At the top end of the H system list, the H4D-50 is on its way to becoming a workhorse for professional photographers who need an easy-to-use and versatile camera to cover a variety of top quality assignments where only the best is good enough. The True Focus with Absolute Position Lock feature combines with the Ultra Focus feature to produce exceptionally sharp files. These are then honed to perfection in Phocus using Digital Auto Correction for the ultimate in quality.

The Hasselblad Natural Color Solution (HNCS) simply enables you to produce outstanding and reliable out-ofthe- box colors, with skin tones, specific product colors and other difficult tones reproduced easily and effectively. When the situation demands something a little extra, the H4D-50 can take full advantage of the Hasselblad HTS 1.5 tilt/shift adapter. Futhermore, to exploit its capabilities, the sensor unit can be used mounted on large-format / technical / view cameras.

Backed by a wide range of extremely high performance lenses as well as the whole line of accessories, the H4D-50 proclaims itself as a formidable opponent in the medium format arena and an indispensable tool for the professional photographer.

The H4D-50 features CCD sensor measuring 36.7 × 49.1mm - more than twice the physical size of the largest 35mm DSLR sensors. Basic ISO rating is from ISO 50 to ISO 800. The H4D-50 makes use of a high speed capture architecture capturing full size, compressed 80Mbyte images at the rate of 1.1 seconds per capture, working either mobile or tethered to a computer.

The combination of these features makes the H4D-50 the natural choice for the professional commercial photographer wanting to work with the highest image quality within a camera system that supports ultimate creative expression in order to deliver outstanding images to satisfy the most demanding customer.

Medium Format digital capture advantage

In digital photography, the advantages of large format cameras have become even more obvious. The basic 6×4.5 cm design allows the H4D-50 to use one of the largest image sensors currently available in digital photography. Consequently the sensor holds more and larger pixels, which deliver the highest possible image quality in terms of moiré-free color rendering without gradation break-ups in even the finest lit surfaces.

An impressive lens line outperforming the Carl Zeiss icons

The highly renowned H system lens line includes 11 Auto-Focus lenses, all with central lens shutters. Range is from 28mm to 300mm, 50-110mm zoom, 35-90mm zoom and 1.7X converter. The built-in central shutter allows flash to be used at all shutter speeds down to 1/800s. It also improves image quality by reducing camera vibration.

The HTS 1.5 tilt/shift adapter delivers an easy to use, portable tilt/shift solution for 5 H System lenses ranging from 28mm to 100mm. The CF adapter allows use of the classic CF-lenses from the Hasselblad V-camera, with full use of their central shutters, allowing flash to be employed at shutter speeds down to 1/500s. And thanks to the large format of the H System cameras, there is a considerably shallower depth of field range, making it much easier to utilize selective focus to creative effect.

A choice of bright viewfinders

One of the important traditional advantages of the medium format is the extra-large and bright viewfinder image, enabling extremely precise compositions and easy operation in dim lighting. The H4D-50 comes with the HVD 90x viewfinder designed for full performance over the large sensor. Hasselblad has added an interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, the HVM, for the entire range of H system cameras. The bright and large viewfinder image is ideal for creative composing and the photographer is able to shoot in the fashion that suits them most; maintaining eye contact with the model, or gaining impact by shooting from a point lower than eye-level, for example.

True Focus and Absolute Position Lock

True Focus helps solve one of the most lingering challenges that faces serious photographers today: true, accurate focusing throughout the image field. Without multi-point auto-focus a typical autofocus camera can only correctly measure focus on a subject that is in the center of the image. When a photographer wants to focus on a subject outside the center area, they have to lock focus on the subject and then re-compose the image. In short distances especially, this re-composing causes focus error, as the plane of focus sharpness follows the camera's movement, perpendicular to the axis of the lens.

The traditional solution for most DSLR cameras has been to equip the camera with a multi-point AF sensor. These sensors allow the photographer to fix an off-center focus point on an off-center subject, which is then focused correctly. Such multi-point AF solutions are often tedious and inflexible to work with. Due to the physics of an SLR-camera, the off-center focus points that are offered are all clustered relatively close to the center of the image. To set focus outside of this center area, the photographer is still forced to focus first, and then shift the camera to reframe, with the resulting loss of focus as a result.

To overcome this problem, Hasselblad has used modern yaw rate sensor technology to measure angular velocity in an innovative way. The result is the new Absolute Position Lock (APL) processor, which forms the foundation of Hasselblad's True Focus feature.

The APL processor accurately logs camera movement during any re-composing, then uses these exact measurements to calculate the necessary focus adjustment, and issues the proper commands to the lens's focus motor so it can compensate. The APL processor computes the advanced positional algorithms and carries out the required focus corrections at such rapid speed that no shutter lag occurs. The H4D's firmware then further perfects the focus using the precise data retrieval system found on all H System lenses.

