{"id":505,"date":"2015-11-29T16:20:29","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T21:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/173.63.58.177\/visualrealms\/?p=505"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:08:18","slug":"hasselblad-cfv-50c-cmos-50mp-digital-back-a-rekindled-flame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/?p=505","title":{"rendered":"Hasselblad CFV-50c CMOS 50mp Digital Back – A Rekindled Flame"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Full disclosure: I’m not a professional reviewer. \u00a0I don’t review items very often, sans an Amazon review here or there. \u00a0However, with so little info on these digital backs online, I thought I would take some time to give a non-professional (anymore) photographer’s point of view from a few days of shooting the CFV-50c.<\/p>

Over this past 2015 Thanksgiving holiday, I had the pleasure of shooting with my old 501 v-series Hasselblad gear again. \u00a0No, it wasn’t a newfound love for film again, although with a couple of dozen old rolls sitting in the fridge down in the basement, I really should rekindle that passion, but I digress… but an opportunity to shoot with Hasselblad’s CFV-50c, 50mp CMOS digital back. \u00a0Coupled with a 120mm f\/4 CFi *T lens and PM45 I set out to remember how to focus, adjust film\/shutter speed, and f-stops all on the fly again to manually capture what has become so easily achieved with the modern DSLR, in my case, the not-so-modern Canon 5D mark ii.<\/p>

Before I get into the results and my findings, let’s begin with the digital back itself. \u00a0Clearly, Hasselblad put together a really nice piece of equipment here. \u00a0It feels as solid and stout as the 500-series bodies\/backs and looks the part to boot. \u00a0Once you remove the back’s protective aluminum cover, however, that confidence in quality and stoutness is quickly replaced with a good amount of apprehension knowing that the relatively massive CMOS sensor is now exposed to the world of dust, fingers, etc. \u00a0Just as quickly as the cover was removed from the back, the back is secured to the body, and on you go.<\/p>

At first use, the buttons are small, even for my normal-sized fingers. \u00a0The power button is simple enough to find, and as you stare at the screen during boot up, the subliminal Hasselblad logo flashes for a split second, leading into the back’s digital menu. \u00a0The screen is clear and bright with some adjustability a few steps into the menu, although I never found a need to adjust. \u00a0Running through the menu, I found that it lacked many of the bells and whistles that I am spoiled with by using any modern DSLR – good or bad – I guess that’s for each user to decide. \u00a0For me, I wanted a bit more. \u00a0I wanted a delete button, and although you can change the one user-customizable button [P] to be that delete button, you sacrifice that button from all other available options. \u00a0I won’t go into my longings for the menu options, perhaps a few days of use is not enough to feel comfortable with a menu system that is so shallow – I kept digging for more menu options, maybe because this is such a highly advanced and expensive piece of equipment, the assumption is that it would have every available digital camera option, but in the end, the menu just didn’t go any deeper.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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I won’t go into any further detail on the CFV-50c since there isn’t much to add to what other reviewers have already shared. \u00a0Plus, what you see below is what you get. \u00a0I will say that the back feels heavy. \u00a0For reference, my Canon 5D mark ii with the 50mm F\/1.4, vertical grip, and two batteries weighs in at a plump 3lbs 8oz. \u00a0Surprisingly, the CFV-50c & battery coupled with a 501cm, PM45, and a 120mm CFi, weighs in at 5lbs 4oz. \u00a0To be fai,r though, I rarely walk around\/shoot with the 50mm on the Canon. \u00a0I typically mount up Canon’s L, 24-70mm F\/2.8 – combined with the aforementioned 5D it tips the scale at just a tick over 5lbs as well. \u00a0The fit and finish are top-notch, for lack of a better description.<\/p>

Getting past my menu-inadequacy hang-ups, I soldiered on, carrying this wonderful gear all over Manhattan during what turned out to be a beautiful Thursday\/Friday holiday. \u00a0Of course, it goes without saying that I had to force my wife and daughter to endure a few “photo sessions” at a couple of Upper West Side locations, attempting to rekindle my focusing skills and do some justice to a wonderful piece of equipment. \u00a0I’ll admit, it was a rough start. \u00a0I shot just about anything and everything in an effort to practice my focusing and explore the complete ISO range, with what I would consider mixed results in the beginning.<\/p>

