Practice Poll. Not the Real Poll. Please Read, Vote and Comment Before Finalized

[sog1927]

You probably are. I can see extreme difficulties (and expense) in making such an adapter. Firing the shutter may not be so difficult a task but cocking the shutter is a whole different ball-game. It takes real effort to manually cock the shutter using a screwdriver or small coin so you are going to need quite a powerful (and tiny) electric motor in the adapter.

And why bother when you have the facility of the electronic shutter? I know it's not perfect but at least it's enabled the use of old, and much loved legacy lenses.

No you don't - you just need a manual cocking lever like the H-series V adapter has (or, for that matter, like the FlexBody or the old manual bellows). This is a solved problem - people have been using CF lenses on the H-series for ages (since the H1) and were using them with the FlexBody and the manual bellows long before that. I think a firmware change would certainly be necessary for the camera to "understand" the mechanical shutter firing sequence and trip it appropriately. You'd probably also need a sync cord connection like the CF adapter for the H. Here's the CF adapter for the H-series:
http://static.hasselblad.com/2014/11/cf-lens-adapter.pdf

See that lever on the side - that's what you use to cock the lens shutter on a C/CF/CFi/CFe lens.

Why use the mechanical shutter? Lots of reasons, but the primary ones (for me) are:

1) Avoiding distortion when shooting moving subjects or in cases where some camera movement is unavoidable (like shooting from a boat or a vehicle), and
2) Flash (unusable with the ES, even with shutter speeds longer than the sensor readout time)

Don't get me wrong - the ES is a great feature (and will be even better with future sensors in the X1D's successors). It's just not adequate for some situations.

[JoeC]

Brad,

Am I correct to presume this poll is specifically for desired improvements to the X1D (as the poll title states)? If so, I think we are losing focus here. Anything hardware related should not be included - such as higher resolution EVF, joystick, improving E-shutter scan rate (my understanding this is a sensor limitation), etc.

Maybe we can have a separate poll for what everyone wants in an X2D and beyond.

Alex

I plan to include all requests that everyone makes here in this post in the real poll.  Being only a year long Hasselblad user, I'll leave it to this audience to come up with the right additions, modifications or deletions.  As a reminder, the real poll will start next week and continue for three weeks.  This is only a practice poll. 

I advise and hope for everyone reading this to comment.  We have quite a unique audience and special contributors in this forum.  We also have influential people reading it.  I suspect the results of the real poll are likely to at least somewhat influence the development of our shared platform. 

I am reminded of an interview with Leica's North American representative on a recent B&H podcast.  While unable to quote the wisdom exactly, he basically said that Leica has always been focused on doing only the fundamentals exceptionally well.  He said that dedication is perhaps the main reason for Leica's continued success over the years.  That resonates with me.  That has worked out well for Leica in their lenses, less certainly for their cameras and photographic platform.  That has worked out well for Hasselblad's photographic platform over time.

Having said all that, I'd propose reading the above two posts together to say that we should add an item to improve the speed of the electronic shutter.  Now, the electronic shutter takes about a third of a second.  A third of a second is much longer than a few leading manufacturers have achieved. Focus by Hasselblad in shortening that time might be a forward looking improvement in the platform and benefit all lenses — shots with XCDs, shots with other current and legacy Hasselblad lenses, and shots with third party lenses.  Should we add a request to improve the electronic shutter speed?

I agree. Construct two polls, one for the future of the X1D and one for its successor.

Joe

[michael123]

There is already thread here (at least one) for "X2D"

[JoeC]

There is already thread here (at least one) for "X2D"

I know that. But how can a poll that includes "Joystick" and "Add a wired cable release" be about the X1D? The suggestion I made is to have one poll that focuses (no pun intended) on the current camera, and a second poll that proposes ideas for a new design.

Joe

[neilb]

Hey Brad,

One thing that would be interesting to understand from the poll is if any specific new features are likely to change people's buying choices. (i.e. make our camera of choice even more successful).

