H1D / 132c pausing when shooting in sequence

[Eivind Røhne]

Hi,

Just got back from a big fashionshoot in Italy, and was annoyed with a strange problem. Shot with an H1D (H1 / 132C) to the ImageBank, not tethered to a computer. When the models where posing, I shot images in rapid sequence (one shot manually, about every 2 seconds). As soon as I got the exposure beep (over/under/correct), and the models was moving to the next pose, I triggered a new shot. I usually shoot like this in bursts of 15-25 images before loooking at the display. But most of the time my camera pauses after 7-8 shots in rapid sequence, almost like it is waiting for the images to transfer to the ImageBank. Sometimes I got to shoot 10-12 images without any delays, but sometimes only 2-3. When the camera pauses, the hourglass is displayed on the top display of the camera. Anyone ever experienced this? I have noticed it on a few occassions earlier without thinking much about it, but now it was very annoying as it happened all the time. It feels almost like when shooting tethered to a (slow) laptop, and the images queue up to transfer to the laptop and you're unable to trigger another shot until the queue is empty.

Latest firmware in the camera (the one that came with FC4.8.6).

[NickT]

This shouldn't happen, those image banks just keep going and going. How full is the image bank? I can't really think of a solution except perhaps to reformat the bank or even put a new drive in to it (very easy).
Nick-T

[Eivind Røhne]

Hi Nick,

It happened all the time, no matter how many images where on it. It could everything from empty to almost full. But I sent Hasselblad support an email right after posting here, and got excellent help from Anders at Hasselblad support. Two thumbs up! He thought maybe it could be hardware related, but suspected it to be the drive being defragmented. So he sent me info on how to access the different maintenance menus on the image bank, and I reformatted it last night. After that everything seems to work just fine. Shot 60 images as fast as I could without any delays whatsoever.

But you say that putting a new drive in it is very easy? User-easy, or Danish-vacation-easy? Could be interesting to have an extra drive as a backup solution. Do you have any how-to's on how to do this, and maybe some suggestions on what type of drives I can use (Hasselblad specials, or off the shelf drives?)?

[NickT]

Ahh good old Anders

Yes it's very easy to swap the drive from an image bank but I'm certain it would void your warranty! I really shouldn't recommend it as the last thing Hasselblad want is people opening up their image banks and breaking them. The drive inside is just a standard 2.5in laptop drive (5400rpm I think), I believe a few people have swapped the drive for a 7200 and seen increased performance.
Nick-T

[Eivind Røhne]

Well the warranty is long gone, and I'm now under the refurbishment program. Sounds like some sort of secret-government-FBI-CIA-stuff from a Hollywood blockbuster with Matt Damon and George Clooney...

So if I get hold of another IB, I could swap the drive in that one for a faster one. But what kind of increased performance? Not faster shooting rate...?  Am I limited to a 40GB, or can I up the numbers to get more images on it?

[NickT]

I think you will see faster shooting rates with a 7200 RPM drive and you could certainly increase capacity..

Nick-T

[Eivind Røhne]

Thanks Nick!

Sounds really tempting!! I thought the shooting rate of about 1.8 secs was only camerarelated (sensor readout etc), and didn't think of a faster drive would speed things up. Do you happen to know what type of harddisk type fits, IDE or S-ATA?