Hasselblad today announced the release of Phocus 2.5 for Mac, breaking new ground by adding RAW support for more than 150 third party digital cameras, including cameras from Canon, Nikon, Leica, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and more, as well as support for the most common file formats such as TIFF, JPEG, DNG, and PNG. This added file support results in a single, comprehensive – and free – solution that will enable all Hasselblad photographers to streamline their work process by working with both Hasselblad images and those captured with their 35mm DSLRs in one and the same application. Phocus 2.5 also contains a number of new and exciting features that improve workflow and image quality, in addition to further enhancing Phocus’s open environment by enabling the photographer to share keywords from Aperture and Lightroom. Photographers who use Leaf digital backs also benefit from this upgrade, with the inclusion of RAW support for Leaf digital backs.
“This new version of the software is perfectly in line with our overall ambition of providing the most seamless, photographer oriented tools possible,” says Peter Stig, Product Director at Hasselblad. “Most high-end shooters work with a range of cameras, some Medium Format, some 35mm, depending on the challenges of the job at hand.
Phocus 2.5 allows Mac users to stay in the same familiar and powerful Phocus environment, regardless of what type of camera the files come from. In addition,”he continues, “the support for Leaf backs gives photographers the ability to accurately evaluate the benefits of moving towards an integrated Hasselblad product, such as one of our new medium format DSLRs H4D-40, H4D-50 or H4D-60.”
The key to Phocus 2.5’s file support capabilities is a clever use of Apple’s OS X, as Peter Stig explains: “The new Phocus 2.5 architecture has been tailored to use the imaging engine of Apple’s OS X operating system and takes full advantage of OS X’s support for a wide range of digital cameras, allowing us to support this range of non-Hasselblad files. Support for additional cameras will come with each new version of OS X. Tethered capture is not supported.”
“In addition,” says Peter Stig, “for 35mm DSLR shooters considering the move up to Medium Format, Phocus 2.5 for Mac provides a great opportunity to get acquainted with the Hasselblad world of Medium Format photography and image processing, including workflow options with browsing, adjusting and processing 35mm RAW image files.”
Maintaining the strengths of Phocus 2.0, the new release allows current Phocus users to seamlessly transition to version 2.5, with no learning curve. For those previously unfamiliar with Phocus, switching to the “lite” mode provides a user-friendly and streamlined interface that still provides access to the most important core features such as browsing, and the new full quality printing and slideshow creation options.
“With the launch of Phocus 2.5,” Peter Stig concludes, “Hasselblad continues to deliver upon its commitment to provide the world’s best camera systems to the world’s most demanding photographers.”
Phocus 2.5 for Mac is free of charge and available for download from the Hasselblad web site on May 19th 2010.
A current list of supported cameras is available here: Apple File Support.
For more information after May 19th please visit the Hasselblad website at www.hasselblad.com.
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