Loves and Hates
In fairly random order, but let’s start with the positives: we love the Quick tab in Phase One. This is fully customizable; simply right-click or Control-click on the toolbar button and you can add and remove any tool you want, making a one-stop shopping interface out of the complete array of tools. Not only is this a great thing for a photographer who likes to work in a simple, very individualized manner, but it also allows a freelancer to get a firm grip on a studio’s preferred workflow at a glance. Once this is set up, you literally don’t have to move to any other tab.
Another thing we like about both Phase and Leaf is the simple browsing feature and preview capability. Hasselblad’s Phocus forces you, like Lightroom, to import the images into the main workspace before you can really look at them in detail. Is that a “Love” for Leaf and Phase One, or a “Hate” for Hasselblad? In any case it slows the process and forces you to import an entire catalog of files to do a simple review and edit.
We love the Hasselblad look and feel. As the workflow gets more standardized the processing systems seem like they’re converging. The fact that Hasselblad’s interface feels so familiar, is so customizable and is in a reasonable harmony with the photographer’s bread and butter, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, it seems like a natural decision. There’s not much need to learn, and especially re-learn, skills. (Are you listening Apple, and the Aperture team? Why Aperture was built on the Final Cut video editing model rather than an Adobe- sympathetic format remains one of the greatest mysteries and, in our opinion, mistakes, of the digital era.)
We love that Phase One and Leaf allow the prospective buyer to try the software. In the case of Phase One it’s a very smart move and is in a slightly different context. Not only is Phase trying to sell digital backs, but they are also trying to give small DSLR owners a better workflow option. Leaf follows suit, but Hasselblad reserves the download for registered owners of their products - you have to actually have a camera serial number to get access to the download page.
Honestly, what could the motivation for this possibly be, other than misguided marketing? How is the software of any value to anyone who doesn’t own or operate a camera? Granted, the software is a big part of the investment Hasselblad has in the R&D costs, but it seems like a big miscalculation to not make software available to prospective buyers.
In matters of installation, Hasselblad and Phase One have the advantage. They are simply downloaded and then dragged and dropped from a disk image. The Leaf installation was another matter entirely. You need administrator access, and the system needs a restart to complete the install. The installation required an OS update (which, by the way, messed up the functionality of iMovie - certainly not Leaf’s problem, and fixed by running an update within a few days - but it’s just a good example of how a package that demands an OS update can wreck havoc in a system.). The install also demanded a Java update. In all, it took over an hour to do the install and a few days to fix what the install requirements messed up. The other packages took about five minutes, no “readme” time, and started up without a system reboot.
We love the Phase One Recipes, and although we don’t think much of the Leaf, “hate” is too strong a word. There are certainly options there but they are just a little hard to manage, especially for a freelancer walking into an unfamiliar environment. The Hasselblad system just seems like you have to buy into it; it’s a workable system, just not the way we like to work.
