But I am a prime hater. So this is a great lens.
We won't have that fight again. We've had that fight too many times.
One focal length. Are you serious? One.
What is up, people of the internet? Welcome back to another episode of the Waveform Podcast. We're your hosts. I'm Marquez.
And yeah, don't adjust your calendars. This is in fact not Friday because this is a bonus episode. We figured we had some things that we wanted to try. Fair warning, this is probably best consumed as video. So, if you're an audio-only listener, I would recommend video for this particular bonus episode because yeah, we're playing with some cameras today and the images that we've taken from the cameras. And the way we want to frame it is we've got a couple of...
It was an unintentional pun. Museum quality glass. I'm going to probably make more of those puns. But we have some of the most hyped cameras on planet Earth in this room and we have been using them. Dave has been using tons of different cameras.
That's right. Um, but did you do the reverb thing in other people's headphones? Just heard a tiny bit of reverb.
Yeah, there it is. The reverb is funny. Um, but we've been taking pictures with all these cameras, and we figured it was worth talking about the cameras through the lens of the photos we were able to get with them.
I'm really good at these puns. I don't know if you've noticed.
Um, but David, you're our sort of residential...
Resident, resident camera expert. Actually, I have an apartment.
Our resident, our resident, residential... uh, camera expert.
And so we figured we would show you the photos that we've taken on these cameras and you can tell us what you think of the images while we talk about what it's like to use the camera to get these photos, if that makes sense. Okay. Does that make sense?
Yeah, I think that makes sense.
This is basically us just like yearning for David's approval, so I think this whole episode will go fine.
You should do compliment sandwiches so that we don't feel too bad about how bad our pictures are.
Yeah. The color's great. The image is...
You're, you know, composition... but you tried your best.
Horrible. But you tried your best, buddy. No, I...
This one's going right on the fridge.
I want to start this episode with: photography is subjective. So, if I like something or don't like something, it doesn't mean that it's not a special picture.
You are picking a winner at the end in that case.
No, I would like you to do a camera superlative or a superlative for each camera by the end of it. So kind of like your, uh, 'this is the best camera for someone who might be doing something like this.'
Yeah, can do. So like if you were writing like a SEO-driven buying guide for a camera website, 'best camera 2025, travel, X100V, photography, road trip, film emulation, film cheap, Kodak, Kodak under $100, like a Switch, Nintendo Switch 2.'
Yeah, that would be those. Yeah. So, we've each taken a handful of our selects — I think three photos each from our camera of choice — and we've all put them on David's computer. You haven't looked at them yet, right? No. Okay, perfect.
Who do you want to look at the photos from first? Should I know whose pictures they are?
Oh, I would like — oh, well, they're all labeled by name. So you kind of...
I mean, if you want, you can take them all and put them in a separate folder. Are the actual images labeled by name?
I would like — and I would like you to know, because I think in the process of talking about the photos, that's a prime time for the person who took it.
There's only one Zoom, I think. Or maybe Alice is... No.
They can talk about why they like the camera and things they like about the camera. Maybe that's why they're taking photos like they did.
Okay. Well, to start, why don't you all pick a number between 1 and 10 and whoever's closest wins.
Okay. One to 10. Who goes first?
100. Let's pick a number between 1 and 10 to see who goes first.
One and 100. I'm going with 99. Okay.
Gretzky. Wait, I didn't come up with the number yet.
You need to do that. Whoever's closest to David's number. So, you think of a number.
I came up with one now. Okay. Now, it's 99. I'm just kidding. All right. One.
All right. It was 77. So Marquez is closest.
Wow. Okay. I'm going first.
All right. Open that Marquez folder on your desktop there, and you should have three images. I want you to start with Marquez one.
Okay. Marquez one opening.
So I'll do our best for our audio listeners, but really this is going to be a very descriptive podcast. You see image one?
This took a really long time to open.
Why? What camera? So, oh yeah, that's a good place to start. So my three images — I feel like a top chef explaining — my ingredient of choice was...
What have you prepared for us today?
I have prepared images from a Hasselblad X2D Mark II using the 35-100 prime zoom, obviously. Yeah. Uh, this is a brand...
