Phocus 4.1.2 for Mac: HDR Export Fixes and Tethered Shooting Upgrades

Hasselblad released Phocus 4.1.2 for Mac today. This is a significant update, with three HDR export fixes, a batch of tethered shooting improvements for the X2D II 100C, and a few quality-of-life changes worth noting.

Phocus 4.1.2 Full Changelog

• Supports setting AF-C for X2D II 100C during tethered shooting
• Supports switching all shooting modes for X2D II 100C during tethered shooting
• Supports switching various crop modes for X2D II 100C during tethered shooting
• Optimized entry and exit logic for live view during tethered shooting
• Supports setting the RAW import format to FFF or 3FR when importing images
• Fixed incorrect brightness when switching edited 3FR HDR to SDR
• Fixed CFe card images showing twice in backup mode
• Fixed tethered shooting failure over USB 2.0
• Optimized loading speed for multi-layer images
• Fixed slightly inconsistent shadows between SDR and HDR
• Fixed wrong output color profile when attempting to export HDR using 'Source'

HDR Export Fixes: Three Bugs Addressed

Three of the eleven items are HDR-related, and they read like a direct response to the export issues I documented back in December:

"Fixed wrong output color profile when attempting to export HDR using 'Source'" is the big one. In Phocus 4.1, exporting with the Source profile embedded Hasselblad RGB 2005 instead of the expected BT.2100 PQ profile, and CICP HDR signaling tags were missing entirely. If this fix does what it says, it restores the HDR TIFF/HEIF export pipeline that broke in 4.1.

The other two HDR items ("Fixed incorrect brightness when switching edited 3FR HDR to SDR" and "Fixed slightly inconsistent shadows between SDR and HDR") suggest they've been doing broader work on the HDR rendering path. I'll need to test all three once I've installed the update.

Tethered Shooting Gets Serious Attention

Four of the eleven items are tethered shooting improvements for the X2D II 100C: AF-C support, shooting mode switching, crop mode switching, and live view optimization. Tethered shooting was a weaker area of Phocus compared to Capture One's implementation, so this is good to see. I don't shoot tethered regularly, but this is clearly a priority for Hasselblad's studio photographer base.

The USB 2.0 tethered shooting fix is interesting. Most X2D II users will be on USB-C (3.x), but if you're running through a hub or older cable, this matters.

Other Notable Changes

FFF or 3FR import format selection. You can now choose whether import creates FFF files or keeps the original 3FR format. This is relevant if you're migrating from a Phocus 3.x workflow (which defaulted to FFF on import) to the 4.x direct-3FR pipeline. It's also relevant to a reader question I received recently about exactly this difference.

"Optimized loading speed for multi-layer images." This one I want to dig into. Phocus has had performance issues with image loading, and my earlier profiling showed the preview cache was largely ineffective. If they've actually improved the caching or rendering pipeline, that could make a noticeable difference in day-to-day browsing speed. More on this after testing.

CFe card images showing twice in backup mode. A minor UI bug, but annoying if you're using backup mode regularly.

Download Phocus 4.1.2

• Direct download: Phocus_4.1.2_Mac.dmg
• Downloads page: hasselblad.com/my-hasselblad/downloads

I'll follow up with a testing post once I've had time to verify the HDR fixes and explore the loading speed improvements. If you install 4.1.2 and notice anything interesting (good or bad), drop a comment.