can anyone explain, why the cfv dosn't need a cable to mount on a V.Hasselblad, but any other digital back needs it? how does the cfv get told when to take the shot?

stefan

The V series checks that back-cover when you press the shutter. The back has a sensor that reads this action and tells it to get ready.

Edmund

as the v is mechanical, i presume it is rather a mechanical pin than a sensor? why then are no other backs equipped with a sensor to feel that pin?

stefan

This is something that is quite annoying to me!

Hasselblad uses a pin that comes out of all bodies since they were made to check to see if the dark slide was in. This pin now activates the CFV back.

Hasselbald could have been a serious player with the V system if they would have worked with Leaf, Phase and Imacon to adapt this pin to use the backs. I never understood why they made a Hassy V to RZ adapter. People either use one or the other. All the companies could have made backs specific to the brand and made the plate for the 645AFD to RZ as is used now.

This again shows the greed and lack of cooperation between companies. All the backroom BS that goes on is quite sad. I don't ever remember worrying about this in the film days. Actually I had more optoin from third party companies making cool accs.

Hopefully manufacturers will see this.

I don't remeber Hasselblad worrying about Kodak and Fuji and wondering how they can make a better film. I think if they make their back and their bodies people will buy what they like. But I could talk till I am blue in the face and it would not matter.

If it is just a mechanical pin, what was to stop Leaf / Phase etc using it anyway?

They would have to do the mechanical engineering to do so.
Until backs get cheaper, nobody can be botherd with the V series anymore. I supect that the day 6x6 chips start being mae in quantity really cheaply (10 years from now) people will get V series nostalgia.

Edmund

Detecting a pin poking out the back of the camera I would not describe as complex engineering.

Sinar has an interface for the 54M that uses that pin to trigger the back. Phase has also made one in the past. There are a few factors that make it a imperfect solution however. If the camera is in perfect working condition it works as expected. However I have experienced older blads where the pin no longer moves or moves at a slower pace than it should. The pin is also colored and I know in our case whether the color on the pin has worn off affects the triggering.

As much as a hassle the cord is it is a solution that works all the time unless you break the PC trigger cord.

And from experience most photographers refuse to believe that its the camera pin's fault when they call you pissed off during a shoot with a non triggering back.

Matt LaPointe
Sinar Bron Imaging
National Sales Support Manager
(219) 670-9905

I confirm that this pin can be a problem when not in good condition. Also, there are 2 kinds of it: one metallic silver and one blackened. This has an influence on the triggering since this pin activates a kind of light-sensor on the adapter plate. If the pin is black, there is obviously some different reflection happening.

Sinar has in the meantime modified the adapter plates of the 54M in a way that also the black pin activates and triggers normally.

Best regards,
Thierry

Ric,


I think they're listening, they're just not going the direction you or I want.

Why a camera like the Contax cannot stand on it's own and make a profit is really beyond me.

Did we wear out cameras faster in the film days . . . I think not, or did we pay more for lenses when we shot Fuji film? It's obvious that if contax was still around the 645 would still make a profit, but probably not the profit they wanted, which included the digital solution as well as the camera.

As far as the blad and the HY6, neither interests me mostly because they are proprietary. In fact I don't think I ever heard the word propiretary in regards to cameras before digital became part of the equation.

Since I'm not in the camera selling business, maybe I've got the wrong take on this, but to the the HY6 is a huge undertaking, if only because the installed user base of Rollei is so small in the U.S.
Before that camera hits the shelf I would think it must be in every rental house ready to hand out in case your primary camera goes down, or a lens sticks, or . . .

I went on Sinar's forum and other than estimated base price and estimated delivery, I don't know the full extent of lens prices, rental options, will the Leaf HY6 work with a Sinar back, etc. The only thing that was made clear was Phase is not part of the HY6 program, so I guess that tells us the primary thought process.

I just wonder how successfull any film camera would be if it didn't work with the most popular film and how sucessful the HY6 will be with only two instead of 4 backs that will work on it?

Still, regardless of the deals, the agendas, the who's in, who's out business models we've seen in the last few years, the company that wins will be the one that makes the best and most stable product, whether it be cameras or backs, or cameras with backs.


JR