As a follow up to initial impressions of the H4D/40, and to further explore the possibility of centralizing more and more work using MFD (following in the footsteps of Guy's quest to do the same ...
I've now taken the H4D/40 to a couple of higher-end weddings. This may be considered by some as taking a Glock 45 to a snowball fight, but with the proliferation of 35mm digital wonder-cams by everyone and his/her uncle Bob, I'm looking for a visible edge to wow potential clients on my 30" screens ... coupled with some newer lighting techniques made possible by getting the highly mobile Elinchrom Quadra.
However, this post is about using the H4D/40 in available light situations as way of lessening or eliminating the use of 35mm DSLRs. The end objective would be to eventually use the H4D along with the M9. To do that the H4D/40 needs to perform at least on par with my Sony A900 at ISO 800 in available light ... and the Sony has improved at this ISO when using the newer Adobe RAW processors.
At last week's wedding job, I took the H4D/40 with the 50, 100, and 210 lenses, (I never used the 210). The H4D was used exclusively in available light at ISO 800.
I did some handheld work and some on a Gitzo Carbon Fiber Monopod. All the photos came out fine for utilization in a wedding album. BUT, and trust me on this, when pushing the extremes of hand-held MFD shutter speeds, the image IQ using the Monopod are like night and day, even if you have rock solid hand-held technique. I have a mirror delay set on the H4D to improve hand-held shots (which does work), but when possible the mono-pod is always better.
My H4D/40 is set up so the stop down button has been assigned to manual White Balance ... which makes it extraordinarily easy to constantly set WB at a wedding where the lighting scenarios can dramatically change.True Focus is assigned to a rear grip button and was fast and accurate as hell. Even though Pro level DSLRs are still faster AF, the whole process of off-center, recompose AF is faster with the H4D compared to wheeling the 35mm DSLR's focus point to the edge and then shooting.
I found the ISO 800 images to be a stop or more better than the H3D/39 in terms noise, like ISO 400 was, or even better... maybe closer toward 200. This is more than acceptable for this application. This also increased the opportunity to lift slightly under-exposed images that can easily happen when shooting a hectic paced wedding. More importantly, the color remained fairly true @ ISO 800 even when lifted a bit in post, and skin tones were quite natural looking.
At ISO 800, the DR seems less affected than it was with my H3D/39. Very good tonal separations and less highlight issues. As Guy has mentioned previously, some images from the Kodak 40 meg sensor do benefit from a slight tweak of the clarity slider... but just a touch.
Resolution and noise levels allow some pretty severe crops with this camera, for options when selecting and printing wedding photos, or designing an album.
One thing I noticed compared to 35mm DSLRs like the D3X and Sony A900 I've used in similar situations, is that when applying perspective controls in PSCS5 (church interior shots with a wide angle) extreme PC manipulations are less destructive with the H4D/40 files.
For fast paced hand-held work like this, the H4D/40 LCD image doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Compared to most any 35mm DSLR it is primitive. However, while the 35mm DSLR LCD image usually looks better than what was actually captured, the opposite is true with the MFD camera. When you load the real thing into Phocus (or LightRoom) the IQ is stunning ... and I always say to myself, "Damn I should have shot the entire wedding with the H4D : -)
Based on experienced to date, I will continue to replace the 35mm DSLR for this application ... until hopefully it becomes the key tool, supplemented by the M9 and fast M lenses for lower light candid work. The next step is to see how the H4D/40 can do at ISO 1600 in real-world wedding applications.
Here's few ISO 800 shots from last week,s wedding: squashed down from 24" wide to 1200 pixels One is severe crop. None are done yet ... I will finalize them in conjunction with other shots done with an A900 and some M9 shots ... so these are minimal work so far and not optimized for the final usage.
-Marc
Hmmm, in reviewing the downloads, it appears the shots have lost a bit of their "Snap Crackle and Pop" and the reds slightly increased. But this is about ISOs so take a peek for that aspect. The Prints look fab. Very 3D and realistic.
