X2D Firmware 3.1.0 is out

[Clockworksphoto]

Live view works great on MacBook Pro with M1 chip and a good tether cable. Face detect works saving images to the camera as usual but for me face detect shuts off during tethered shooting with or without live view. I didn't notice this in the update description - has anyone else been able to shoot tethered with face detect on?

[MGrayson]

Live view works great on MacBook Pro with M1 chip and a good tether cable. Face detect works saving images to the camera as usual but for me face detect shuts off during tethered shooting with or without live view. I didn't notice this in the update description - has anyone else been able to shoot tethered with face detect on?

I must have a loose USB C socket in my X2D. The connection is always dropping down to USB 2 speeds. When that happens, face detect goes away. As long as it stays at USB 3, face detect continues to work.

Face detect is unavailable on wireless tethering to my phone.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Clockworksphoto]

Live view works great on MacBook Pro with M1 chip and a good tether cable. Face detect works saving images to the camera as usual but for me face detect shuts off during tethered shooting with or without live view. I didn't notice this in the update description - has anyone else been able to shoot tethered with face detect on?

I must have a loose USB C socket in my X2D. The connection is always dropping down to USB 2 speeds. When that happens, face detect goes away. As long as it stays at USB 3, face detect continues to work.

Face detect is unavailable on wireless tethering to my phone.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for the feedback on your experience! I switched to the Hasselblad 1 meter tethered cable and tried differed lenses on the X2D - always the same result. When I am plugged into the computer - face detect drops out - as soon as I unplug from the computer / Phocus software - face detect comes right back on. I also had the connection drop to USB 2 speed one time with a caution symbol. I switched the tether cable to a different port on the computer and that resolved it for me.

[MGrayson]

Good news. Face detect is NOT fooled by glasses. I just shot a series with the 90/3.2 in a mirror and it got my front eye every time. That close with that lens wide open, my glasses were noticeably soft and my nose was blurry.

I'll spare you the actual photos. I am not Soup.

Matt

[Clockworksphoto]

This is the answer I got from Hasselblad Tech support about Face Detect capability while shooting tethered with the X2D:

"Unfortunately the face detection via tethered shooting was not implemented in either Phocus version (desktop/ iOS). This is something that Hasselblad may try to implement in a future firmware update to the desktop/ iOS platform."

Thank you,
Hasselblad Tech Support (4 Dec 2023)

[Juansphotos]

Thanks for this. I was so excited to use the new firmware during a photo shoot this weekend. I thought I was crazy when face detect all of a sudden went away while using my iPad for tethering wirelessly. I love that the software on a camera that's the price of a used car is so hit and miss. I would also love to see the ISO settings in A and S not apply to M, and for M to have an Auto ISO setting. This is very frustrating to be in A, then switch to M and now have the ISO static, then when going back to A, the ISO is no longer auto.

[MGrayson]

We get so many "why can't HB implement feature X this week" questions. Let's take face detection. There you are - you've been asked to implement face detection. What do you do? Think about the problem from scratch? Look up academic papers on face detection and hope there's an implementable algorithm? Write and train your own ML system? Hope there's a Python library for it? Ask your friend at Sony? Hire your friend from Sony and hope there isn't a lawsuit over it? Look at ancient code left over from HB's disastrous rebranding of Sony cameras?

I don't know the answer, but I don't think it's as easy as many of us assume. (If anyone knows the answer, I'm quite interested.)

Live View in Phocus is a different problem, because there is already a ton of Phocus Live View code written for other HB cameras. But the devil is in the details, and getting two existing systems to work together well (enough) is often harder than writing one of them from scratch.

Focus peaking puzzled me. I have to assume that the X2D code was rewritten enough that X1DII modules weren't plug-and-play. Or it just didn't make it to the top of the queue for a long time.

I bought the X2D knowing it was missing features that I wanted. After a year, three of them are now implemented. About what I was expecting.

Matt

[mikaelo67]

Hasselblad is a small Swedish company. They don't have 100 coders working on updates every day. There is always a factor of time versus number of features. Myself is happy that they implement features in a timely matter instead of waiting much longer to implement everything at once. Which probably would have delayed this release even longer.

Way to go HBL and thanks for this update. Looking forward to the next even if it takes some time.

[mar-ko]

That is what I am thinking, too.

Buy a camera based on what it does now.

Don't buy and keep complaining about what it does not do and you're missing.
That's your own fault, not the manufacturer's, because you should have bought a Canijiony instead.

For me, the outstanding image quality (and the fun using these cameras and lenses) outweighs the drawbacks.
For you, other criteria may apply, possibly leading to different choices. But »blaming others« seems to be the way to go today ...

[MGrayson]

Buy a camera based on what it does now.

Rule 1 of camera purchasing. There is no Rule 2.

[MGrayson]

Now that there is Live View support in Phocus while tethered, I realized that I didn't have a fast long USB C to USB C cable lying around. So I purchased a 5 meter IQwire. Works just fine!

Here's Soup's review: "What the hell is that long orange thing?"
X2D, XCD 120/3.5 wide open, 1/20 sec @ ISO 1600


Matt

[CedV]

As far as I know this feature hasn't been mentioned yet.

One of the benefits of having tethered live view is visually precise focus stacking. The X1DII already had it, you pick a specific starting and end point in Phocus, and the computer calculates all the necessary steps and even adds a handy number as suffix in the file names. I had many issues trying to focus stack with the X2D before. I'm very happy that this feature is now fully active again. Together with the live view funtionality, of course. Which allows for more precise focusing and camera operation at difficult to reach positions.

[Faithwell]

I am now travelling overseas and using the internal SSD to store my photos and wondering if I update the lastest firmware, would it automatically erase all the internal storage?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[mar-ko]

I am now travelling overseas and using the internal SSD to store my photos and wondering if I update the lastest firmware, would it automatically erase all the internal storage?

No, the pictures were not be affected when I updated my X2D (plus I would expect a warning information from Hasselblad, if this was the case). Safe travels and updates! 😊

[Faithwell]

Thanks for the prompt response and great to know it does not affect storage.