Jerome Marot
Well-known member
HTS stands for Hasselblad Tilt and Shift. As the name says, it is an adapter to allow tilt and shift on the Hasselblad H system.
Physically, it is a relatively clumsy contraption that attaches between your Hasselblad body (H system, not the V system that went on the moon) and lens. I said "clumsy", because it precludes the use of the H integrated dovetail tripod mount (Hasselblad gives you a silly adapter in the box). Still: it is probably flat enough to fit in a side pocket of the typical MF gear bag.
Native H lenses can be used. Now, I can almost hear the optical engineers wondering how that can be possible without breaking some fundamental laws of optics. The answer is that Hasselblad used a trick and that trick is in the full name: HTS 1.5
The 1.5 part comes from the fact that the adapter uses a 1.5 focal extender. So your HCD 28mm lens becomes a 42mm lens. Interestingly, there is also about a 1.5 factor between the medium format and its "35mm equivalent", so your HCD 28mm lens has the field of view of a 28mm in 35mm terms (it is more like a 21mm natively). The extender is used to increase register distance (so that your lens still focusses to infinity) and increase the image circle of the lenses (so that you can actually shift). Nice trick but with the usual drawbacks: your super-wide is less wide and optics are degraded a little bit (for pixel peepers only... it is a well corrected focal extender with 6 elements). You also lose about a stop of aperture.
On the mechanics: the adapter allows for ±10° of tilt and ±18mm of shift. The axes are orthogonal. The two can be rotated, but together only. This is nice for product photography (shift allows you to compensate for the change in framing due to tilt), less so for architecture. Shifted panos are possible, but not really useful: you get almost the same pano by using the lens natively and cropping (but you are better using a pano head anyway).
Mechanically, the HTS is relatively well built, but it is not an impressive piece of mechanics like a technical camera. The slides are pieces of tubing, not dovetails for example. The scales are not high precision. But Hasselblad have a card up their sleeve: there are encoders in the device which send the exact position to the camera to display (shift and tilt). That is very accurate and is even recorded in the exifs. Phocus (Hasselblad's software) uses the values to apply lens corrections (shading, chromatic aberrations, etc…). That is very clever, since the corrections depend on shift and tilt.
H cameras have autofocus, but AF and AF confirmation do not work with the HTS. Focussing is a real pain on the tiny ground glass of what is a 645 camera, not a view camera. It is best to shoot tethered and control focus on the computer screen.
The adapter can be used with most H lenses, except the zooms, macro and tele above and including 150mm, so with the 24, 28, 35, 50, 80 and 100mm lenses (also with extension tubes).
Conclusion:
Pro:
-it can be used with many lenses
-IQ is excellent, considering it includes a 1.5 focal converter
-it solves many of the problems of product photographers who often fight against the limited DOF of medium format
-it is cheaper than a technical camera
-it is well integrated in phocus, everything works automatically
Against:
-shift and tilt axes are fixed to each other (orthogonal), even if they can be rotated together
-1.5 focal conversion is a drawback for wide angles
-not much gain for shifted pano
-focus is difficult, best to shoot tethered.
Technical data (pdf)
A review from the British Journal of Photography (pdf)
Physically, it is a relatively clumsy contraption that attaches between your Hasselblad body (H system, not the V system that went on the moon) and lens. I said "clumsy", because it precludes the use of the H integrated dovetail tripod mount (Hasselblad gives you a silly adapter in the box). Still: it is probably flat enough to fit in a side pocket of the typical MF gear bag.
Native H lenses can be used. Now, I can almost hear the optical engineers wondering how that can be possible without breaking some fundamental laws of optics. The answer is that Hasselblad used a trick and that trick is in the full name: HTS 1.5
The 1.5 part comes from the fact that the adapter uses a 1.5 focal extender. So your HCD 28mm lens becomes a 42mm lens. Interestingly, there is also about a 1.5 factor between the medium format and its "35mm equivalent", so your HCD 28mm lens has the field of view of a 28mm in 35mm terms (it is more like a 21mm natively). The extender is used to increase register distance (so that your lens still focusses to infinity) and increase the image circle of the lenses (so that you can actually shift). Nice trick but with the usual drawbacks: your super-wide is less wide and optics are degraded a little bit (for pixel peepers only... it is a well corrected focal extender with 6 elements). You also lose about a stop of aperture.
On the mechanics: the adapter allows for ±10° of tilt and ±18mm of shift. The axes are orthogonal. The two can be rotated, but together only. This is nice for product photography (shift allows you to compensate for the change in framing due to tilt), less so for architecture. Shifted panos are possible, but not really useful: you get almost the same pano by using the lens natively and cropping (but you are better using a pano head anyway).
Mechanically, the HTS is relatively well built, but it is not an impressive piece of mechanics like a technical camera. The slides are pieces of tubing, not dovetails for example. The scales are not high precision. But Hasselblad have a card up their sleeve: there are encoders in the device which send the exact position to the camera to display (shift and tilt). That is very accurate and is even recorded in the exifs. Phocus (Hasselblad's software) uses the values to apply lens corrections (shading, chromatic aberrations, etc…). That is very clever, since the corrections depend on shift and tilt.
H cameras have autofocus, but AF and AF confirmation do not work with the HTS. Focussing is a real pain on the tiny ground glass of what is a 645 camera, not a view camera. It is best to shoot tethered and control focus on the computer screen.
The adapter can be used with most H lenses, except the zooms, macro and tele above and including 150mm, so with the 24, 28, 35, 50, 80 and 100mm lenses (also with extension tubes).
Conclusion:
Pro:
-it can be used with many lenses
-IQ is excellent, considering it includes a 1.5 focal converter
-it solves many of the problems of product photographers who often fight against the limited DOF of medium format
-it is cheaper than a technical camera
-it is well integrated in phocus, everything works automatically
Against:
-shift and tilt axes are fixed to each other (orthogonal), even if they can be rotated together
-1.5 focal conversion is a drawback for wide angles
-not much gain for shifted pano
-focus is difficult, best to shoot tethered.
Technical data (pdf)
A review from the British Journal of Photography (pdf)
