Mittwoch, 27. Juli 2011

2 heads - one thought

Do you know this kind of dejavue if someone does something exactly like you have thought doing it ? This happened to me last week when I first saw the new proPsolution TSE adapter for the Canon TSE 17+24mm made by Matthias von der Ahé-of PPL Karlsruhe.
I was thinking of this for a long time, but as it is, there are priorities and we are a small company, so every project consumes a lot of my time. I also saw the version that Zörkendorfer has done some time ago, but this somehow did not make me happy.
The function of tilt on these superwideangles (especially if used on the HCam-B1) is not a priority, usability of the shift needs all possible thought and finally - PPL did this.
Concentration to the minimum and at best effort, very much zen, I like this a lot.
So I called Matthias von der Ahé immediately and we spoke very intensly and the more I heard I was sure I would love to see the adapter. The next day I had this on my desk and what shall I say,this is a mechanical juwel, looks like a big fork, rock solid and made with tightest tolerances. This is the art in doing these things, make it look harmless but put everything inside that you know, like a japanese Katana sword.
I tried this on the weekend and it works perfectly, for the HCam we will do a 7cm longer special version, which will be available exclusively by HCam, this will enable to rotate the HCam with battery from Landscape to Portrait, very cute, same as with our 40mm Hartblei. But with a MUCH larger image angle for both 17mm and 24mm Canon TSE´s.

In short, we have now dealership of this product, there is a new webpage on our site and I have also translated this to English and posted this to the world.
In Russian: Ochin Priadna - very pleased to find such a fine item to complement our stuff. Thank you !
I also think it slowly shows how our concept grows also in the heads of several other people, smart new retrofocus wideangles even for large formats, small+large chips in one concept, electronic aids by stitching and usage of large volume technology. It works !

Optimistically looking into the future
Stefan Steib - hcam.de

Sonntag, 10. Juli 2011

HCam-B1 test images on GetDPI

Last thursday I got visited by Christopher Hauser, a young and talented Photographer from Munich who brought his Phase One IQ180 with 80 Mpix, so we could put this on my HCam-B1 and try some architecture. The weather was perfect, I had already spotted an interesting site close by, so after a short ride with Christopher´s G-Mercedes (nice car BTW) we arrived at the O2 building (highest in Munich) and the close office buildings which we wanted to shoot.
We did 2 setups from 2 different angles, with both 17 and 24mm canon TS lenses.
After about an hour we had done what we wanted to see , including a test whiteshot (unneccessary as Christopher found out) and several variations with different shift amounts and exposures, a well as tries with some additional tilt which with the 17mm is mostly luxury it seems (at least at near infinity).

You can find the thread, more data and images here:

http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28197

In short I like that IQ180 a lot - only problem is the price tag. Well let´s see
how many cameras we can sell - maybe there is a big sock on christmas eve for little Stefan.....;-)

Greetings from Munich

Stefan