First Look: Hasselblad Phocus Mobile v3.0 and Hasselblad Natural Noise Reduction

Phocus Mobile v3.0 Overview

Hasselblad often does things out of the blue, as they say, and in keeping with that, this week they launched a v3.0 update to Phocus Mobile, the iPhone/iPad mobile app. This update adds 3 primary features:

Hasselblad Natural Noise Reduction (HNNR)

• A tool designed to reduce image noise

Hasselblad Perspective Correction

• Provides the ability to correct perspective in camera (straight vertical/horizontal lines)

Film-Like  Grain (Material Feel)

• Adds the ability to enhance the look and degree of grain when using the Exposure slider

For this little article, we’re going to center our attention on the HNNR tool, since Hasselblad has seemed to make it a headliner feature, and even utilized the same dramatic naming convention as they use for the Hasselblad color engine (HNCS – Hasselblad Natural Color Solution). The key word is “natural”. We shall see.

Up front I have to admit I do not use the Phocus Mobile app very often. However, Phocus Mobile is very unlike the Phocus desktop app, which was reportedly modeled after the original Lightroom interface from the year 2008 (I heard even with some cooperative consulting from Adobe, no idea if this is true or not) but the user interface/workflow has not changed in any dramatically meaningful way since, and has long been a source of, well let’s say mixed feelings. In contrast, the Phocus Mobile app gestates from the same approach as the GUI that graces the Hasselblad X2D and 907x/CFV 100c systems that people know and love. That modern, elegant, intuitive, interface that feels like it was actually designed for today’s users, not users from 20 years ago.

So I am not a field editor, and when I do edit, I like to have nice big 27” or so screens to work from (ideally an Eizo display). Notably, the X2D does not yet have a remote release cable option, so even if you’re not a field editor, the Phocus Mobile app on your iPhone can operate well as a wireless remote release. But – Hasselblad, that doesn’t let you off the hook, we still do need a wired remote release!

HNNR – How does it work?

First, this is referred to as an AI tool. As such, you’re probably aware that there are numerous 3rd party noise reduction tools based on AI, available in our industry, the well regarded Topaz Labs being one of the more prominent ones. In the case of HNNR, it is only available at this time via the Phocus Mobile App, not available for Phocus Desktop. We’ll have to see if and when that changes. In the way that I use Phocus Mobile (which is not much at all in the field), I would capture my images as normal. Then when I am back in studio, I would run these through HNNR (if I chose to!). Running HNNR on the raw images you’ve captured still allows you to export a raw image into Phocus Desktop, or Adobe, etc, with the HNNR in effect. You do not have to export a tiff. However, far as I know for now, you cannot then undo the HNNR once the raw file is brought into Phocus desktop or Adobe, etc. You would have to re-download the original raw for export. So one theme of this review, and it starts here, is you may wish to choose carefully whether to run HNNR or not. Or to capture with the presumption that you would.

Once you’ve downloaded a raw file, you can then go My Works select the file and an HNNR button will show up above your selected file thumbnail. Pressing this button then takes you to 2 options for processing, either Prioritize Purity or Prioritize Detail. You then can export these files to your computer and load into Phocus.

Phocus Desktop Issues?

After importing into Phocus, I encountered some issues. I intentionally captured these images very underexposed, and as I added exposure in Phocus Desktop, the responsiveness of the effect on the preview was very inconsistent, often not updating at all. This was with Phocus 3.8.4. I have not pushed further into this yet, so it may resolve, but for now I simply pulled the images into Adobe, being careful to use the Camera Standard profile (this is the one to use when developing Hasselblad raw files in Adobe). No issues with Adobe reading these files nor reflecting my exposure changes.

Interesting Results

In Adobe Camera Raw, I pushed these files +2.0 with the Exposure Slider, and jacked the Shadows and Blacks sliders all the way up. So this was maybe, I don’t know, a good 4-5 stop push? The files I captured were at ISO 100 and ISO 6400. I exported out of Phocus Mobile 3 versions of each, one standard (no HNNR), one HNNR Purity, one HNNR Detail.

So we can clearly see that the noisiest files are the files without HNNR applied. As we would hope and expect. Even the ISO 100 files clearly show that HNNR has a positive effect with reducing noise. Job well done Hasselblad! And the headline would be – HNNR really works! And this is true. But – it would be an incomplete headline. The intriguing thing is really the battle between HNNR Purity and HNNR Detail. The thing with noise is that visually, it can come across as texture and even contrast, and as such, noise or grain in an image can have the effect of making the image appear sharper than a noiseless image. Now, below – here’s an interesting comparison.

