Hasselblad's official Phocus manual stops at version 3.8. Everything since, the entire 4.x line, ships without documentation. This site fills that gap: bug reports, firmware analysis, color science testing, and workflow research for Phocus for Mac and the X2D II, verified on real hardware before it gets published.
What the work has produced
All of it free to read, all of it maintained:
- Phocus 4.x Known Issues, the only public tracker of confirmed Phocus bugs, with reproduction steps and current status
- The Hasselblad Firmware Tracker, current firmware for every X System camera, lens, and 907X back, checked hourly
- A dated Phocus version history, since Hasselblad does not keep one
- How HNNR works, from binary analysis of Phocus itself
- Appaloosa, a free Mac App Store app that restores X2D II star ratings in Phocus and Lightroom
- A glossary of every Hasselblad and Phocus term worth knowing
Why membership
Nobody pays me to write any of this. When a partner banner appears here, it is a company I can vouch for from personal experience, never a placement someone bought. No affiliate-driven reviews, no sponsored posts, and Hasselblad does not fund a word of it. Every post comes out of hours of testing, reverse engineering, ticket filing, and writing.
That holds up only as long as the research does not have to compete with paid work for my time. Membership is what keeps it from competing.
An X2D II with a single lens runs past $12,000. A year of membership is a rounding error next to the glass in your bag, and it funds the only ongoing documentation this system has.
What members get
Everything on the blog stays free to read. Membership is patronage, and it comes with real benefits:
Help me pay the bills (the standard tier):
- A complimentary unlock code for Palomino, the Mac culling app built for Hasselblad shooters
- Continued analysis and research into Phocus for Mac and X2D II issues, so you get the most out of your rig
Patron (for those who want to fund the work properly):
- Everything above
- A copy of Essential Phocus 4.x for Mac: The User Guide, the full PDF that otherwise sells separately
- Priority email answers on your Phocus and X2D II questions
Current pricing for both tiers is in the signup form below.
Already a member? Sign in, click on the "Account" pill top right of any page, and then click on "View Plans".
If membership is not for you, there are other ways to help:
- Post a link to the blog, or a link to a specific blog post as a comment to other Hasselblad users struggling with something. This helps more people find the blog, and also boosts the blog's SEO rating which has the compound effect of bringing more readers to the blog.
- Consider clicking through on the Muench Workshops banner and signing up for a copy of their Photography Destinations Magazine. This helps me get field time with the X2D II, which makes me a better photographer and helps me better understand the camera, which ultimately means better posts about it, and Phocus.
- Buy a copy of my Phocus Guide, a distillation of my blog posts and a whole lot more, and also the only documentation on Phocus 4 for Mac that exists. And please leave a review if you think I did a good job.
- Take a look at one of my other projects, Palomino, for the fastest culling experience you've ever had. Becoming a paid customer of the app, a once-off purchase, no subscriptions, also benefits me financially. And please leave a review if you do download it and pay for it. Positive reviews make it easier for potential buyers to make a purchase decision.