39mp underwater

Hello everyone,

I have recently purchased a new housing from UK-Germany designed for the H3D by Hasselblad. A medium format digital camera with 39mp's. I am using 2-Subronic Nova strobes that have the batteries built into the arms. Also a spotlight overhead to create contrast if needed. The lenses I use are the 120mm Macro, 80mm and the new 28mm wide. I use the flexcolor software to edit the raw files along with Photoshop CS3.

Observations:

Housing

built like a tank and well balanced u/w (more on housing later)

Camera

all functions operate to 40ft/basic functions to 120ft

crazy detail and colour reproduction (raw file 55mp/tiff file 225mp)

camera can produce 5ft.x8ft. prints (16bit through colorbyte rip)

with no loss of quality on Epson 9800 printer.

looks like film w/o the grain

wide angle focus is fast enough and ultra sharp

macro focus is an area that I am still learning. (more on macro shooting later)

Strobes

produce wide even light

Each battery lasts up to 185 shots on TTL and 140 full power

dials are at your fingertips and work perfectly

Photos soon to come

Thanks to Uwe at UK-Germany my dream has come true

regards,

Troy

Hi Troy,

Welcome to Wetpixel. I think we can count you as our first MF underwater digital shooter. At least you're the first one who's admitted it :-)

I'm excited to see your shots. How wide of a field of view do you get with that 28mm lens?

Cheers

James

I use a p45 39mp back and a Hasselblad at work and it is amazing. I would be afraid to take it underwater. I wonder what your insurance premium is like for a high end system. Happy shooting...I can't wait to see the photos.

How do you plan to shoot smaller subjects? The 120mm, if I interpret right, can only get down to about a 220mm wide frame. That's 10x bigger than a Canon cropped sensor can do with a 1:1 lens. It also has an 80cm near focus limit; that's further than the maximum working distance most people want.

Thank you for the welcome. Out of water is 95 degrees. But u/w it sure looks alot wider. Here is a shark photo shot 3-4 ft away. shark was 8ft.

Hello again,

I have been in close contact with Uwe at UK-Germany for 10 months during the design. It is the first of its kind with another one owned by a German photographer whom tested it first I think in Bora Bora.

Insurance is a must and yes a loty of money u/w. I am passionate about photography/videography so I gladly take the risk with proper care and respect.

120mm Macro lens can focus on an object 5inches away from the lens or port capturing an area of about 1.35"x2" which can blow up to 5ftx8ft. At this point I keep it on maual focus and antisipate my shot to be framed considering the distance from port to subject. Auto focus hunts alot and I think with more experience I will do better with auto. A tiny subject in front of a coral with a few inches between them causes the auto focus to hunt too much and you miss the shot. More later with images

Looks pretty sharp on my 72 dpi screen.

I'm very jealous - how can I bring this up with my old lady?

Thank you for the welcome. Out of water is 95 degrees. But u/w it sure looks alot wider. Here is a shark photo shot 3-4 ft away. shark was 8ft.

Is this the macro lens that you are using? Hasselblad Macro 120mm f/4

I'm very jealous - how can I bring this up with my old lady?

You might want to be careful with your approach. Normally when I hint around about new toys mine just rolls her eyes and walks away. I mentioned THIS new rig last night and she got downright mean about it.

Impressive shot. We all want to see more.

Yes, thisis the one. I use it professionally for small product shots and glamour

best,

troy

Is this the macro lens that you are using? Hasselblad Macro 120mm f/4

Hi Troy!

Do you have contact info for UK-Germany? Their website has gone TitsUp.Com ...

Thanks!

Dan in NJ

Hello everyone,

 

I have recently purchased a new housing from UK-Germany designed for the H3D by Hasselblad. A medium format digital camera with 39mp's. I am using 2-Subronic Nova strobes that have the batteries built into the arms. Also a spotlight overhead to create contrast if needed. The lenses I use are the 120mm Macro, 80mm and the new 28mm wide. I use the flexcolor software to edit the raw files along with Photoshop CS3.

 

[cut]

 

Thanks to Uwe at UK-Germany my dream has come true

Hi Troy!

 

Do you have contact info for UK-Germany?

Thanks!

Dan in NJ

info@uk-germany.com is what I use...

Troy,

May I ask what this housing costs, what ports are used for the 28mm and other lenses, what ports cost etc.

Jeff

Troy,

Are you going to be at the H3D-II launch in Manhattan this Thursday (in conjunction with the PhotoPlus Expo)?

With images like yours, they should pay for your plane ride to EWR so you can show them off at the launch!

Cheers!

Dan

PS to all: I'll be stalking the exhibit hall for most all of the 3 days, as I gather info for others in faraway places, and also talk to vendors.

No problem

With the 2 cases for travel, Subtronic set up, housing, dome port, flat port and extension flat port cost around $13 to $14k US Dollars. Excellent build, easy to handle and everything in the right place. German built like a Mercedes. Surprisingly light except for the Subtronic Strobes but the quality of light is exceptional

Hello Dan,

I will not be going as business calls. Thank you for the compliment. Just after Christmas I plan to pull my images together and market them at our Gallery and on the internet. Too upgrade from the H3D to the H3Dll is a wopping $15k plus. Had a good deep teck taik with Hasselblad and was relieved it made no sense to upgrade at this time. So at least I won't be tempted to upgrade. What I might upgrade to is the optional Hasselblad's GPS that works with Google earth for my arial photography for real estate and government mapping. Be careful, you might catch the bug though I hope you do.

Best

Troy

I recently acquired Subtronic Novas; yes they are great lights. The strobes are about $2K apiece, so we are looking at about $10K for housing and ports, right?

No problem

 

With the 2 cases for travel, Subtronic set up, housing, dome port, flat port and extension flat port cost around $13 to $14k US Dollars. Excellent build, easy to handle and everything in the right place. German built like a Mercedes. Surprisingly light except for the Subtronic Strobes but the quality of light is exceptional

Yes, there about or less

troy

Hey, Troy. I heard last year at DEMA that Patima (Korean housing company) was planning on selling digital MF housings made out of titanium. I don't know if they ended up pursuing that project, but it would be pretty cool.

Somewhere I've read that Titanium doesn't like high pressure oxygen (perhaps it becomes slightly reactive) but I'm not sure if there is any substance in this. Can anyone confirm or deny? (It does seem odd that Titanium isn't used more in housings as it should be an excellent material unless it has a drawback other than cost/machining).