Just how important is it to have the Mod 2 upgrade?
Well, consider that The Contax 645AF is still an extremely popular camera 2 decades after it's absurdly timed demise. There are many shops still repairing them for professional photographer's the world over. It was a major part of the film resurgence in weddings and portraits thanks to it's glorious 80/2 normal and 35mm AF camera-like operation. They're notorious for shutter issues, but people are still using and fixing them. That camera, like the Hy6, was largely ignored during it's production life.
The folks running the factory in Germany seem to be dedicated to supporting what they and I believe is the best medium format camera ever made. I understand your fears about it, I share them on some level! However, I have a working Hy6 Mod 2 right now, and whatever tomorrow may bring, I'm making beautiful pictures with it today. I guess that counts for something.
The finish on the Mod-1s get sticky, the Mod 2 has smooth composite plastic type finish. The grip arm was strengthened, and the AF was improved. Now the original firmware Mod 1s have kind of crappy AF. There was a middle firmware that was a factory upgrade which should provide similar AF to the Mod 2. If you get a Mod 1 I highly recommend the latest firmware version.
The Hy6 will work in all exposure modes with all the lenses for the 6008 series cameras (PQ/PQS).Another question for Hy6 owners: The AFD lenses specifically intended for the Hy6 have no aperture ring, but it looks like there are nearly identical AF lenses that do have the aperture ring. I assume the latter are intended for the 6008AF. From what I can tell, the AF lenses with the aperture ring will work in all the same exposure modes as the AFD lenses without the aperture ring so it kinda doesn't matter which ones I buy. Is that correct?
AFD lenses with no aperture ring work in program and shutter priority modes on the 6008 cameras.
SLX lenses won't work in any mode on the Hy6 but work in 'stop down' mode on the 6008.
Thanks. I'm starting to get a handle on these details very slowly.
And now I have yet another question. I saw a Hy6 Mod2 review on Youtube that compares it to a Hasselblad. He mentions that the viewfinder on the Hy6 is darker than the Hasselblad, presumably because it has a partially transparent mirror to allow for light metering to be done in the camera body rather than in the prism. I don't dispute the logic for metering in the camera body, but I am wondering just how dark the viewfinder is. Earlier in the same review he praises the Rollei lenses for being a full stop faster than the Hassy lenses. Wouldn't that compensate for the transparency of the mirror?
From what I gather, the High D screen is the brightest and comes standard, so any other screen would be darker.
I would appreciate any comments on viewfinder brightness. Is it really a problem?
The finish on the Mod-1s get sticky.
The sticky-varnish issue even on a Hy6?
If focus is controlled at the image plane, why then has each manual-focus lens to be adjusted to this focus confimation feature?
Does the camera remember/recognize each lens, or does the operator have to re-enter the focus correction each time a lens is changed?Good question. It turns out that digital sensors (and focus) has much tighter tolerances than the film plane. Much less. It takes a while to get one's head around this.... The problem was uncovered c. 2005-2010 when all sorts of efforts to have flexibility (such as Leica DMR, with interchange between digital and film) were found to be difficult to hold tight, and thus Hassy and Phase One went more to closed systems (their own backs on their own cameras) to maintain tolerances. Alpa uses found the need for micro-shims to adjust their backs to their HPF focal rings to get that extra bit of sharpness (there's an essay by Mark Dubovoy on this on LL, and Michael Reichman wrote on it here, under shimming: https://luminous-landscape.com/alpa-stc-review/).
Rollei's answer in the Hy6 was to implement adjustment of the focus plane as each lens (surprisingly) varies. This has been adopted by other manufacturers, as it can be found deep in the sub-menus of Canons, etc. Its largely to correct the AF setting for those lenses, but can also be used to set the focus confirmation for manual lenses. Its like tweaking your camera focus for each lens - although you have to spend the time testing the camera and lens with the digital back to get the proper setting. Just to confuse things, some lenses change their focus posture (called focus shift) as they go from near to far (the 300APO is the big offender here, as are early Leica Summilux), as the offset setting for near and far is different - but in general, most are just fine once they are set up.
Not quite. The variation is in longitudinal. That is, the camera might say that two lenses are focusing at the same place (and give a confirmation signal) but they aren't. Their focusing (convergence of rays at the sensor plane) varies slightly. Thus the need to adjust for each lens.
But those two lenses are hand-focused. There is no right or wrong, only the signal from the electronice that states "highest contrast, telling you to stop moving the lens.
That highest contrast may even be different for the two lenses, but that does not bother the electronics and there is nothing to adjust at the camera on this matter.
(Aside of what I said above on curvature of focal plane.Here one might tell the electronics to signal a tiny bit off "highest contrast" to yield nonetheless an overall better focussed image.)
But those two lenses are hand-focused. There is no right or wrong, only the signal from the electronice that states "highest contrast, telling you to stop moving the lens.
That highest contrast may even be different for the two lenses, but that does not bother the electronics and there is nothing to adjust at the camera on this matter.
(Aside of what I said above on curvature of focal plane.Here one might tell the electronics to signal a tiny bit off "highest contrast" to yield nonetheless an overall better focussed image.)
I believe focus calibration is a feature to account for the way different focal length lenses project to a sensor. I don't think it has anything to do with film.If focus is controlled at the image plane, why then has each manual-focus lens to be adjusted to this focus confimation feature?
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