The back’s lack of image format options was another surprise for me. \u00a0RAW or RAW+JPG. \u00a0No size options in either format, and I believe the JPG was approximately 1\/3 the size of the RAW file. \u00a0Admittedly, maybe there’s no reason to have additional size options, after all, we are shooting with medium format for a reason. \u00a0Keep in mind, the CFV-50c uses Hasselblad’s proprietary .3FR RAW format, which can only be opened in Phocus<\/a>. \u00a0Hasselblad does provide a conversion tool called Phocus Quick<\/a>,\u00a0which will convert the .3FR files to DNG or JPG to be used by other editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Bridge for those of us whose lives have revolved around Adobe over the past two decades.<\/p>

Once it became more about the photographs and less about how the back performed,\u00a0it was clear that the back had almost seamlessly become part of an older system, both in style and in function, to create a classic photographic tool with a modern twist. \u00a0Sure, the back doesn’t come without some sacrifices, specifically it’s sensor size and sensor orientation – you’ll need a PM90 to take full advantage of the horizontal orientation – but being able to work with arguably some of the best photographic equipment known to man again, is really quite a treat, even if you have to really pay attention to the focusing screen crop marks to make sure you don’t cut the head off of your wife while shooting a portrait in the park.<\/p>

In all honesty, during this little trip to New York City, I lugged around my Canon 5D with the 50mm f\/1.4 lens just in case. \u00a0After all, we were on holiday, and without having previously tested the CFV-50c, I had to make sure we captured the trip. \u00a0This means I didn’t capture nearly as many Hasselblad photos as I would have liked, but I will.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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So as you can probably tell, I’m not a professional reviewer, nor am I a professional writer, but I hope you were at least able to take away a few things from this post. \u00a0My conclusion? \u00a0I’m not entirely sure I know what my conclusions are. \u00a0Is it wrong to want one of these digital backs for the sole reason of shooting digital on a 500-series body? \u00a0Is it wrong to want to capture 50MP images through lenses that were once thought to be the best in the world and on fool-proof, manual, aluminum boxes that have been to the moon and back? \u00a0I guess it all depends on how deep your pockets are and what you intend to use it for. \u00a0Emotion aside, technically, it performs well. \u00a0The back never missed a beat in the short time that I used it. \u00a0It never errored, froze, or made funny sounds and worked when I wanted it to and as expected. \u00a0At 6400iso, things get muddy, but how muddy is too muddy for a 50MP medium format back? \u00a0Unfortunately for this reviewer, I have almost nothing to compare it to and even less technical background to back it up. \u00a0Are the images usable? Yes, most definitely, probably not at 100% viewing, but how often are you blowing up images you shot at 6400 ISO?<\/p>

So how do I sum this all up? \u00a0Again, I’m not sure. \u00a0It’s not because it’s not a great piece of equipment, because it is, but mostly because, unless you can justify, mainly to yourself, spending the sort of money required to put together a system like this, the money most likely will be a deal breaker. \u00a0If you add in the emotional attachment to your 500-series equipment, which is important, toss in a very well-built, handsome-looking digital back, roll it around with some very nice looking pixels, subtract the missing bells and whistles, and of course the cost, you are left with what I would consider a very nice package and well worth it.<\/p>

Here’s a handful of 100% crops for review. \u00a0Keep in mind, most everything was shot at F\/8 or wider. \u00a0Sadly, unless you are diligent in recording your shutter speed and f-stop or have a great memory, get used to not having the EXIF data we’ve all grown accustomed to.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Here are a handful of other helpful CFV-50c Links<\/p>

Hasselblad CFV-50c Website<\/a><\/p>

Hasselblad CFV-50c – Testing, Review, Dynamic Range & ISO<\/a><\/p>

The Best Digital Camera You Can Buy Is 50 Years Old<\/a><\/p>

Too little, too late \u2013 or, rebirth?<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t review items very often, sans an Amazon review here or there. \u00a0However, with so little info on these digital backs online, I thought I would take some time to give a non-professional (anymore) photographer’s point of view from a few days of shooting the CFV-50c.Continue readingcropJob_0008<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[37,38,39,40,41,42,44,45,46,24,47,48,49],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear","category-photography","tag-cfv-50c","tag-cfv50c","tag-cfv-50c-review","tag-cfv50c-review","tag-cmos","tag-cmos-50mp","tag-hasselblad-cfv-50c","tag-hasselblad-v-digital","tag-hasselblad-v-series-body-digital","tag-medium-format","tag-medium-format-digital","tag-phocus","tag-phocus-quick","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8648,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/8648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephstampfl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}