you just can’t beat the Leica M-D. It’s raw and simple. No distractions. Just take the shot and move on. If it works great, if not, so what. It’s film and as such you have to learn it. Know where the metering will be etc. I love that. You don’t look at the screen and say yes that will do, you compose the image and click. The resulting files from the M-D never fail to impress me and I’m just not ready to give it up, with owning the X1D I don’t see a place for the M10 in my bag. The X1D is my technical camera. It produces images like no other camera I’ve had and I love slowing down the process and being really technical about my approach when using the X1D. The Leica is a fun camera. It has a different use for me. Now if I didn’t have a Hasselblad X1D I would certainly have the Leica M10. My only complaint about it after 24 hours of use is the sound of the shutter. Everything else is fantastic as you’d expect from a Leica Rangefinder.

All of these images are available as gallery quality prints…

Now that the road is re-open I wanted to visit my favourite spot on Thirlmere and see for myself this fine location again. I visited Thirlmere many times in 2014 and 2015 and each time is well documented here on my blog. This however was my first visit with a Drone. The plan was to fly over Lewis Island and get a new perspective over the little Island my son named after himself having walked over to the Island last year. Click on the link to see that.

After flying around for a bit I managed to use my Canon gear for the first time this year too. The Sony A7Rii has been my go to camera since I got it given the smaller size and weight, however the lack of a decent tilt shift lens does mean my Canon 5DSR has its own unique place in my photographic tools. I must say handling the Canon 5DSR it is immediately obvious how well built and solid it is, yes it’s much larger and heavier than the Sony but it feels so strong and robust, the Sony feels more like a toy or a typical consumer product in comparison. The Sony isn’t bad it’s jus the Canon feels so much more, in every sense.

Using the Canon 5DSR is such a joy, it was October last year, 7 months since I have used it extensively during my Isle of Skye Trip and immediately I feel at home with all the controls, I haven’t once thought about the configuration of this camera and already I’m on autopilot setting up the ISO, aperture and the 24mm tilt shift lens. I guess 16 years of shooting with Canon is truly lodged in my brain.

While I didn’t intend this post to be about gear or equipment and settings, I find the subject a little tedious truth be told, these days you can make a stunning shot on an iPhone that will get more attention, promotion and reaction than with any high end professional camera, there is something quite nice about locking a camera down on a tripod, taking your time and composing a shot; manually focusing, tilting your lens, adjusting filters, checking everything and then capturing a scene. It’s certainly a part of the process I don’t mind at all. The Sony is equally capably of being used in this fashion, however the Sony is loaded with the latest technology which allows you to shoot handheld and at higher ISO easier and with very pleasing results, it’s articulating screen allows for obscure angles where I can hold the camera almost at floor level with the screen tilted up etc and the inbuilt stabilisation in the Sony allows handheld shots down to about 1/5th of a second if your steady which is unheard for me using the Canon.

When I originally bought the Sony I also had the Leica Q camera which in all honesty I miss dearly, more for its soul and simple minimalist design than technical ability. The problem with the Sony is it’s just too good. I wanted a small pocket sized camera that was more everyday and the Canon 5DSR, something I would take everywhere and use more. I do use it more however be warned if you’re a Canon fan, it is easily as capable as the 50 million pixel bigger rival and to be honest the sensor is way more flexible and advanced. The Canon requires some form of precision with exposure to avoid the limitations of dynamic range. Not that this is a huge problem. If you wish to make the most of such a big file that comes from that camera you have to be careful with the exposure and avoid clipping highlights and under exposing shadows. The Sony however seems to have such flexibility with the shadows and a much wider dynamic range. You don’t have to be as cautious and most shots you take can be rescued later in post production.

Having said that, there is something quite enjoyable for me about slowing everything down and checking everything prior to pressing the shutter. There’s something. Quite satisfying about a real mirror moving inside the camera with its quality engineered mechanical sound as opposed to an electronic equivalent as in the mirrorless Sony.

Both cameras have a place with my photography but tonight belonged to the Canon and with my 24mm tilt shift lens, polariser and 0.9 graduated neutral density filter there was more of a sense of creation and making something than simply pressing a button and beautifying in software. Here’s what I captured and it feels to me more like I made this image rather than I simply shot it.

Lower Man over Deer Garth How Island (Lewis Island) Thirlmere.

You can see more of my Landscapes from Thirlmere most of them made with my Canon gear here in my gallery.

I’ve been here a couple of times before. Only once with my camera however. I’ve been looking to visit here on a morning with the light illuminating the bridge from what I consider the best composition of the bridge which is slightly downstream of the bridge as seen below.

I use an app on my iPhone called the Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) which advises you on the position of the sun on any given day, time and location. It’s a must for any Landscape Photographer.

As you can see on the image below taken from the App. The wide yellow line indicates sunset and the thinner yellow line the position of the sun at the time suggested in the box below. You drag the box and the lines move. In relation to the Suns position. Also extremely useful is the angle of the sun too. I consider 20 degrees to be the start of the best light of the day. It just gets better as it lowers after that. Using the information below I could see the sun should illuminate Lingmoor Fell over Little Langdale Tarn from the side until sunset. There is a feature in the App where you can specify shadows from nearby objects such as tall buildings and mountains and at what time you’d lose the sun. I haven’t figured out how to do this just yet but knew if I were in position from 16:24 as the sun hits 20 degrees I should be best placed to see he best of the light as the sunsets.

That’s the theory. Here’s how it turned out. I made this short video to compliment the photos here

Walking down the lane towards the Bridge.

The Three Shires Inn, Little Langdale.

We’re heading in that direction. Weatherlam is the largest fell in the distance.

Turn left at this row of Lakeland Cottages…

Past the red garage…

I could live there.

Blackberry season.

This lane eventually leads to a Ford so its advisable to walk it.

Blink and you’ll miss the sign for Slater’s Bridge.

Heading through the gate and up the field following this decent path.

The tracks lead all the way to the Bridge.

Looks like there is enough time to capture the last of the light. Just.

The remains of the local quarries.

Forst sighting of Slaters Bridge.

Here we are.

This is the composition I like. Now let’s see what happens as the sun sets.

Lingmoor Fell over Slaters Bridge.

A long exposure shot looking upstream.

I didn’t manage to capture the scene I had in my mind with the last of the light skimming to top of Lingmoor. However the light in general was beautiful and Im pleased with how these images have turned out.

On the short walk back to the car I was surprised to see this beautiful large Super Moon. See the house lower right for scale.

A close up.

Back to the Three Shires Inn and home.

You can see more of my Lake District Landscape Prints from Little Langdale here.