Leica has announced Hasselblad H lens profiles for the Leica S2 for their Adobe software suite of products, including Adobe Lightroom 4.1 and Adobe Photoshop CS6. This follows the announcement of the Leica S-Adapter H which allows the use of Hasselblad H lenses on the S2. From Leica:
To ensure the best possible image quality when using Hasselblad H lenses on Leica S-cameras with the aid of the Leica S-Adapter H, we have provided a set of lens profiles as a free download for installation in Adobe image processing software packages.
The lens profiles are compatible with the following Adobe software:
– Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4
– Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 and above
Further information can be found in the installation guide at the owners area.
To download the lens profiles and instructions for installation, visit the Leica Camera Owner's Area. Please note that if you are working within Windows 7, you will have to have “Show Hidden Files and Folders” turned on to see the appropriate folder. The instructions from Leica do not have the proper destination folder for Windows 7, it is as follows: C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0.
Once the adapters are available in the US we will be testing the profiles here to see how they compare to uncorrected images, and the existing Leica lenses in their S-system lineup.
Do they perhaps work with Lightroom 3?
yes, probably as the handling of lensprofiles didn’t change. But I advise to upgrade to LR4 as major improvements in the developping-engine were made.
I downloaded the profiles and they do work with Lightroom 3.
Has anyone used the S adapter H with the HC 300mm lens? If so, what is your experience?
Yet again another product which a cynic might interpret as heralding the end of development of the S system, at least in terms of the promised lens range. I don’t know about other S users but I didn’t move from Hasselblad digital to Leica S to move back again some 2 years later to gain access to a proper spread of focal lengths. Instead of developing and producing up market M derivatives which will, no doubt, languish in collectors’ safes to reappear in a decade or so at some up-market auction, Leica need to live up to the promises they made at the launch of the S and deliver the system they “sold” at that point. Perhaps S owners should debate this and make their feelings known to Leica corporate?