HNNR Purity or HNNR Detail? Which should one use?

The HNNR Detail result does not appear to lose any detail compared to the No HNNR result, yet has substantially less noise (IDK, 3-4 stops?). However, the HNNR Purity has even less noise, significantly less. Presumably we would choose HNNR Detail to reduce noise but retain the most detail, and I have always been a detail advocate, so I thought HNNR Detail would be my ride or die. But I don’t think so. Does HNNR Purity yield an apparently softer result? Maybe, a bit. But the amount of further noise reduction, and the ability to just add a bit of sharpening back in produces a result that makes me feel that I am going to go for Purity in almost every situation. This remains to be seen – and I’ll include the always cautionary YMMV, but this is my initial takeaway.

Shoot HIGH ISO with HNNR or Low ISO and Push?

Some time ago, Brad Kaye wrote an article that covered instances of pushing lower ISO files vs shooting at higher ISO, and some interesting results were included. Similarly, even with this HNNR tool, I feel the same careful qualifications need to be taken into account.

How much do you value color and detail?

These paperback books – pushed some 5-ish stops – don’t seem to present much of an objectionable challenge, other than the ISO 6400 Non HNNR result. Other than the Non HNNR file, I think I can easily work with any of these, with some tweaks.

My Pothos plants, however, start to reveal something that was not as obvious with the paperback books. Missing color. The green tones are pretty much there throughout all the images. However, there is a sandy brown color running along some of the vine and that flows through the middle of one of the leaves. In the ISO 6400 images, this sandy brown color is just not present. It’s important to remember that increased noise comes at the expense of signal, and while a post capture algorithm can do an effective job removing the noise, it may struggle to replace or reproduce the original signal.

As we saw above with color considerations, the same limitations can also come to bear when it comes to reproducing detail. While the ISO 6400 images with HNNR Purity/Detail produce a compelling view of substantially reduced noise, we can also see that fine detail is smudged compared to the ISO 100 editions, especially note the bits of yarn threads that populate along the edges of the comfort chicken. Again, this detail signal was compromised to begin with, and this tool is limited in the ability to re-create those details.

What this means then is that having a quality noise reduction tool like HNNR does not or should not mean that you just shoot high ISO any time. Careful thought should be given to what sort of shutter speed you can get away with. Shooting fast moving subject matter – sports, birds in flight, etc, shutter speed is a priority. Shooting night time street photography. What is clear is that if you can get away with a slower shutter speed, you still should consider doing so, and reducing your ISO when you have the choice. This is all under the assumption you endeavor to maximize the quality of the photographs that you took such care in capturing.

A Quick Note On Workflow

There has already been some confusion about how and when one would apply HNNR, given that it is only available via the Phocus Mobile app. I stated above that I do not use Phocus Mobile very often. So for me, it was pretty simple. I would evaluate my capture environment and conditions and determine my priorities before shooting. Do I need to optimize shutter speed being a crucial starting contingency of that equation. If I did, and I was going to shoot high ISO, then I would do so. I can then choose to apply HNNR to my images once I’m back in studio as an interim extra step before bringing raws into Phocus or Adobe for my editing. And even in the event that I am shooting at relatively low ISO, I might still wish to apply HNNR back in the studio to the captured images from the Hasselblad internal SSD or CFexpress media card.

The CI Take

While I have pointed out some realities and limitations to this new tool from Hasselblad, in particular by pushing it to the extremes with ISO 6400 files pushed some 5 stops, I have very positive feelings about the tool itself. First, it’s important to understand that an important aspect of my approach to equipment recommendations is to understand and confront the limitations of the tool. I need to discuss that with any client. It’s easy to get excited about the marketing angle, which will emphasize the benefits. One of my functions is to identify the limits of the tool so I can assess with any client whether the tool will work well for them in how they would use it.

That aside, there is much positivity that Hasselblad has created a substantial upgrade to their Phocus Mobile application. Would that they could re-do Phocus Desktop in the guise of their approach with interfaces from the X2D/907x/CFV 100C and Phocus Mobile. But that may never come to be. Regardless, it is clear that they value the mobile platform highly, and as such have one of the nicest mobile apps available.

The HNNR tool from Phocus Mobile v3.0 does a great job of dramatically reducing noise, even on high ISO files pushed 5+ stops, while still retaining a high degree of detail and quality. No tool is perfect or a proverbial magic bullet, each will have it’s limitations, but knowing those limitations is the key, and in this case, doing so then leaves you with the ability to positively leverage this very powerful tool for your use.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions feel free to reach out! Your purchase strengthens our business and we appreciate it!

steve@captureintegration.com – 404.543.8475