Digital Lens Correction and Ultra-Focus for image perfection

The H4D-50 camera allows information from the lens and exact capture conditions to be fed to the camera processor for ultra-finetuning of the auto-focus mechanism, taking into account the design specifications of the lens and the optical specifications of the sensor. In this way the full H System lens program is even further enhanced, bringing a new level of sharpness and resolution. Digital correction for color aberration and distortion is also added. “Digital Lens Correction” (DA C), is an automatic correction of the images based on a combination of the various parameters concerning each specific lens for each specific shot, ensuring that each image represents the best that your equipment can produce.

Phocus for professional level workflow

Phocus provides an advanced software toolbox that has been especially designed to easily achieve optimum workflow and absolute image perfection from Hasselblad raw image files.

With the H4D-50 camera system Phocus provides:

• Uncompromising Image Quality
• Special extended camera controls with which to operate your H4D-50 camera. These features, such as live video for easier shot set-up and workflow, or the ability to control the lens drive for focusing when the camera is in a remote position or when the digital capture unit is mounted on a view camera, bring an entirely new level of flexibility to the way you shoot.
• Moire Removal Technology automatically applied directly on the raw data, leaving image quality intact and eliminating the need to carry out special masking selections or other manual procedures, saving hours of tedious post-production work.
• Flexible Workflow. The Phocus GUI features easy-to-use options that allow you to customize your set-up to suit a range of different workflow situations, such as choice of import source, browsing/comparison functions, file management, image export in a number of file formats, pre-setting of options for upcoming shoots, and much, much more.
• The extended metadata (GPS, etc). included in all Phocus images provides for accurate and detailed cataloguing and indexing, easy image management, and includes added GPS data functionality in order to allow a range of functions.
• Phocus links GPS data directly to Google Earth, for example, making geographic reference a snap and image storage and retrieval much easier.
• Perfect Viewing Quality. The Phocus Viewer delivers image viewing quality that matches every detail of what you will see later in Photoshop. In addition, the Phocus Viewer allows you to customize layout and composition to suit your current or desired workflow, providing a wide range of options including full view, compare, browse, horizontal, or vertical view, and so on. You can have multiple folders open simultaneously for side-by-side viewing, comparison, and selection.

Electronic spirit level

The H4D-50 has an integrated electronic spirit level to make it easy to produce a straight horizon. The spirit level is shown both in the viewfinder and on the rear LCD. You t 9herefore don't need to take your eye from the viewfinder to check camera alignment.

Camera info on rear LCD

To improve visibility in certain situations, the rear LCD can now show a copy of the camera grip LCD where you see all relevant shooting information.

Hasselblad's unique natural colors

Hasselblad's Natural Color Solution (HNCS) enables you to produce outstanding and reliable out-of-the-box colors, with skin tones, specific product colors and other difficult tones reproduced easily and effectively. In order to incorporate our unique HNCS and DA Cfeatures we have developed a custom Hasselblad raw file format called 3F RAW (3FR). This file format includes lossless image compression, which reduces the file size by 33%. The 3FR files can be opened directly in Apple or Adobe imaging environments. Accessories including GPS Recording Flexibility Hasselblad's Global Image Locator (GIL) is an accessory for use with any Hasselblad H-System digital capture product. With the GIL device, all images captured outdoors are tagged with GPS coordinates, time and altittude. This data provides the key to a number of future applications involving image archiving and retrieval. One example is the direct mapping of images in Phocus software to the Google Earth application.

Instant Approval Architecture

Building on the success of the Audio Exposure Feedback technology, Hasselblad has created Instant Approval Architecture (IAA), an enhanced set of feedback tools, designed to enable the photographer to focus on the shoot rather than the selection process. IAA triggers audible and visual signals for each image captured, notifying the photographer immediately of its classification status. The information is recorded both in the file and in the file name, providing a quick and easy way to classify and select images, in the field or back at the studio. IAA is a Hasselblad trademark and Hasselblad has a patent pending on the invention.

Options for working with tilt/shift

Two basic options are available for tilt/shift work with H4D-50. A simple-to-use, portable adapter solution and the classic view camera solution. The HTS tilt/shift adapter for H4D-50 allows for portable tilt/shift with the H System lens range from 28mm to 100mm. Please refer to the separate datasheet on this product for details. To further increase usability, the H4D-50 has been designed to allow the digital capture unit to be detached and used on a view camera by way of an adapter.

Two modes of operation and storage

The H4D-50 offers a choice of storage devices: CF cards or a computer hard drive. With these operating and storage options, you are able to select a mode to suit the nature of the work in hand, whether in the studio or on location.