I love my X1D and for example (for me), I would buy a second body if fast, accurate continuous autofocus was available. Without which I'm pretty sure there is no other combination of features that would make me buy another body (except maybe extreme high ISO). 

What are your thoughts?

Neil

[BradP]

I'm trying to sketch out how two polls would work.  The only items that at least I know for sure are not able to be improved by firmware updates and/or additional accessories compatible with the X1D-50C (the current model) are a joystick, a vertical viewfinder attachment and improvements to EVF resolution.  What others on the list are certainly not upgradeable with the current body or what other items in a next gen body should be listed?   Feel free to post some here and I'll keep tabs on that or post a link to other links.

There likely are a bunch of improvements in the practice poll that can't be implemented in the current body, but without a Hasselblad engineer helping to identify those, we might be entering the realm of speculation in separating items.  If anyone knows some improvements for sure can't be accomplished with the current body please list some here and we can look at that.  I'm sure there are others.   

For the wired cable release, I think the idea is to use the USB connector port in the existing body or another port.  Is that not possible?

Assume for the moment we identify somewhere between 3 and 20 items that clearly require a new body to be implemented.  Would the new body poll be limited to only those items?  Or should it repeat all the X1D-50C items and additionally the new body items?  The more items that we can identify that clearly require a new body, the more meaningful a separate poll would seem.

Personally, I still believe it would be better to deal with all this by identifying the things we are sure can't be improved with the current body in the same poll.  We could have those items at the end in italics or all caps and call them out in the instructions as not implementable with the current body for clarity. There probably is some value in viewing the results of a single poll showing what people want regardless of whether it can be implemented in the current body.  And finally, one poll is more likely to be completed by viewers than two, and there is less chance of poll takers being confused.  Just my thoughts for now.  Again, happy to hear others. 

Another thing to think about alongside this is the number of votes.  I have arbitrarily allowed 5 votes in this practice poll, but it could be any fixed number.  Maybe allocating more votes (8 or even 10) would allow people to express more preferences.  The other side of that coin is it in effect dilutes people's stronger preferences.  Any thoughts on that?

[BradP]

Hey Brad,

One thing that would be interesting to understand from the poll is if any specific new features are likely to change people's buying choices. (i.e. make our camera of choice even more successful).

I love my X1D and for example (for me), I would buy a second body if fast, accurate continuous autofocus was available. Without which I'm pretty sure there is no other combination of features that would make me buy another body (except maybe extreme high ISO). 

What are your thoughts?

Neil

Hi Neil,

I think that's a good idea.  And continuous autofocus may be another item that can't be implemented with the current sensor (or can it?).

The polling mechanism in this forum doesn't allow for weighted votes or anything other than a simple poll as is constructed that I can tell.  Certainly you can leave a comment to the poll as you are doing here, and absent us finding a better way to reflect your idea I'd suggest at least that for sure. 

[sog1927]

There is already thread here (at least one) for "X2D"

I know that. But how can a poll that includes "Joystick" and "Add a wired cable release" be about the X1D? The suggestion I made is to have one poll that focuses (no pun intended) on the current camera, and a second poll that proposes ideas for a new design.

Joe

It's already possible to trigger the camera over USB - it should be possible to make a dedicated release that plugs into the USB socket without changes to the camera hardware. Depending on how complicated the protocol it, you might need a custom ASIC or two in the release but you shouldn't need any new hardware in the camera itself. Whether that would be worth the development costs to Hasselblad is another matter, but this is a wish list not a business plan.

I certainly agree that things like joysticks snd IBIS  belong on a different poll. Probably continuous autofocus, too (I hardly ever use autofocus, but I suspect the current sensor can't handle that).

[BradP]

OK, here is redraft number 1 based on comments so far.

