H5D-60 / X1D repro paintings with HC120

[docholliday]

Fantastic !!! I try tomorrow !!! Thank you !!!

Take your time and be patient. The first time I did it, it took me almost 8 hours to figure it out and get a good calibration. Once I did though, the optical viewfinder was amazing to use. Anytime you plan to test repeatability, always manually knock the focus ring way off before pushing the AF button. I also use a remote to do the half-press for AF to be sure that I don't cause any movement/vibration to the camera.

Also, once you get it set, don't forget to set the diopter on your prism also. While you have it on the tripod with max moire, put the prism back on and look through without moving anything. When the diopter is set to "perfect" for your vision, the moire pattern will be sharpest and seem to dance on the screen.

I have a feeling that carrying the camera around might make the adjustments screws move a bit. I've taken a 31ga syringe + needle and put a tiny smear of bright red fingernail polish on the screws once adjusted to keep them from moving. The polish is easy to "break off" should you need to align again.

[ALAIN]

I'm impatient to do it tomorrow ! Thanks a lot !
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃

[ALAIN]

Thanks a lot Doc !
I have read all these tips and checked quite a few things:
1) The HC120 does not have a shift focus fault between F4 and F11,
2) Once everything is fixed in front of the screen with spiral sight (super practical, thank you), focusing with autofocus gives me
-the clearest photo,
- the maximum of moiré on the frosted surface, and therefore also on the viewfinder.
So I did not touch anything with regard to the sight glass.
I remain on the impression that during the repro photos, I have a sometimes random sharpness. I was not using autofocus.
This seems to be of excellent precision, I will perhaps use it to approach the focus, and then fine-tune it, but checking that I do not destroy it.
I am asking myself 2 questions:
- could there be play in the mirror (everything else remaining inert)?
- is the measurement made by the autofocus done by what we see at the bottom, just below the mirror, a kind of led? Is this measurement completely independent of the mirror?
We could find in these 2 points the explanation of precision and reproducibility in autofocus, and the feeling of randomness in manual focus ...
I have some repro in progress, I will try in autofocus on a test chart in front of the table which is not very contrasted (very beautiful blurred landscape ...

[ALAIN]

I just reproduced a result which seems to be reproducing, maybe ...:
The autofocus focus is good.
The focusing with the magnifying glass in manual is wrong: point is about 5cm too close.
On the other hand, with the probe technique on the screen at about 1.2m, I have the moiré with the same focus in autofocus and with a magnifying glass, or then I lack finesse in the interpretation ... however, 5cm to 2 meters would give approximately 2 to 3cm to 1.2m ...
Well, I get a good result by focusing on a very bright test target in autofocus, and staying at this setting for the shoot. For the moment, it helps me out, but I would like to do better ...

[ALAIN]

Ah! I finally saw the defect with your majic method, well let's say a very slight delay between the good autofocus focus and the best focusing with a magnifying glass on the frosted glass.
But I only see this in the center where I can distinguish the pixels (the moiré effect is not obvious).
I saw this at F4, at the biggest aperture of 120. I don't know how to position the diaphragm at F11 permanently, just temporarily with a press of the function button, if I program it for that. I would have to be able to lock the real aperture lens, here F11, to have enough definition on the edges and also see the pixels of my screen. I could then play with the screws: 3 on my H5D, if it is these small screws (head about 1 large mm).
To sum up, is there a trick to locking the diaphragm to true aperture (F11) without having to keep pressing the function button?

Well, the biggest breakthrough is that I see the difference with your method ...

[docholliday]

I'd wrote 5-10x when it should have been 50-100x. You want to be somewhere around 4-8m for lenses less than 150mm, including wides. I tend to do my 24/28/35 around 15ft and 100/120/150 around 20ft. If you're too close, you won't be able to get the full effect of the moire.

You can't use this to compensate for focus shift of the lens. There's no way to really do that, as it won't be consistent. This is simply a way to check that your AF is focusing correctly and that your screen alignment is on par with the AF calibration. If you want to be pixel-accurate with focus or compensate for focus shift at different apertures, the only way to do it is to use liveview, as that shows you exactly what the sensor is seeing.

As far as consistency goes, yes the mirror could possibly have wear and fall into a different position, but that would be rare. What more likely is happening is that the AF sensor point is picking up an edge and not locking into the same position each time. On my H5, I noticed that it would do that when I put the focus dead center of the focus point on the screen. To get mine to focus consistently, I have to be to the left of center, about .5mm to the left of the focus point "box" center (the "sweet spot"). That must be where the AF sensor is actually aligned to be looking on mine. This is pretty normal and "in tolerance", as it's really a huge focus point area. My Canon 1DX bodies do the same and Canon has a restricted AF mode where it reads a 50% smaller focus point for precision.

You can test for this by using something like a thin stick or rope. Be sure it's about 1/10 the size of the focus point square and has good contrast against the background. Try to AF on it while it's in different areas of the AF box. You'll find that there's a spot where it'll pick up and lock consistently while other areas will go to the background. I've noticed even when shooting the 150 for portraits that the eyes don't consistently lock sharp unless I am sure that the "sweet spot" is on something contrasty and not falling on the white area of the eye.

