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Manual Control Options
The H3D 31 is a fully manual camera with some options for automatic use. All of its settings -- aperture, shutter speed, white balance, focus and ISO – can be set manually. Only exposure and focus can be automated.
Focus
Auto Focus
The H3D 31 has a single autofocus point at the center of the frame. As we experimented with the camera, it seemed very accurate. It's not as fast as the average small DSLR and doesn't handle low light as well, either. We weren't able to test its tracking ability. Users of high-end small DSLRs, or even the recent 11-sensor Pentaxes, will feel limited by the the single, centered AF site.
Manual Focus
The large bright focusing screen on the H3D 31 is a delight. The clarity and contrast of the screen, combined with its size made focusing easier than with small DSLRs. The fact that the user can see beyond the frame is a useful feature – seeing what's just outside the frame can be helpful as a photographer positions the camera to compose the shot. The large, rubberized focusing rings on Hasselblad lenses are comfortable, turn smoothly and offer comfortable resistance. The autofocus system offers focus confirmation in manual mode.
Exposure
The H3D 31's exposure compensation control offers a range of 5 EV above and below the metered reading, adjustable in 1/3-EV increments. It's available in all of the exposure modes. This is an unusually wide range. Clearly, some people find it useful - mostly for HDR composites - but it begs the question: If the meter's going to be 5 stops off, why not set the exposure manually?
Metering
The H3D 31 offers center-weighted, spot, and center-spot metering. Center weighted metering measures the middle 25 percent of the field of view, and its sensitivity gradually tapers off from the center to the edge of the 25 percent area. Spot measures the center 2.5 percent of the field. Center spot combines the two. It measures the 25 percent region, but the sensitivity tapers faster from center to edge.
Nearly all current cameras have an evaluative mode – a system that measures light in many discrete areas of the frame and compares them to arrive at an exposure. The fact that the H3D 31 lacks such a mode means that users will have to rely on their own judgment instead of their camera's algorithm. That seems like a snobbishly professional orientation, and perhaps something that Hasselblad felt its users wouldn't want. On the other hand, they put a pop-up flash on the thing – they aren't consistently leaving out features on the basis of their being too amateur-oriented.
White Balance
The H3D 31 offers 6 presets and manual white balance measurement. The presets are: Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Flash, Fluorescent and Tungsten. Creating an custom white balance is a matter of setting the correct exposure, selecting the manual balance menu item, pointing the camera at neutral subject, and pressing a button.
The Hasselblad manual stresses that in-camera white balance does not change the image data in the 3FR file. That's true of all RAW formats, but many users find that getting a good white balance while shooting is a real convenience even in a RAW workflow. The H3D 31 does not offer direct Kelvin color balance or color balance fine tuning.
ISO
Move an EV up from its predecessors, the H3D 31 offers an ISO range from 100 to 800 in full EV steps. We look forward to evaluating its performance at high ISO, a feature we expect would be useful in fashion, wedding and dynamic studio work. We value the option of intermediate steps in ISO ranges, finding that it's almost always better not to shot at 800 if 640 will do. The criticism is more or less relevant, depending on how much, and how abruptly, image quality declines with rising ISO.
Shutter Speed
The H3D 31 measures exposure times from 1/800 to 32 seconds, plus Bulb and Time exposure. We didn't find a direct reference to a limit on time exposures in the manual, but it makes an aside about 18-hour exposures with the film magazine. Flash sync is available at all shutter speeds, and speeds can be set at 1/3-EV increments. 1/800 is faster than old Hasselblad shutters could manage, but it's 5 or 10 times longer than the typical fastest speed on a small DSLR. Hasselblad users won't need 1/4000 to get shallow depth of field (the most common reason for using speed on a regular DSLR), but the action-stopping difference between 1/800 and 1/2000 or 1/4000 is noticeable. The shutter speed is controlled with the dials on the hand grip. Either one can be configured to do the job.
Aperture
The H3D 31 controls the apertures of H-series lenses electronically and can set them in 1/3-EV increments. The 100mm f/2.2 is the fastest lens available, and the 300mm f/4.5 is the slowest. Most fall between f/2.8 and f/4. As a group, they are faster than the comparable film lenses first marketed for Hasselblad's film cameras.
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