•   There is still an unresolved question on whether we should divide the poll into two, one aimed for the current body only and another for the next. I'm strongly leaning toward having one poll because it seems practically impossible to divide them without Hasselblad Engineering going over it, it could be redundant and confusing, and there would be more work for people to figure it out and reply.  Nevertheless I have attempted to identify the items that clearly require a new body in the capitalized items at the end of the poll here. I could simply leave those off this poll if people want and they could go on a separate poll, but I think there's more value in leaving them on.

•   Should we offer more votes than 5?

•   Changed instructions to make it clear that some items may require a new body.

•   Changed the order to group choices more functionally along the lines suggested by Alex.  Alex -- headers are not allowed in the poll mechanism so while I kept your general organization I had to lose the titles.

•   Deleted "Allow users to select minimum shutter speed when using Auto ISO".  This has been implemented in P Mode.

•   Retained "Develop a teleconverter".  There is a built in, dedicated teleconverter announced for the upcoming 135mm lens, not a general purpose teleconverter.   Let me know if I missed an announcement.

•   Added "Develop Extension Rings"

•   Changed "Faster continuous autofocus" to "Continuous Autofocus"

•   Added "Develop a telephoto zoom"

•   Added "Develop a wide angle zoom"

•   Added "Ability to record in RAW format (like the H6D)"

•   Added "Ability to transfer full raw video stream over HDMI to an external recorder"

•   Added "Ability to record video to an external SSD"

•   Added "Higher frame rate than 25fps"

•   Added "4K Video"

•   Added "V-series adapter allowing use of shutter in CF lenses"

•   Added "In body image stabilization"

The revised poll is below and will be modified based on further comments:

* * * * *

What Improvements Do You Want in the X1D Platform?  Vote for Your Favorite Five.  See Instructions Below Poll.

Live histogram (RAW based preferably)
Auto ISO in manual mode
Allow users to select minimum shutter speed when using auto ISO
Night exposure longer than 1 hour
Eye detection AF
Auto focus stacking/bracketing (like P1, Nikon, others)
Allow both auto zoom and focus peaking to work together
Continuous autofocus
Continuous auto focus tracking in video mode
Activate/deactivate LCD live view with something other than the shutter button
Fix exposure bracketing to work with the auto timer and/or a cable release
Lock exposure when AF is achieved allowing recomposing without AE-L button
Automated way to set the hyperfocal distance
Focal distance/depth of field display
Ability to reset AF to center using a shortcut button
Electronic first curtain shutter
Support for more HC Lenses
Develop a teleconverter
Develop an XCD tilt/shift Lens
Develop a telephoto zoom
Develop a wide angle zoom
Develop 300mm or longer Lenses
Add a wired cable release (e.g., through the USB port)
Longer battery Life
Better EVF resolution (for next hardware version only)
Develop extension rings
V-series adapter allowing use of shutter in CF lenses
Allow remote shutter triggers (e.g., Gigapan, may require an adaptor)
Ability to shoot smaller RAW files (improving low light at expense of detail)
Lossless compressed RAW files
EXIF data editing (especially copyright)
Ability to record in RAW format (like the H6D)
Ability to transfer full raw video stream over HDMI to an external recorder
Ability to record video to an external SSD
Higher frame rate than 25fps
IN BODY IMAGE STABILIZATION
BETTER EVF RESOLUTION
VERTICAL VIEWFINDER ATTACHMENT
JOYSTICK
4K VIDEO

* * * * *

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Vote for up to five of your favorite improvements. 

You may change your vote.

Many of the choices above may not be implemented without a new version of the camera body.  Items appearing in ALL CAPS at the end of the poll are known or are strongly suspected to require a new version of the camera body. 

[rent]

All considering I think one poll is better than two since there will be many overlapping features. Marking the ones impossible for X1D is good distinction. I think 5 choices is a good number.

[GrantRH]

I too feel one poll is preferable but wouldn't mind an increase in selections to maybe 8 as the list of excellent considerations grows.