I've now taken the H4D/40 to a couple of higher-end weddings. This may be considered by some as taking a Glock 45 to a snowball fight, but with the proliferation of 35mm digital wonder-cams by everyone and his/her uncle Bob, I'm looking for a visible edge to wow potential clients on my 30" screens ... coupled with some newer lighting techniques made possible by getting the highly mobile Elinchrom Quadra.
However, this post is about using the H4D/40 in available light situations as way of lessening or eliminating the use of 35mm DSLRs. The end objective would be to eventually use the H4D along with the M9. To do that the H4D/40 needs to perform at least on par with my Sony A900 at ISO 800 in available light ... and the Sony has improved at this ISO when using the newer Adobe RAW processors.
At last week's wedding job, I took the H4D/40 with the 50, 100, and 210 lenses, (I never used the 210). The H4D was used exclusively in available light at ISO 800.
I did some handheld work and some on a Gitzo Carbon Fiber Monopod. All the photos came out fine for utilization in a wedding album. BUT, and trust me on this, when pushing the extremes of hand-held MFD shutter speeds, the image IQ using the Monopod are like night and day, even if you have rock solid hand-held technique. I have a mirror delay set on the H4D to improve hand-held shots (which does work), but when possible the mono-pod is always better.
My H4D/40 is set up so the stop down button has been assigned to manual White Balance ... which makes it extraordinarily easy to constantly set WB at a wedding where the lighting scenarios can dramatically change.True Focus is assigned to a rear grip button and was fast and accurate as hell. Even though Pro level DSLRs are still faster AF, the whole process of off-center, recompose AF is faster with the H4D compared to wheeling the 35mm DSLR's focus point to the edge and then shooting.
I found the ISO 800 images to be a stop or more better than the H3D/39 in terms noise, like ISO 400 was, or even better... maybe closer toward 200. This is more than acceptable for this application. This also increased the opportunity to lift slightly under-exposed images that can easily happen when shooting a hectic paced wedding. More importantly, the color remained fairly true @ ISO 800 even when lifted a bit in post, and skin tones were quite natural looking.
At ISO 800, the DR seems less affected than it was with my H3D/39. Very good tonal separations and less highlight issues. As Guy has mentioned previously, some images from the Kodak 40 meg sensor do benefit from a slight tweak of the clarity slider... but just a touch.
Resolution and noise levels allow some pretty severe crops with this camera, for options when selecting and printing wedding photos, or designing an album.
One thing I noticed compared to 35mm DSLRs like the D3X and Sony A900 I've used in similar situations, is that when applying perspective controls in PSCS5 (church interior shots with a wide angle) extreme PC manipulations are less destructive with the H4D/40 files.
For fast paced hand-held work like this, the H4D/40 LCD image doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Compared to most any 35mm DSLR it is primitive. However, while the 35mm DSLR LCD image usually looks better than what was actually captured, the opposite is true with the MFD camera. When you load the real thing into Phocus (or LightRoom) the IQ is stunning ... and I always say to myself, "Damn I should have shot the entire wedding with the H4D : -)
Based on experienced to date, I will continue to replace the 35mm DSLR for this application ... until hopefully it becomes the key tool, supplemented by the M9 and fast M lenses for lower light candid work. The next step is to see how the H4D/40 can do at ISO 1600 in real-world wedding applications.
Here's few ISO 800 shots from last week,s wedding: squashed down from 24" wide to 1200 pixels One is severe crop. None are done yet ... I will finalize them in conjunction with other shots done with an A900 and some M9 shots ... so these are minimal work so far and not optimized for the final usage.
-Marc
Hmmm, in reviewing the downloads, it appears the shots have lost a bit of their "Snap Crackle and Pop" and the reds slightly increased. But this is about ISOs so take a peek for that aspect. The Prints look fab. Very 3D and realistic.