Can I interrupt you because I feel like there's a funny story before you launch into this, which is this camera came out and you turned around from your desk and faced the office and said, 'Everyone tell me why I shouldn't buy this.' And we all gave you tons of reasons and then you went, 'You're right.' And then you turned around and you bought it.
Yeah. This is not the one I bought.
I bought one from B&H who has pushed my delivery date back by weeks and weeks and weeks at a time. It's currently mid-December. This is a review unit from Hasselblad that I've been shooting with in the meantime. However, I did buy this exact camera and this exact lens.
They got like three weeks until DJI is banned. So,
Yeah, I am crossing my fingers that I actually get the one that I bought because I think they have my money. Um, no. So this is a new camera and a new lens that they made. Um, I've shot with Hasselblad stuff before. This one has — you might have heard about this camera, you've probably shot with it already — has better autofocus, has a built-in HDR, which you will notice in my images.
So I'd like you to open image number one, and I'll talk through why I think each one of them is my select.
I'm going to turn the brightness all the way up, so we really get that HDR. Can you see image number one, too?
So this image number one here is the first hour of me owning this camera, of me having this camera, and I shot this photo of Adam.
This is the photo you said was the best photo you've ever taken. Is that what you said?
Okay. It's subjective. Relax.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So number one is, like I said, a 100-megapixel medium format camera. This is fresh out the box, aperture priority. I haven't even really dialed any settings yet, but it nailed the eye for autofocus on Adam's face.
And Adam is completely backlit in this picture. So sun is streaming in in the background as you can see in the parking lot and in the windows, but in the shadow detail — which I have pulled up a little bit — you can see Adam's face, the black hat he's wearing, and shadow detail like crazy. And feel free to zoom in super far.
The zoom like... the sharpness of this photo and quality is...
Adam's table tennis racket is so messed up that it looks like there is shutter drag near the top of it.
Yeah, it's a... but it's just that this is picking up fibers that are falling off of it.
Marquez, this photo is 11,000 pixels wide. This is a JPEG that is 16 megabytes.
I have given you all of the pixels. It is huge. But this is part of my obsession with imagery. I've been shooting 8K video for years. I love cropability and malleability. And I had to learn, relearn Hasselblad's Phocus software to really take...
Oh, right. So you edited this...
A little bit. Yeah. Just to get my exposure right and of course to dial a little bit of HDR in. So you can see little highlights in the trucks in the background.
Yeah, it is interesting to see a camera that can shoot HDR that is not a phone because we're so used to phone photos. Yeah, it looks a lot better and you can see more of the benefits of what HDR is good for on a real camera.
I think seeing all the shadow detail like because he's so backlit is beneficial. I'm assuming you bump the shadows a little bit so you can see more in there.
Yeah. A lot of dynamic range, the gradation through like you can see the blue in the sky. It's incredible how much is actually in the exposure. In a totally backlit shot like this, right?
Yeah. So that's photo number one.
Okay. I feel like you didn't seem to love it.
Well, that's on my phone. That's just because I'm in it.
Is your reason why this is your favorite — because I took a little peek by accident at one of your other pictures and the thumbnail, I liked it more. Is the reason that you liked this photo so much more the technical aspects of like, 'oh my god, everything is in the tone curve'?
The reason I like this photo is because — so one, I've shot with Hasselblad a lot in the past and you have to be very intentional about nailing your settings on each exposure and being super, super slow with every shot.
And this one, I pulled it out the box, put the lens on, and just started shooting to the built-in internal storage. And this was an effortless capture that I think is impossible on 99% of cameras. So I was just like, this sort of power in a zero-skill photo was impressive to me. That's why I like it.
All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. Let's go to photo number two. All right.
Photo number two is vertical. It is 11,000 pixels tall this time, and this is me shooting Andrew shooting a photo. I don't know if the photo Andrew shot while in this photo is going to end up on the screen, but...
You can really see the HDR on this one.
