After hitting the limits of my faithful Nikon D2Xs, in 2009 I finally decided to switch to medium format. After a bit of testing, the choice became clear. It has to be Hasselblad H3D-II 39.

Here is a photo from my first fashion shoot with the camera. It’s also the first photo shoot with Daisy. We worked together many time after that, and had many amazing and fun shoots. But this one photo will always be one of my most favourite ones. All the elements came out just right. The light, the mood, the model, the settings, the wind, the composition. It has some fashion and fine art elements. I sketched it prior to the shoot, but the result has beaten all my expectations.

Photo © Alex Maxim

Thanks to the camera, the photos didn’t lose any details in shadows or highlights and came out very soft and natural. I had to boost the contrast a bit, to give the photo the mood I wanted it to have.

No noise, amazingly sharp details, skin tones and tonal gradations. I don’t want to go into all the geeky stuff, but I must say that my clients who are going to use this or any other photos, I shoot with H3D, as a spread in a magazine, as a poster, a large fine art print or on a billboard, are not going to see any quality degradation even close-up. These files have enormous potential for editing, cropping and rescaling.

Since getting my Hasselblad, I haven’t shot with anything else, whether it’s a studio or a location shoot, hot or wet weather. I pay a lot of attention to detail and quality, and IMO, there is no other camera that gives better results. I had some photos printed at over 60″ on the longest side and I am more than 100% satisfied with them.

I am sure, photographers who shoot with this camera, retouchers and graphic designers, who worked with its files, know what I mean

More stories to come..

Alex

Featured photograph:
Artistic high fashion photo of a woman in black flying outfit 
Fashion photography by Alex Maxim

Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.