New Phocus 1.1 for Mac and Phocus 1.0 for Windows Extend the Functionality and Appeal of Hasselblad’s Image Processing Software

24/09/2008 Hasselblad today offers new image processing capabilities to its Mac users with the launch of Phocus 1.1 for Mac and brings the world’s most powerful image processing software to its growing numbers of Windows users with the launch of Phocus 1.0 for Windows. Windows users of the Hasselblad H3DII – the world’s most advanced DSLR – now have access to a processing toolbox that is both intuitive to use, having been modelled on popular workflow software, and that is capable of extracting the best images from the world’s most advanced digital camera system and the world’s largest raw image files.

Both new versions of the software introduce international language support, enabling the Phocus interface to be run natively in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. Further increasing the integration of the H3D with Phocus, both versions can now also interpret the feedback from the Hasselblad HTS 1.5 tilt and shift adapter, which logs all movements as metadata, enabling the automatic execution of Hasselblad’s digital lens correction to optimise image quality, eliminating color aberration, distortion and vignetting. When photographers subsequently browse through the metadata, they can see the exact tilt, shift and rotation applied for each shot.

Phocus 1.1 for Mac offers users a number of other additional capabilities: • Free rotation tool, allowing users to correct any imbalance in the level of the horizon in an image; • Overlay functionality in main viewer and live video mode enabling greater precision in setting up creative shots; • Custom white calibration tool, ensuring a perfect neutral balance over the whole image and eliminating color casts; • H3D camera firmware upgrade functionality, so that once customers have downloaded the latest firmware from the Hasselblad web site, Phocus will make sure that the firmware is correctly uploaded to the camera system; • Series of workflow support functions, introduced at the specific request of customers and incorporating shortcuts to make Phocus even easier to use.

Christian Poulsen, Hasselblad’s Chief Executive Officer, says, “By modelling it on popular workflow, such as Aperture or Lightroom, we tried to ensure that the first version of Phocus was as familiar and appealing as possible. The great reception it received proved that this was the correct approach and so we’re now extending the powerful software toolbox, which provides seamless integration between the H3D camera and the computer system, to our growing customer base of Windows users, while increasing the functionality in the Mac version of the software to enable professional photographers to get more from both their images and their photography in general.”

While Phocus has been enhanced and its performance optimised, the fundamental attributes of the software remain the same:

• Uncompromising Image Quality and Moiré Removal Technology Phocus RAW processor delivers perfect colors through the Hasselblad Natural Color Solution, and includes digital lens corrections for color aberration, distortion and vignetting (DAC I, II and III). Designed to save hours of post-production work, Phocus’s leading edge moiré removal technology also allows image detail to be preserved, even on extremely high resolution images.

• Camera controls Phocus provides extended controls for the operation of Hasselblad cameras, including live video for easier shot set-up and workflow, and the ability to control the lens drive for focusing when the camera is in a remote position or when the digital capture unit is mounted on a view camera.

• Flexible Workflow The Phocus GUI allows photographers to benefit from the ability to customise their set-up to suit their workflow and work with multiple high resolution images simultaneously.

• Additional Metadata Phocus extends the metadata included in all Hasselblad images and facilitates accurate and detailed cataloguing and indexing as well as the easy management of images. Also included is GPS data functionality, allowing a host of new functions, such as linking GPS data directly to Google Earth for simple geographic reference, making image storage and retrieval much easier.

• Perfect Viewing Quality The Phocus Viewer allows users to enjoy image viewing quality equal to that found in Photoshop and provides photographers with the capability to customise layout and composition to suit their current or desired workflow.

Hasselblad Phocus 1.1 for Mac and Phocus 1.0 for Windows are immediately available for registered users to download from www.hasselblad.com and includes a comprehensive user manual and training tutorial video in QuickTime format. Phocus comes free of charge with all Hasselblad digital camera products.