From the sounds of it, your focus is not in error and is working as it should on the camera. Remember that this isn't the lightning quick AF of a Canon multipoint system. You have to have patience and learn the quirks of the H-series AF. Also remember that you have to hold the AF button down until you get the AF confirmation display light or beep - these are DC motor lenses, not ultrasonics, and have a lot of mass to move slowly.

[ALAIN]

thank you very much for such an interesting remark.
I am very satisfied with the autofocus achieved today with your test and on paintings with a printed Mir. I can see the frame of the canvas very precisely at 2 m.
So I have confidence in the auto focus setting and I will look into the aim glass setting tomorrow.
I will again use a Mir printed at about 3 m...
Sorry for the mistakes ：I just have my phone and to balance between the forum ne the translate is not easy 😹

[ALAIN]

I have to do without live-view and without possibility to move the position of the collimateur with my H5D-60 : a CCD sensor fabulous, but not easy for that

[docholliday]

That's great! I really think there's no such thing as "perfect" unless you have extremely controlled, laboratory conditions. There's always that one side of the painting that could be off by 1mm or the paint that's textured and 1mm higher than the rest of the canvas.

As long as you (and your client) is happy with the results, that's all that matters! If you can see the texture of the canvas, you are "sharp enough". I've shot portraits where I completely missed critical focus on the eyes, which is clear as day when zoomed in, but when printed looked just as sharp as the picture next to it where the eyelashes were razor sharp in critical focus. And that was printed 16x20" viewed at 2ft away. I'd probably not worry about it any further and just go shoot if I were in your shoes!

Live view is great to have, but not necessary. Look at all those shots in years past where they didn't have such thing and nobody complained! I completely forgot that you have the CCD version. I'm so used to CMOS nowadays. But the color from CCD, especially for repro settings, can't be matched!

[ALAIN]

My favorite client and Paintre is my white
She like the CCD effectively : we have a X1D, very sharpness with X lenses, but she prefer the H5 and the CCD sensor : color and fidelity
She has good time to read our conversations !

[ALAIN]

Oh oh, I see that when I write messages with my iPhone, it's a disaster So I take and complete the one from last night:
My favorite client and Paintre is my wife;)
She like the CCD effectively: we have a X1D, very sharpness with X lenses, but she prefer, and me too, the H5 and the CCD sensor: color and fidelity;)
(Our M10 Leica is fabulous in the street, but not for that with 24Mpx an 14 bits)
She has good time to read our conversations!

I have just successfully completed the calibration of the sight glass: easy;)
No lag between autofocus or magnifying focus: perfect! Many thanks again. In fact, finally, there were 3/4 turns to screw on each of the 3 screws.
It reminds me of the tricks of some street photographers, with rangefinder cameras (Leica), which shifts the focus on the front to align with the contour of the face faster to control ...
So, to sum up our happy situation as an H user, we currently have:
- H5D-60
- HC120
- HCD28
- HC150 (we will have it at Christmas)
HCD35-90: we finally did not keep this lens whose autofocus had to be repaired, thinking that a 150 or another fixed would be more appropriate and less heavy.
The remaining issues are as follows:
- H5D-60: the blue lamp on the top no longer lights up :You explained to me how to open but also said that I have chances to open and not be able to repair without parts, so I hesitate ... and the Fire-Wire socket is broken due to a cable tearing, and there, nobody seems to have opened a 60Mpx CCD back to tell me a few words ...
- HC150: shutter no longer works. We will decide, when we have it and depending on the behavior of the optics, if I open again by applying your precious advice once again.
Just as a reminder: I changed the elements of 2 batteries successfully, and I cleaned the inside of the viewfinder, again following the information from the blog
Beautiful pictures to all,
Alain (from France)

[docholliday]

Glad to see that you got it to work out! Once you get that critical focus calibration on target, it is a night-and-day difference to use the camera. 3/4 turn doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to make manual focusing the camera impossible.

As for the "indiglo" backlight of the top LCD, opening up the grip and top display isn't hard, but rather finding the replacement part needed. Not sure if Hasselblad will sell you just the LCD unit or at least the board. They may, but may also charge a ridiculous price for the part.

The FW connector is simply soldered onto the board. You can push open the spring loaded cover and see it. The back should be fairly straight forward to open. You may have to take a bit apart though to get to board with the FW connector. You'd have to solder a new jack onto the board, as long as none of the PCB traces were ripped or any supporting components blown or torn off.

With both, the first step is to disassemble and get inside so you can test components to see what's actually bad. For example, despite the backlight not working, it could be as simple as a wire broken or it can be that the controller circuit isn't working. It may also be the actual light burnt out, but could also be the power supply for that having blown components. I wouldn't just throw parts at it until you've investigated and established what is actually bad, as well as what else may be damaged by the primary issue.

[ALAIN]

Thank you very much for this encouragement.

I'm going to calm down a bit, take some pictures while I wait to get the HC150 back.
Then, I will penetrate very gently into the bowels of the handle and the back, very gently ...

My favorite painter and I love these exchanges!
With red leaves now ... there are a few left ...

Alain (from France)