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WAHOO 203FE back from overseas With CFV ability now

Hi Ulrick,

> I was told by a Hasselblad technician that they physically rewire the > contacts, it is more than just reprogramming. Since the CFV is on the > market I am not looking any more to buy an E12 back.

You know what they probably did....they removed the I2C bus from the contacts, and use those contacts for the trigger! That’s really lame IMO. They should have kept the I2C, and used a programmable location in the I2C address space to indicate the trigger, and that would have kept the ISO exactly the way it was, and meant you could use both E film backs AND digital backs. They should have also put an ID on the I2C bus to indicate what type of back (and lense) is attached. This is really elementary stuff.

Regards,

Austin
 
Hi Gilbert,

> I agree that losing the handy ISO on the back is disappointing, it has > a couple of advantages. The CFV application chart show the 200 series > modifications are necessary only to use F lenses.

Could you please explain that further?

Regards,

Austin
 
Hi Jurgen,

> I believe , there could have been a way > to have the setting of the > film magazines still working , but that would have meant a bigger > redesign of the 203FE/205FCC electronics .

Actually, it would have been NO redesign of the electronics, just reprogramming of the firmware, which is typically *FAR* easier...at least for someone competent who knows how to do it that is.

This almost seems to me like they lost the source code for the firmware (or had no one competent enough to perform the firmware updating), and had to figure out a way to do it without changing the firmware...but to do it by brute force rewiring. I am sorry, but it is painful for me to see something as nice as a 205/203 etc. be butchered like this to add such a simple function that could have been easily implemented while retaining all the original functionality.

Regards,

Austin
 
Hi Austin,

Regarding the I2C bus: I agree. But I think you approach this too much from the EE angle. Hasselblad 'electronics' which I have sofar seen 'smell' like they have been designed by mechanical engineers gone electronic. For a very little money I2C allows for quite neat designs. Unfortunately they did not go down that path.

Wilko
 
Another point of the modification I hope: The ttl flash sensor setting.

The mesure depend on the reflexion of ...the film.
With pola back I hade to modify iso value on the 500cxi ( I put 160 for an 100 asa films) because the setting of the glass over the film.
With a CFV back, the reflexion factor should be addapted too.

So the question is: does the ttl flash expose correctly with the modified 203FE ?
 
Actually, it would have been NO redesign of the electronics, just reprogramming of the firmware, which is typically *FAR* easier...at least for someone competent who knows how to do it that is.

I think they rewired the thing, connecting the rear Databus to one of the switches in the shutter release circuit.
 
Could anyone please explain what is an I2C bus ? ? ?
I know local bus , far distance bus but what is an I2C bus ? ? ?
 
Hi Wilco,

> Regarding the I2C bus: I agree. But I think you approach this too much > from the EE angle.

Well, because I am an EE (and a ME) and this aspect of discussion is in the EE realm IMO, hence why I approach it as I would have designed it.

> Hasselblad 'electronics' which I have sofar seen > 'smell' like they have been designed by mechanical engineers gone > electronic.

You may very well be correct, I agree...it does smell like that. Shame, simply a shame.

> For a very little money I2C allows for quite neat designs. > Unfortunately they did not go down that path.

Yes, unfortunately.

Regards,

Austin
 
"Hasselblad 'electronics' which I have sofar seen 'smell' like they have been designed by mechanical engineers gone electronic."

How right that is!
The story of how the 2000-series came to be contains an episode in which the electronical engineers were holding things up, pondering a solution for the time-setting mechanism that according to them should work - but didn't.
The 'mechanical people' got things moving along again, after the EE held things up for some 5 years, by designing the electromagnetic release mechanism themselves. That mechanism was still used in the 200-series.
 
Hi Q.G.,

> I think they rewired the thing, connecting the rear Databus to one of > the switches in the shutter release circuit.

That is my impression as well. Shameful.

Regards,

Austin
 
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