To Tilt / Shift, or not; my experiences … Part III (The Migration)

So, now that I was an abled Tilt / Shift lens “fixer”, I was happily able to use these beauties to their full potential. Until the time came for me to retire my trusty D3X and migrate to the D810.

I was ever so excited to get the new compact bodied D810, but not too soon did I realise that it had a bigger pentaprism, which meant that the knobs from them t/s lens were smacking against this protruding pentaprism causing the lens to not shift all the way up, and unable to rotate the lens while mounted!

Having contacted Nikon, they offered a “fix” by replacing the knobs to smaller ones!

Displeased with that suggestion, it was all the excuse I needed to make the jump to the new platform of the Hasselblad H system with its dedicated t/s adaptor, the HTS …  and not a moment of regret.

Indeed, it was a very costly migration and not without its issues; but my move to the Hasselblad H5D-40 (CCD sensor) meant a huge financial investment, as well as some major upgrade to the accessories too. Due to the weight of the Hasselblad contraption, I had to invest in new, sturdier, tripods and ball-heads, as well as the need for bigger screw-on filters, bigger camera bags, and more capable IT system (laptop, hard drives, and server).

Eventually I moved on to the H5D-50c WiFi, with the CMOS sensor. This meant the images has a slight degradation in quality, but the ISO capability of the sensor was far better … going up to a useable ISO 400, even 800 at a push. The CCD sensor couldn’t be used acceptably at ISO 400!

As for the t/s in my photography, I bought it mainly for my landscape use, as well as the occasional architecture photography I do; but I have since adopted it in the Beauty & Fashion photoshoots too, allowing me to control the Out of Focus (bokeh) … so much so that it is now an integral part of my photography regardless of genre.

More on my experience, and review of the H5D-40 & H5D-50c in a later post.