First Hasselblad.. super stoked.. Flash compatibility question.

[William Howell]

First off... This is my first post on this forum.. We paid for our first Hasselblad, a X1d on Friday... should take delivery sometime this week..

I'm so stoked... This will be the first medium format camera I can barely hold my excitement.

Ok..  So I've been shooting Canon gear since the beginning of my photography career, and have two sets of Canon Speedlites (550ex's and 600ex's three of each).  Is there a way to utilize these flashes with the X1d?  I know the mount is Nikon, and in the past the you couldn't do any fine tuning to cross platform flash firing.. Canon cameras could fire Nikon flashes and vice versa... but that was it..  TTL is universal, but e-ttl and i-ttl don't jive at the physical mount and/or the programming level.

And since Hasselblad has a nikon mount I'm assuming that they are using the i-ttl protocol?  If not.. and you are just firing the flashes with through the lens adjustments.. then that's a horse of a different color... I hope.

We haven't shot with any auto settings on our dslr's for over a decade (other than auto white balance, but we're shooting in raw so that doesn't really matter), and use a hot shoe RF trigger to communicate with the speedlites.

I haven't been able to find anything on the forum, and imagine that it won't be possible... but.. I'm the king of stupid questions.

We have in studio strobes also and have to get a nikon mount controller for them, but it would be nice to have a portable flash solution without investing in a strobe battery system.

[Iceman1331]

On P.97 of the x1d user guide which states that attempting to use other brand's flash could damage the flash/camera. It shows Nikon SB300 to 910 as recommended for use. Using other brand's flash may void the warranty as well. So be careful what you use.

[William Howell]

Thank you for the heads up.  We rarely, if ever, physically mount the flashes to our dslr's, and rely primarily on a radio trigger to communicate with the flashes.  I've found some interesting things about a product named PocketWizard online, and will continue to explore universal flash controllers.  In the end, I just want to communicate with the flashes remotely.

The whole canon ettl vs nikon ittl is annoying, and I haven't had to deal with it ever... until now.

Will stick to strobes until we can figure out a solution for portable flashes.

[flash]

You can use the Canon flashes in manual mode but not TTL. Manual radio triggers work but not TTL. Not even Nikon compatible ones. Maybe a firmware update will allow that. I use Nikon and Nissin Nikon type flashes on the hotshoe in TTL and Elinchrom, Godox and Nissin flashes via a radio trigger in manual mode.

Gordon

[jwillson]

One other option (though an expensive one you may not like) is the Profoto A1--the Nikon mount version.  It works fine both on camera and off.  The Profoto Air Remote works fine in TTL mode (though it's not as sophisticated as the Nikon and Canon iTTL and equivalent).  A lot of money, but if you are starting a lighting system from scratch it's a solid choice.  I haven't had any trouble with mine.  Both TTL and manual, radio triggered or on the camera.  I have also used my Nikon synch cord successfully.  The Profoto A1 also has a radio receiver built in so no need for an attached trigger as long as you are using a Profoto Air Remote.

The Nikon flashes are about half the price and very similar in capability, but the Nikon SU-800 is not yet compatible with the X1D for off-camera use (I understand) which means you would be stuck with some other radio trigger and manual flash mode.  I greatly prefer the simplicity of the A1--very elegant user interface--but it's definitely a lot more expensive for very little practical improvement.

[JST]

One other option (though an expensive one you may not like) is the Profoto A1--the Nikon mount version.  It works fine both on camera and off.  The Profoto Air Remote works fine in TTL mode (though it's not as sophisticated as the Nikon and Canon iTTL and equivalent).  A lot of money, but if you are starting a lighting system from scratch it's a solid choice.  I haven't had any trouble with mine.  Both TTL and manual, radio triggered or on the camera.  I have also used my Nikon synch cord successfully.  The Profoto A1 also has a radio receiver built in so no need for an attached trigger as long as you are using a Profoto Air Remote.

The Nikon flashes are about half the price and very similar in capability, but the Nikon SU-800 is not yet compatible with the X1D for off-camera use (I understand) which means you would be stuck with some other radio trigger and manual flash mode.  I greatly prefer the simplicity of the A1--very elegant user interface--but it's definitely a lot more expensive for very little practical improvement.

I second the note on the Profoto A1. I was starting from scratch (moving from Canon) and decided on the Profoto. It works straight off, and no complications. They have recently had a firmware update to the flash, so if you decide to go that route, keep an eye open for the updates. (Don't know how frequently they offer them up.). This flash is heavier than many of the others, and, as noted, more expensive.

John

[OleBe]

Hello all,

I needed to prepare myself for a wedding shoot next weekend.

What I want to do for some shots is using the flash to underexpose the scenery by 2 or 3 stop and correctly expose the persons in front.

Therefore I needed to check my equipment and find out the best exposure pair providing max output with shallow depth of field.

I am using a Godox AD600 and the Godox Pro trigger Nikon version.


Started with the following setup:

Beauty Dish in silver 1,5m away from the subject (flowers in this case under full sunlight at noon) 45° angle both axes.

True Exposure switched of at the cam / 90mm at f3.2 and ND Filter vario from B&W

Test pictures with different exposure times, have adjusted the ND filter for every shot to exposure compensate 2 stops of light.

B0000921.jpg 1/200 sec / flash off

B0000922.jpg 1/200 sec / flash on 1/1 power (t0.1 / 1/220 sec)

B0000924.jpg 1/500 sec / flash on 1/2 + 0,3 (t0.1 / 1/535 sec)

B0000926.jpg 1/ 800 sec / flash on 1/2 (t0.1 1/740 sec)

B0000928.jpg 1 / 1250 sec / flash on 1/4 + 0,3 (t 0.1 1/1196 sec)

Interestingly the combination fo 1/1250 sec with matching flash power level seems to be the second best after full power. Everything seems to fit, delay of the trigger is fine, flash duration seems to be fine - overall resulting in a very good output level.

Additionally with just over 1/4 power the flash is able to fire about 1500 flashes until empty and about 200 until the overheat prevention system kicks in.

Big advantage over full power is also the ability to freeze action shots.



Hope that proves helpful for some. The combination of the Hasselblad + ND and my Godox flash at least seems to work better than expected.

[bodtlaender]

Very interesting.

Thank you for taking the time.

But: why the background always the same brightness, even if you changed the exposure time?

Did you change ISO or f-stop?

Best,

Bernd

[OleBe]

Dear Bernd,

sorry - I really missed your reply. The answer is in my text, although slightly hidden I must confess.

I have adjusted the background exposure with my vario ND filter to stay the same.


Hope this helps