Hasselblad Phocus Beta Released

A quick break from the Production Case Study we have been sharing the past few days to mention that Hasselblad has FINALLY released a beta of their new software “Phocus” for capturing and processing files taken with their cameras. We downloaded it yesterday and played around with it a bit.

They have been promising this software since December and we have been anxiously awaiting it, despite the fact that it is still only a beta (test) version.

The software takes on the look and workflow similar to Lightroom and Aperture although certainly not as extensive. But it also offers the ability to capture directly into it, which is still lacking in the other pieces of software.

While this software is a VAST improvement over its predecessor FlexColor I have to say that after doing side by side comparisons I still prefer Lightroom despite its inability to tether to cameras.

The workaround we use for the Canon’s is to enable Lightroom’s Auto Import Feature from a “watched” folder and then shoot tethered to the camera with Canon’s capture software and direct the images to that folder.

There really is no workaround for the Hasselblad at this time so we generally shoot a few frames export them as DNG’s and then look at them in Lightroom to make sure we are happy, and then just do the balance of the shoot with Hasselblad’s software. Then at the end of the shoot we bring the entire project into Lightroom.

It is worth noting that going outside the Hasselblad software, you loose a few features that have the potential of being vital to your shot, namely all of the DAC features which automatically corrects for lens distortion, and chromatic aberration and vignetting.

Another item of note from Hasselblad is that the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.2) now supports all of the Hasselblad RAW File Formats, so you can see previews and thumbnails of Hasselblad files right in the finder as well as Aperture!

You can find out more about the latest from Hasselblad at their web site.

And you can download the Beta version of Hasselblad’s Phocus here.