blowupster
Member
Well, the Kodak proback was a great step for Hasselblad V users more than 10 years ago.
The price was high enough to allow me...in 2009 only to get a second hand one. I bought one in June 2009 and sold it in December as I got a "new second" hand CFV-39 in November.
I'm not a good tester as I only made about 800 shots with the old back and 3'000 with the new. However the number of shots perhaps is part of the test as I use other cameras.
The improvement in quality and ergonomic is far enough, yes the CFV-39 is really better and I will not return back to digital of 2000 !
Anyway, there are few stuffs that were in the old Kodak that's hard to explain why it disappeared, or why some points were not improved:
Anyway, very happy with the CFV-39 !
The price was high enough to allow me...in 2009 only to get a second hand one. I bought one in June 2009 and sold it in December as I got a "new second" hand CFV-39 in November.
I'm not a good tester as I only made about 800 shots with the old back and 3'000 with the new. However the number of shots perhaps is part of the test as I use other cameras.
The improvement in quality and ergonomic is far enough, yes the CFV-39 is really better and I will not return back to digital of 2000 !
Anyway, there are few stuffs that were in the old Kodak that's hard to explain why it disappeared, or why some points were not improved:
- The old one had VHS output; nothing for the new one (not full HD as well !)
- The old one has a tilting screen, I thought it was not important until I realized that tilting a 2kg camera 60 times a day was hurting my hand; and when you have the body on tripods, the screen is not always at the good position.
- The old one has 2 CF card slots. Only one for the new one (why not a CF card and a SD-HC ?)
- The old one could process raw files in JPG or TIFF pictures after the shots. I was great user of this: you take the pictures and then it process automatically when you drive the car or sleep at the hotel. It was even possible to chose limited parameters before to start processing.
- With the new one it's not possible to write missing infos in exif:
Well if you use a CFE lens on H body, the H body will write lens used, and aperture as well. With a modified 203FE, the bus lines is only used for electronic trigger (however only in F mode, with c mode you need a wire); what I need in my CFV (only software indeed) is to move pictures in directories and then write that these 43 selected pictures were taken with my 50mm at 5.6 at 3meters and that 25 ones with the 110mm at 2.0 at 5meters and so on. Ok phocus is used to do this, but phocus need a computer and powerful computer that is not funny to connect on mountains ! - The old one needed 2 seconds to record a shot, the new one just more than one. Ok that's better but just too long if you use winder (0.8 sec) or rewind fast. I have unusable pictures because of that.
- The old one was offered with a array of plastic masks to frame the screen in the viewfinder (37x37mm), with the new one you received a high quality screen that is unusable for portraits.
Perhaps ones thinks that focusing for digital need technical stuff like microprismes or stignometer, however I tested it and yes flat screen is faster and far better.
- About phocus ? Well it's a great gift to get this for free, however a light version to edit exif faster (lens, light types, basic exposition and itpc) is needed. I was surprised that Xnview was able to read 3fr files very fast in vignette sizes.
Anyway, very happy with the CFV-39 !