XCD 45P focus issues after sleep

[albenz]

Hi everyone,

I know I have posted about this before but I was wondering if anyone with a X1D II and a 45P lens could help me out to recreate an issue I have with the manual focus.
I have been talking to Hasselblad about this and they were kind enough to exchange my lens 3!! times already but the issue remains. So now I wonder if this is a general 45P issue, a firmware problem or if there is something up with my X1D II body.

The problem is that the manual focus stops working properly after waking the camera from its sleep mode until I push the AF-D button at least once to "kickstart" the lens again. It is as if the body wakes up but the lens doesn't. The manual focus issues can really be felt when pointing the camera to the ground and turning the focus ring. In my case the manual focus just gets stuck (not the focus ring, just the front element stops moving in and out).

Does anyone else manage to recreate this issue? The only way for me to "fix" this is to put sleep mode to 5min or to hit AF-D every time the camera wakes form sleep.

My setup: X1D II & XCD45P with latest firmware installed. (v1.3.0 & v0.1.24) Camera is set to manual focus (I use the AF-D for occasional autofocus)

Here is a quick explainer:
1. If the lens is detached from the camera and pointed up or downwards while turning the focus ring, the front element (the one that is usually moving when focusing) gets stuck.
2. When the lens is attached to the camera and the camera is booted up, the lens works perfectly fine in manual and auto focus mode.
3. When the camera goes into standby after 20s then the lens behaves like in point one and gets stuck while in standby.
4. When the camera is woken up from sleep mode by pressing the shutter button, then the manual focus remains stuck (when camera is pointed towards the ground or the sky) until the AF-D button is pressed at least once. After that the manual focus works again until the next time the camera goes into sleep mode.

I'd be super happy if anyone out there could let me know if they have the same issue or if all works fine for them.

Thank you all.

Alexander

[Photon42]

Does not sound right to me. My lens does not behave like that. FW versions are as well the latest.

[albenz]

Thank you so much for checking. May I ask when you got your lens? I ordered mine in June but it was shipped in July after the confinement was lifted. The serial numbers on all 3 lenses I got indicate that they were probably manufactured during a similar period. (10700 - 11200)

Oh and one thing that would be interesting for me to know is if your lens can be focused manually with no problems when not attached to the camera. Especially when you hold it in a vertical position.

[Photon42]

I bought it used, locally. 10216, if that helps. WIth Leica, we used to joke it is better to buy used, as the owner will have cared for all the oddities in the first few months. I had my fair share of frustration with that, but still own an M and an S.

[fh29]

My 45P behaves almost the same : after the body is woken up it lets me manually focus closer, not farther, as if the ring mechanism was engaged in one direction only.
Pressing the AF-D button makes the lens operate normally again.

I have been using the lens regularly since May but never paid attention to this behaviour.

[albenz]

@photon42 thank you for the additional info. And yes I'm coming from Leica too, know the feeling

@fh29, thank you so much for checking. This is exactly how my lens behaves. If you point it to the sky it only goes the other direction. I think it's gravity that pulls. It feels as if the lens needs a current for the MF to work properly. Apparently Hasselblad R&D is looking into this too. Might be a simple firmware thing. In any case I'll post when I have some news.

[JCM-Photos]

I did never notice anything special on my 45P before reading this post.

Now as I made some trials I noticed some weird behavior.

On the original X1D with latest FW ans latest FW on the 45P, I did not notice anything special in MF modus.

But in AF, after waking up the camera, it is not able to focus at an intermediate distance of about 1m. AF square blinks green as OK, but the focus is on infinity, 1m details are clearly not in focus in the viewfinder.
At the same time the camera is able to refocus in AF at a much closer distance or much far away, after what the camera is able to focus in AF the detail at 1m that was impossible to focus before.

Seems that this is a FW bug between camera and lens.
We have to report it to Hasselblad, for a fix.

[BillW]

I have tried to create the issue with my X1DII and 45p but it seems to behave normal. I must amit that I rarely use MF and use back button focus all the time. The lens seems to behave ok if I manually focus the lens. I bought my lens directly from Hasselblad and it arrived 4/14/2020. I have the latest fw.

[Gravastar]

I'm in the UK and have just received my lens. Unfortunately it shows the same symptoms. If in manual focus mode, after waking the camera up from sleep, manual focus will not work reliably unless I first press the AF-D button. I need to clarify that:

The manual focus mechanism seems to use some form of slipping clutch and the torque provided appears to vary between working and not working. If it's not working for example and the lens is pointed down (gravity assisted) and racked out then it will sometimes continue to work. If it's pointed up against gravity it won't. If I apply some resistance by hand against the lens moving I can feel the torque difference between working and not working.

Maybe this is a new problem that earlier batches didn't suffer from. I understand several dealers in the UK have just received a new batch from which mine was one, so maybe we can expect more reports.

For the moment I'll wait this one out and see what develops. It doesn't look as if exchanging for a replacement is a solution.

Bob.

[Gravastar]

Thank you so much for checking. May I ask when you got your lens? I ordered mine in June but it was shipped in July after the confinement was lifted. The serial numbers on all 3 lenses I got indicate that they were probably manufactured during a similar period. (10700 - 11200)

Oh and one thing that would be interesting for me to know is if your lens can be focused manually with no problems when not attached to the camera. Especially when you hold it in a vertical position.

When the lens is off the camera it behaves exactly the same way as the fault condition. You can manually focus only if gravity assisted.
So the problem appears to be as if the lens hasn't woken up from sleep. My serial number is 1160*

Bob.

[albenz]

Dear Gravastar,

Yes that is exactly my experience and yes exchanging at this point is pointless since I tried 3 different lenses with different serial numbers. Hasselblad promised that R&D is looking into this and that they would get back to me. As you write it's either something with the new lenses or there is a software issue where the lens just doesn't get the power it needs after wakeup. I will post again as soon as I have news from Hasselblad.

But again, thank you all for your feedback. It's really valuable.

Alexander

[Gravastar]

Good news. Today I received a second email from Hasselblad support. They say the problem is a bug that will be fixed in the next firmware release, they don't say if it will be lens or camera firmware.

My initial observations weren't quite correct. I've now noticed the problem seems to occur some seconds after the rear screen image display has timed out.

I'm very pleased this is being addressed, the lens is really excellent, light weight, compact and optically superb.

Bob.

[Photon42]

thanks for follwing up (even though I seemingly did not notice it ...  )

[disposable@tx.rr.com]

I was unable to duplicate this issue with a LensRentals item no. 2PHS11615.

I got this lens from them on Sept 24 and it had one actuation, so I suspect it is from the latest US shipment.

[Gravastar]

As far as I can tell the problem has been solved by the new 0.1.26 lens firmware for the 45P. I confirmed this on an X1D, and an X1DII with the latest camera firmware to show the focus scale. Manual focus becomes functional again on both cameras as soon as they are woken up. There's no mention of this in the lens firmware upgrade note.

Thank you Hasselblad!

Bob.