Yeah. Okay. So the photo now is a pretty symmetrical shot down these train tracks. Andrew is crouched in the middle of the train tracks taking a low photo. He's mostly in focus. It's got the leaves falling in the background from the trees, the train, tons of garbage because it's Kearny. And nothing is lost to dynamic range. Again, you see the HDR, you see the pumped sky and the highlights of the rails. But there is a ton of dynamic range as well.
And this was not cropped at all. I nailed the frame in camera.
Wait, I have a question about this one. Does — well, the camera in general. Does the camera give you two files, like one...
Yes. It gives me a RAW and it gives me an HEIF. And I took the RAW each time. The HEIF looks good and it's sharp, but color-wise and dynamic range-wise and obviously malleability-wise, I was playing a little bit more with exposure.
So the HEIF has the tone map for the HDR built in. Does the RAW only apply a tone map once you bring it into the Phocus software? Because a RAW is not a container, so it can't store the tone map data.
It allows me to change a lot. It's specifically — and if I'm reading the UI right — it allows me to change when the data is lost to HDR, like pure highlight, and also when exposure is gone separately. So it's like if I move the whole exposure up, I can see the top of the exposure, like a little bracket of when it's going to pop in HDR or whatever, and I can also see the end of when it's going to be pure white. And they're separate.
David, can you explain — for, I mean, our listeners definitely all know what this is, but I do not — what is a tone map?
Okay. Yeah. So a tone map is basically — so in an image you have multiple, you have like a luminance value and you've also got color saturation values. A tone map for HDR is basically looking at the bright and dark areas and saying like, these areas need to have more tonal range here. So in order to have HDR, in the container, the HEIF container or the AVIF container, you have the regular JPEG or HEIF or whatever it is, and then you apply the tone map on top. And so I'm assuming the Phocus software can also create a tone map for RAW while the camera itself is creating an HDR tone map just for the HEIF file.
Got it. So it's almost like an extension to the lookup table that's built into it. Got it.
Right. It's like an HDR tone map is built in. It only does this for certain shooting modes. I'm trying to remember which ones. I think full manual it won't do HDR.
Oh. But everything else will. Interesting.
Either way, yeah, it worked out, I think, beautifully for this image. You can see the sun glowing off of the trash bag next to Andrew.
Beautiful. Beautiful. It does, to be fair, it also glow down the entire train tracks, which is...
Yeah, I was going to say this photo really accentuates the HDR in that the train tracks are glowing, but there is still detail in them, which kind of shows off the benefits of HDR there. It's like it's super bright, but you still have that detail, whereas normally that would just be lost.
Yeah. I really, I think the Hasselblad natural color profile that they built for this camera is also shining here because if you zoom into the areas like near his feet where like the grass and the wood is and the dirt, it's very, very nice-looking dirt. Like it's just that very natural color that isn't like too saturated or too washed out.
Yeah, it's kind of a good middle ground.
The white balance was also sort of warmed a little bit in post, and I think just because it was golden hour and it just looks really good when it's warm like this.
Yeah. And the trees look great. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. All the garbage everywhere. So detailed.
When he took this picture I was like, 'Does it look like I'm taking a picture?' He's like, 'Yeah, you can totally tell.' I don't think you can tell at all. I just look like I'm squatting crouched on the train tracks. It's like the dog I walked past this morning.
But yeah, this one. So I shot a couple versions of this while you were squatted there. I shot like one at f/22 and then one at f/10 and then this one's at like f/9, I think, is my most open one.
Did you shoot a shallower one?
No, this is the shallowest one. Sorry. I shot like an f/22 one that looks a little more distracting in how much is in focus. So I like this one.
My picture from that came out terrible. But I also had a 20% bloom filter on with golden hour blaring.
Oh, I hate bloom filters. Make everything look like you smeared a little Vaseline on it.
All right, we're moving on to the last Marquez photo.
Last but not least, this one I took in a very exotic location. I'll let you guess.
Yes. About 40 feet to the left of the last photo. GPS overlay puts me in the same place. No, this was also golden hour shooting, aperture almost all the way closed, but I just feel like the light coming through the plants here, everything being in focus, and the sky doing this really nice thing with the clouds in the background. I shot this and thought, 'This is one of my nicest wallpapers. This is going to be a wallpaper.'
