A few complaints about delays- H3DII-31

[s.agar]

1. Still waiting for the Phocus for PC, which apparantly is very close to completion. My dealer had informed that it will be ready in a very short while during his sales talk. I need it, even if with some known problems,

2. Another promise made by my dealer when I was trying to decide between Hasselblad and Phase One, was the high ISO issue. I don't need it actually very much, but a promise is a promise.

3. H3DII-31 is very problemmatic in some areas. NONE of my Kingston or Transcend 16 GB 133X cards work at 16GB. Camera formats these to 8GB (7 actually). All my other cameras CAN use these to full 16 GB (D300, D700). This must be improved in the next firmware upgrade, since we know that it HAS BEEN DONE by other manufacturers. It may be a good idea to do it rather than question the card suppliers for non conformity etc.

4. Batteries behave strangely. I have 2 batteries. After charging' Battery No. 1 does not operate the camera, unless removed once and reinstalled. Battery No.2 operates improperly, asking for a firmware upgrade of the camera first, and operates after removing and reinstalling. That means, batteries have some inner logic that has to be rewritten, or corrected completely in the new firmware upgrade.

During these days manufacturers are doing highly competitive products, and it seems as in the case of mainboard manufacturers, the firmwares come later in perfect shape. I can understand this in this tight market, and want Hasselblad to be highly succesfull (I also have lots of investment in their products with many film cameras and the full range of their lenses) but think that we have waited a lot more for the improvements, and deserve to have the upgrades.

The dealers are NOT able to reply to these specific problems and Hasselblad is very slow in replying. (Hasselbladusa has at least a contact mail address, while the main company website does not even have it and refer to their dealers.. As if they can..)

Best regards,

S. Agar

[NickT]

4. Batteries behave strangely. I have 2 batteries. After charging' Battery No. 1 does not operate the camera, unless removed once and reinstalled. Battery No.2 operates improperly, asking for a firmware upgrade of the camera first, and operates after removing and reinstalling. That means, batteries have some inner logic that has to be rewritten, or corrected completely in the new firmware upgrade.


S. Agar

I think you have some valid complaints. It is your dealers job to resolve these issues or bump them up to support if they cannot help.

The battery issue is an odd one. I would suggest checking the physical connections in case they are damaged. You could also try resetting the batteries. Remove battery from camera. Press and hold menu and flash on the camera. While still holding the buttons push the grip up onto the camera and you should hear a rapid series of beeps indicating the battery has been reset. No put the battery on charge (overnight) and you'll get better performance if nothing else.
HTH
Nick-T

[s.agar]

Nick,

Do I need to do anything before resetting the batteries? (like charging fully?)

Best regards

Seyhun

I think you have some valid complaints. It is your dealers job to resolve these issues or bump them up to support if they cannot help.

The battery issue is an odd one. I would suggest checking the physical connections in case they are damaged. You could also try resetting the batteries. Remove battery from camera. Press and hold menu and flash on the camera. While still holding the buttons push the grip up onto the camera and you should hear a rapid series of beeps indicating the battery has been reset. No put the battery on charge (overnight) and you'll get better performance if nothing else.
HTH
Nick-T

[s.agar]

Hello Derek,

Thanks for all your comments.

I did not think of asking the sales person about the CF cards while buying the camera. I have many cameras (almost all leading models), and in fact I never asked any sales person this question, because all these work with a wide range of cards.
Only Hasselblad has issues. Others may have issues with just one or two specific cards.

By the way, as a side information, 16GB Sandisk IV works for many users. I still use my 8GB Sandisk III cards.

My comment is that, Hasselblad requires inputs from actual users in this area, to improve their products.
So my comment is important for them. Since we know that ALL competitors as well as DSLR cameras can use these (all 133X) Kingston 16 GB, or Transcend 16GB cards, in the next firmware upgrade, I'm sure that Hasselblad can do that as well.

This alone may justify for a firmware upgrade. All others would have done it based on this alone.

The market is developing so fast that, Hasselblad engineers may be busier on other cameras or software, so it's a good idea to remind that the existing users may have some requests as well.

Fortunately this forum is limited to actual users, so it is a better place to report requests directly, without having any second meanings. And I really hope that the new firmware can solve some problems like this (if possible of course)

Best regards

Seyhun

3. When I purchased the H3DII I asked which cards it worked with and I was told the Sandisk Extreme IV's - and this is what I use. I am not going to try to use my existing cards if they are not compatible.
Kind regards,
Derek Jecxz
www.jecxz.com

[s.agar]

Hello Nick,

I finally reseted the batteries (I have 2 ea.)
Series of beeps etc. Then each battery worked properly. That is, after removing and putting back again, all was fine.

But then, after recharging, both batteries had problems, but slightly different problems. When I put Battery No:1 (I have marked it to duplicate the problem) and started the camera, I got a message on the camera LCD as something like "Preparing the digital back" and nothing happened further. After removing and reinstalling, everything was fine. (Until another recharging).

Battery No2 gives the same message, but also on the digital back, I got another message, something like "Preparing for firmware upgrade etc."  Again after removing and reinstalling, everything was fine with this too.

I'm now willing to reload the firmware to the camera. But I use a PC only. I regretfully still don't have the Phocus for PC. Can I do it with Phocus on a friends Mac, that is, if  Phocus has this capability of reloading the Firmware R245.

I'm not giving away my camera to the Hasselblad agent, because of complete lack of trust. As witnessed by my local dealer, through whom I bought the camera, they were very strange at first when I asked for an unopened box and later they even tried to sell the second battery completely worn out, and only after my serious attempts involving a few official yhreats it was replaced with a new one. I would rather try everything first, and then may seek advise from Hasselblad directly.

So please advise about my last attempt to reload the firmware. Actually, I still believe that the camera is OK, and I can use it without any big issues. It's better than giving away to the agent, since who knows what they will be doing. The difference between the behavior of the batteries leads me to think that the source of the problem may also be the batteries.   

Battery contacts as you also know are of very poor quality. Something not expected from Hasselblad. But still that is not the cause. I have cleaned the battery contacts before resetting and trying.

I would be most pleased if you inform me about firmware reloading. Whether it's possible.

Best regards

Seyhun

The battery issue is an odd one. I would suggest checking the physical connections in case they are damaged. You could also try resetting the batteries. Remove battery from camera. Press and hold menu and flash on the camera. While still holding the buttons push the grip up onto the camera and you should hear a rapid series of beeps indicating the battery has been reset. No put the battery on charge (overnight) and you'll get better performance if nothing else.
HTH
Nick-T

[David Grover]

Seyhun,

Please note you must fully recharge the batteries (24 hours to be sure) BEFORE doing the battery reset.

If this is not the case then please do this before going forward with anything else (ie charge the batteries then do the reset).  Then follow Derek's advice.

Best,



David