No. Yeah, for sure. I like this more than that first photo of Adam.
Thanks. This is literally a picture of grass.
And you like it more than me?
Most of my photography is pictures of grass.
So, yeah. No, I think the color — the natural color really shines here as well. The fact that you can see all the detail in the clouds is really nice. It really gives it that sort of fine-art photography look.
I think what might have been interesting is going to the other side of the cattails and shooting against the light since the HDR really allows for that.
Yeah. Have a couple of those. It was getting some lens flare too. Kind of crazy.
Okay. And I think the gold of these cattails could kind of come out a little bit more.
If you want to really be wowed by the resolution, zoom all the way in to the rightmost branch and you can count the individual berries on it.
How many megapixels is this camera?
Each one is a 100-megapixel shot.
Oh god. You can see the little white markings on the bark of the tree. The detail that this keeps is just wild.
It is crazy. Is that why you prefer this camera, Marquez? Just the detail?
This is why I keep saying this is the greatest camera ever made because it lets me capture as much as I possibly can to then have the most flexibility in post. So as long as I nail focus and roughly get the exposure and the framing that I want, the rest is possible.
Yeah, it's a shame that it's digital. I can't tell if these white spots on the back of the cattails are haloing from some sort of artifacting or if it's just light.
It's part of the plant. I think they have this sort of cottony seed that comes off and the light's going through them so you can see because it's coming from behind right now. The sun.
Yeah. Literally takes like a couple seconds for my computer to render parts of the image when I move around. You can be zoomed in and be like, 'That's a nice picture.' And then you just keep zooming out and you realize it's like one sixteenth of the frame.
Very nice, Marquez. Very nice.
My three photos of a little HDR to brighten your day.
I'd say if I were to rank these, photo three as my favorite. Photo two as my second favorite.
Let's go. Top three. Top three. And yeah, number one is number three for me. It's not because it's Adam.
No. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. I love Adam. It's just because I never get to see him outside of work.
Can we do a... something you would like to see Marquez do with this camera that could potentially...
Oh, like something the camera would be good for.
Yeah. Like whether it be a subject, whether it be a setting change on something. Um, what would you like to see out of the camera?
Landscape photography with more possible layers and subjects because the landscape photography that you did here is sort of like there's only like two major things, you know, with the cattails. Um, the benefit of a camera like this, both because it's so high megapixel and because it's got so much tonal range, is that you can create all of these different layers and you can zoom into different areas and really capture the breadth of the scene. And things that are already sort of tight and zoomed in, you don't get as much value out of that resolution and also the tonal range.
Marquez is just taking photos. Is this distracting?
I feel like this is — I hate to bring it to short form, but this is a short-form trend right now where it's like you see this beautiful photo and then I pull out and it crops.
Okay. Sorry. He's just... my brain version knowing what you're talking about. What I take... and it's so annoying.
All right, Marquez, is there anything else you have plans on doing with this camera?
Yeah, I just want to get out more with it. I do want to do more product photography with it. I think that's my favorite type of photography, mostly because it's super controllable and you can kind of be as creative as you want and nail a single shot. So I'm definitely going to do more of that, but also just kind of take more photos in general.
Keep it in your back pocket. Remember when you first saw this, you were like, 'I will not take more than 700 photos with this camera.'
I've taken that many this week.
I was going to say, has your mind changed on that? You want to bring this with you and shoot more often?
Yes. I've been trying to shoot more with a real camera — not more than my phone, but more with the real camera, less with my phone — in shots that I want to be good.
And the lens is a 35-100 2.8, right?
It's 2.8 wide and I think it's four all the way in.
Yeah. It's expensive. The body is $7,000 or so. It is cheaper than the last generation, surprisingly, even with the tariffs. The lens is a lot — but also a lot of money — but I'm a prime hater, so this is a great lens.
We won't have that fight again. We've had that fight too many times.
One focal length. Are you serious?
One. Zoom with your feet, baby.
Zoom with your feet, bro. Crazy. Yeah.
All right. So Ellis, tell us about your camera.
